Almost a statisic

Thanks for the exciting story. I'm really glad it worked out OK.

--

Scott

I thought I would share my most recent IFR flight so that some of you can
learn from my mistakes. This was quite a humbling experience.

I took off in my Cardinal RG with my girlfriend from N14 in NJ for a flight
to Reading (RDG) in PA. The weather was reported as 2600 overcast, 7 miles
vis, wind 040 at 5. I filed IFR and received the simple clearance: RBV,
ARD, PTW, direct, maintain 2000, expect 4000 5 mins after departure.

I took off and climbed to 2000, headed for RBV and contacted departure.
They told me to go up to 4000 and go direct ARD. That would be the end of
what started as a routine flight. At about 3800' I started looking for ice.
By the time I got to 4000 I had about an 1/8 of an inch. I contacted ATC
and explained the problem and they descended me to 3000. By time I got to
3000 I had a 1/4 inch and it appeared that it was no longer accumulating
rapidly. I couldn't determine if it was continuing, but at a much slower
pace. My px was getting nervous. The windscreen was frozen over. That
made me nervous. I put the heat on and put the defroster on and within a
minute I had a baseball-sized hole to look out of.

I set the ap and asked atc if I could go lower. Answer, "no". I requested
to return to N14. They gave me a couple of turns for traffic and told me to
stand by. Then a series of problems started.
1) My mind was focused on the ice.
2) my mind was focused on my nervous px.
3) I'm giving instructions to her to get the approach charts for N14 out of
my flight bag and she's having problems finding it and I'm getting
frustrated
4)atc now changes my clearance to return to N14 and tells me to intercept
the RBV 232 radial and descend to 2000

As I am setting the freq. I notice that the airspeed in 55 mph!! I
instinctively pitch down and this scares my px and she lets out a scream. I
check the other gauges and when I realize I am not in a climb and the power
is set right I suddenly realize the pitot is just frozen. I turn on the
pitot heat. DUH!! I start to ID the nav aid and spin the OBS to 232 when I
hear a loud sound of air rushing!! Getting louder!! I feel some G forces!!
I look at the AI and I am in a descending, right wing low attitude!! I pick
up the wing and notice that the ap cut out! Hmmm or did I forget to turn it
back on?! On my plane there is no audible warning if the ap is turned off
(is that required? If not it should be!)
5) atc comes on and wants to know why I'm not turning to intercept the 232
radial. I re-set the ap and advise that I am turning now. This frustrates
me more and I'm starting to sweat and wonder what I got myself into.
6) I'm now a bit disoriented now and I look down at my GPS and somehow it
got zoomed all the way out to the continental US!! WTF!! I zoom back in
cursing that I don't need this or any more distractions. ATC clears me for
the vor-a approach but had me maintain 2000 until PONDE (the FAF) and gives
me a modified missed for some reason. This adds more work. I set the
approach into the GPS.

The pitot finally cleared and at 2000 I was not picking up any more ice.
AAMOF the ice began melting off the windshield and when I finally got to the
FAF I blew a sigh of relief and descended out of the clouds at 1800'.

When I landed and watched all that ice sliding off my wings, tail, cowling,
windscreen and thought about the unusual attitude I allowed myself to get
in, I vowed that I will learn many lessons from this flight.

Most of all I should have realized that the freezing level was right inside
my assigned altitude and I should have never launched. Second, needed to
add pitot heat to my IFR Before Takeoff checklist section, to have all the
approaches out for the DEPARTURE ap, as well as, the destination in case you
find yourself coming back sooner than planned. And lastly, I called my A&P
and said I had to have an alarm on the ap disconnect.

I really found myself with my shorts around my ankles. I hope you too can
learn something from my mistakes, idoticy and short-sightedness.

Kobra

That's typically how it happens... a series of fubars adding up to
a statistic. I'm glad you came out smelling like a rose on that one,
give yourself credit for the skills that pulled it out. I'm sure
you're an even better pilot now that you have this one behind you.

Thanks for the heads up.

