at least by this pilot anyway :-)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VZTfTT-EiF8

Yikes, that's some heavy rain. Thanks for posting it. I remember one time
departing FLL with a heavy shower off the departure end. The C-172 (and
some other single Cessnas) have the air filter in the front cowl under the
prop. When we got into the heavy rain it saturated the air filter and we
lost some power. After a second I guessed what was happening and aplied
carb heat, to take advantage of the indirect air flow bypassing the air
filter, and power came back, minus the small carb heat penalty. The CFII
beside me, not an A&P like me, closed the carb heat because it robs power
and the engine once again started breathign through the soaked filter. I
re-applied the carb heat and kept my hand on the the knob while telling the
CFI "soaked air filter, leave on the carb heat." A minute later we had
cleared the shower and went back to normal ops. It's the only time I've had
any engine trouble and it sure gets your attention.

Oh yeah, make sure you don't use a paper air filter in single Cessnas. I
think an AD prevents using paper filters any more. The single Pipers don;t
have this problem because of the configuration for induction airflow.

--

Scott

What Barack Obama learned from the Communist Party http://tinyurl.com/5bgbpu
Democrats to America's drivers: "Let them ride bikes."
http://tinyurl.com/5z5vg7
> wrote in message
...
> at least by this pilot anyway :-)
>
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VZTfTT-EiF8

On Aug 3, 3:28*pm, "tscottme" > wrote:

> CFI "soaked air filter, leave on the carb heat." *A minute later we had
> cleared the shower and went back to normal ops. *It's the only time I've had
> any engine trouble and it sure gets your attention.

Anytime the engine hiccups while airborne will raise that pucker
factor :-))

Another thing to be aware of when flying in heavy rain is to put your
pitot tube heat on. Only so much room to ingest fluids and drain it
out and this happened to me while I was IMC. My airspeed was
dropping, yet everything indication wise with AI, RPMs, VSI all
checked out straight and level. It was 58 degrees so icing wasn't a
factor.

My instructor told me to put on pitot heat and sure enough after a few
minutes, the airspeed came up to normal indications. He had that
happen to him so he recognized the problem waaaay sooner then me at
that time.

Sooo, anytime I am in precip in IMC, pitot heat goes on and stays on.

wrote:
> On Aug 3, 3:28 pm, "tscottme" > wrote:
>
>
>>CFI "soaked air filter, leave on the carb heat." A minute later we had
>>cleared the shower and went back to normal ops. It's the only time I've had
>>any engine trouble and it sure gets your attention.
>
>
> Anytime the engine hiccups while airborne will raise that pucker
> factor :-))
>
> Another thing to be aware of when flying in heavy rain is to put your
> pitot tube heat on. Only so much room to ingest fluids and drain it
> out and this happened to me while I was IMC. My airspeed was
> dropping, yet everything indication wise with AI, RPMs, VSI all
> checked out straight and level. It was 58 degrees so icing wasn't a
> factor.
>
> My instructor told me to put on pitot heat and sure enough after a few
> minutes, the airspeed came up to normal indications. He had that
> happen to him so he recognized the problem waaaay sooner then me at
> that time.
>
> Sooo, anytime I am in precip in IMC, pitot heat goes on and stays on.

Failure to use pitot heat caused the recent B-2 crash in Guam and it was
all about accumulated moisture, not temperature or rain.

"tscottme" > writes:
> > wrote

> > at least by this pilot anyway :-)
> >
> > http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VZTfTT-EiF8

> Yikes, that's some heavy rain. Thanks for posting it. I remember one time
> departing FLL with a heavy shower off the departure end. The C-172 (and
> some other single Cessnas) have the air filter in the front cowl under the
> prop. When we got into the heavy rain it saturated the air filter and we
> lost some power. After a second I guessed what was happening and aplied
> carb heat, to take advantage of the indirect air flow bypassing the air
> filter, and power came back, minus the small carb heat penalty. The CFII
> beside me, not an A&P like me, closed the carb heat because it robs power
> and the engine once again started breathign through the soaked filter. I
> re-applied the carb heat and kept my hand on the the knob while telling the
> CFI "soaked air filter, leave on the carb heat." A minute later we had
> cleared the shower and went back to normal ops. It's the only time I've had
> any engine trouble and it sure gets your attention.
>
> Oh yeah, make sure you don't use a paper air filter in single Cessnas. I
> think an AD prevents using paper filters any more. The single Pipers don't
> have this problem because of the configuration for induction airflow.

Mooney Super 21's have an air filter bypass that's supposed to
give a slight power boost at altitude. However, using the bypass
in certain meteorlogical conditions can result in injector icing
and has led to fatalities.

Yup. This could have killed me in April of 1989.

Everett M. Greene wrote,
> Mooney Super 21's have an air filter bypass that's supposed to
> give a slight power boost at altitude. However, using the bypass
> in certain meteorlogical conditions can result in injector icing
> and has led to fatalities.