Kobra wrote:

I thought I would share my most recent IFR flight so that some of you can
learn from my mistakes. This was quite a humbling experience.

I took off in my Cardinal RG with my girlfriend from N14 in NJ for a flight
to Reading (RDG) in PA. The weather was reported as 2600 overcast, 7 miles
vis, wind 040 at 5. I filed IFR and received the simple clearance: RBV,
ARD, PTW, direct, maintain 2000, expect 4000 5 mins after departure.

I took off and climbed to 2000, headed for RBV and contacted departure.
They told me to go up to 4000 and go direct ARD. That would be the end of
what started as a routine flight. At about 3800' I started looking for ice.
By the time I got to 4000 I had about an 1/8 of an inch. I contacted ATC
and explained the problem and they descended me to 3000. By time I got to
3000 I had a 1/4 inch and it appeared that it was no longer accumulating
rapidly. I couldn't determine if it was continuing, but at a much slower
pace. My px was getting nervous. The windscreen was frozen over. That
made me nervous. I put the heat on and put the defroster on and within a
minute I had a baseball-sized hole to look out of.

I set the ap and asked atc if I could go lower. Answer, "no". I requested
to return to N14. They gave me a couple of turns for traffic and told me to
stand by. Then a series of problems started.
1) My mind was focused on the ice.
2) my mind was focused on my nervous px.
3) I'm giving instructions to her to get the approach charts for N14 out of
my flight bag and she's having problems finding it and I'm getting
frustrated
4)atc now changes my clearance to return to N14 and tells me to intercept
the RBV 232 radial and descend to 2000

As I am setting the freq. I notice that the airspeed in 55 mph!! I
instinctively pitch down and this scares my px and she lets out a scream. I
check the other gauges and when I realize I am not in a climb and the power
is set right I suddenly realize the pitot is just frozen. I turn on the
pitot heat. DUH!! I start to ID the nav aid and spin the OBS to 232 when I
hear a loud sound of air rushing!! Getting louder!! I feel some G forces!!
I look at the AI and I am in a descending, right wing low attitude!! I pick
up the wing and notice that the ap cut out! Hmmm or did I forget to turn it
back on?! On my plane there is no audible warning if the ap is turned off
(is that required? If not it should be!)
5) atc comes on and wants to know why I'm not turning to intercept the 232
radial. I re-set the ap and advise that I am turning now. This frustrates
me more and I'm starting to sweat and wonder what I got myself into.

This would be a good point to confess that you have a high workload and
ask ATC for a vector in the direction they want you to go. I've done
this once or twice and they can usually give you a vector with almost no
extra work for them and it saves you time and stress at a critical point
in your flight. Don't be afraid to use ATC, they are willing to help if
you let them know you need them.


6) I'm now a bit disoriented now and I look down at my GPS and somehow it
got zoomed all the way out to the continental US!! WTF!! I zoom back in
cursing that I don't need this or any more distractions. ATC clears me for
the vor-a approach but had me maintain 2000 until PONDE (the FAF) and gives
me a modified missed for some reason. This adds more work. I set the
approach into the GPS.

The pitot finally cleared and at 2000 I was not picking up any more ice.
AAMOF the ice began melting off the windshield and when I finally got to the
FAF I blew a sigh of relief and descended out of the clouds at 1800'.

When I landed and watched all that ice sliding off my wings, tail, cowling,
windscreen and thought about the unusual attitude I allowed myself to get
in, I vowed that I will learn many lessons from this flight.

Most of all I should have realized that the freezing level was right inside
my assigned altitude and I should have never launched. Second, needed to
add pitot heat to my IFR Before Takeoff checklist section, to have all the
approaches out for the DEPARTURE ap, as well as, the destination in case you
find yourself coming back sooner than planned. And lastly, I called my A&P
and said I had to have an alarm on the ap disconnect.

I think you've learned some great lessons here and I think most all of
us have had at least one flight like this. The only lesson I'd add is
the one I mentioned above.

You've given the one reason I don't use an AP much when flying IFR,
however, I understand why many people like and use them.

Matt

Thanks for the post... I'm sure that you learned from your mistakes and
lived to tell us about them... You probably won't get your girlfriend up
any time soon though... I had an incident on New Years day while flying
in IMC and my vacuum pump flaked out so I can relate to the
pucker-factor (although your incident sounds more "puckery" than mine).
I was just in IMC on Saturday and we picked up light icing on the
climb. I knew that the tops were below our assigned altitude and once we
were in the clear the ice melted off. Could you have climbed and got on
top? Did you know where the tops were? What about the winds/temps aloft,
did you know those too? Not to sound critical but I am just curious.

One thing I did once I was in trouble was confess to ATC that I
"required assistance". This helped me in a couple of ways. First and
most important was that the were great at giving me preferential
treatment all the way through turning me around and then getting me
established on the ILS I was making. Second and important too (I thought
anyway) was that I knew that I had another set of eyes on me. That gave
me a good feeling. My hats are off to the ATC folks who do their job
most excellently!!

Note to self: ALWAYS have a instrument approach from your depature
airport not only available but set up in the standby NAV and COM.

Again great job keeping your composure!!! You became a better pilot
because of it...

Jon Kraus
PP-ASEL-IA
Student Money Owner


Kobra wrote:

I thought I would share my most recent IFR flight so that some of you can
learn from my mistakes. This was quite a humbling experience.

I took off in my Cardinal RG with my girlfriend from N14 in NJ for a flight
to Reading (RDG) in PA. The weather was reported as 2600 overcast, 7 miles
vis, wind 040 at 5. I filed IFR and received the simple clearance: RBV,
ARD, PTW, direct, maintain 2000, expect 4000 5 mins after departure.

I took off and climbed to 2000, headed for RBV and contacted departure.
They told me to go up to 4000 and go direct ARD. That would be the end of
what started as a routine flight. At about 3800' I started looking for ice.
By the time I got to 4000 I had about an 1/8 of an inch. I contacted ATC
and explained the problem and they descended me to 3000. By time I got to
3000 I had a 1/4 inch and it appeared that it was no longer accumulating
rapidly. I couldn't determine if it was continuing, but at a much slower
pace. My px was getting nervous. The windscreen was frozen over. That
made me nervous. I put the heat on and put the defroster on and within a
minute I had a baseball-sized hole to look out of.

I set the ap and asked atc if I could go lower. Answer, "no". I requested
to return to N14. They gave me a couple of turns for traffic and told me to
stand by. Then a series of problems started.
1) My mind was focused on the ice.
2) my mind was focused on my nervous px.
3) I'm giving instructions to her to get the approach charts for N14 out of
my flight bag and she's having problems finding it and I'm getting
frustrated
4)atc now changes my clearance to return to N14 and tells me to intercept
the RBV 232 radial and descend to 2000

As I am setting the freq. I notice that the airspeed in 55 mph!! I
instinctively pitch down and this scares my px and she lets out a scream. I
check the other gauges and when I realize I am not in a climb and the power
is set right I suddenly realize the pitot is just frozen. I turn on the
pitot heat. DUH!! I start to ID the nav aid and spin the OBS to 232 when I
hear a loud sound of air rushing!! Getting louder!! I feel some G forces!!
I look at the AI and I am in a descending, right wing low attitude!! I pick
up the wing and notice that the ap cut out! Hmmm or did I forget to turn it
back on?! On my plane there is no audible warning if the ap is turned off
(is that required? If not it should be!)
5) atc comes on and wants to know why I'm not turning to intercept the 232
radial. I re-set the ap and advise that I am turning now. This frustrates
me more and I'm starting to sweat and wonder what I got myself into.
6) I'm now a bit disoriented now and I look down at my GPS and somehow it
got zoomed all the way out to the continental US!! WTF!! I zoom back in
cursing that I don't need this or any more distractions. ATC clears me for
the vor-a approach but had me maintain 2000 until PONDE (the FAF) and gives
me a modified missed for some reason. This adds more work. I set the
approach into the GPS.

The pitot finally cleared and at 2000 I was not picking up any more ice.
AAMOF the ice began melting off the windshield and when I finally got to the
FAF I blew a sigh of relief and descended out of the clouds at 1800'.

When I landed and watched all that ice sliding off my wings, tail, cowling,
windscreen and thought about the unusual attitude I allowed myself to get
in, I vowed that I will learn many lessons from this flight.

Most of all I should have realized that the freezing level was right inside
my assigned altitude and I should have never launched. Second, needed to
add pitot heat to my IFR Before Takeoff checklist section, to have all the
approaches out for the DEPARTURE ap, as well as, the destination in case you
find yourself coming back sooner than planned. And lastly, I called my A&P
and said I had to have an alarm on the ap disconnect.

I really found myself with my shorts around my ankles. I hope you too can
learn something from my mistakes, idoticy and short-sightedness.

Kobra

Thanks for the post... I'm sure that you learned from your mistakes and
I'm glad you lived to tell us about them... You probably won't get your
girlfriend up any time soon though... I had an incident on New Years day
while flying in IMC and my vacuum pump flaked out so I can relate to the
pucker-factor (although your incident sounds more "puckery" than mine).

I was just in IMC on Saturday and we picked up light icing on the
climb. I knew that the tops were below our assigned altitude and once we
were in the clear the ice melted off. Could you have climbed and got on
top? Did you know where the tops were? What about the winds/temps aloft,
did you know those too? Not to sound critical but I am just curious.

One thing I did once I was in trouble was confess to ATC that I
"required assistance". This helped me in a couple of ways. First and
most important was that the were great at giving me preferential
treatment all the way through turning me around and then getting me
established on the ILS I was making. Second and important too (I thought
anyway) was that I knew that I had another set of eyes on me. That gave
me a good feeling. My hats are off to the ATC folks who do their job
most excellently!!

Note to self: ALWAYS have a instrument approach from your depature
airport not only available but set up in the standby NAV and COM.

Again great job keeping your composure!!! You became a better pilot
because of it...

Jon Kraus
PP-ASEL-IA
Student Money Owner


Kobra wrote:

I thought I would share my most recent IFR flight so that some of you can
learn from my mistakes. This was quite a humbling experience.

I took off in my Cardinal RG with my girlfriend from N14 in NJ for a flight
to Reading (RDG) in PA. The weather was reported as 2600 overcast, 7 miles
vis, wind 040 at 5. I filed IFR and received the simple clearance: RBV,
ARD, PTW, direct, maintain 2000, expect 4000 5 mins after departure.

I took off and climbed to 2000, headed for RBV and contacted departure.
They told me to go up to 4000 and go direct ARD. That would be the end of
what started as a routine flight. At about 3800' I started looking for ice.
By the time I got to 4000 I had about an 1/8 of an inch. I contacted ATC
and explained the problem and they descended me to 3000. By time I got to
3000 I had a 1/4 inch and it appeared that it was no longer accumulating
rapidly. I couldn't determine if it was continuing, but at a much slower
pace. My px was getting nervous. The windscreen was frozen over. That
made me nervous. I put the heat on and put the defroster on and within a
minute I had a baseball-sized hole to look out of.

I set the ap and asked atc if I could go lower. Answer, "no". I requested
to return to N14. They gave me a couple of turns for traffic and told me to
stand by. Then a series of problems started.
1) My mind was focused on the ice.
2) my mind was focused on my nervous px.
3) I'm giving instructions to her to get the approach charts for N14 out of
my flight bag and she's having problems finding it and I'm getting
frustrated
4)atc now changes my clearance to return to N14 and tells me to intercept
the RBV 232 radial and descend to 2000

As I am setting the freq. I notice that the airspeed in 55 mph!! I
instinctively pitch down and this scares my px and she lets out a scream. I
check the other gauges and when I realize I am not in a climb and the power
is set right I suddenly realize the pitot is just frozen. I turn on the
pitot heat. DUH!! I start to ID the nav aid and spin the OBS to 232 when I
hear a loud sound of air rushing!! Getting louder!! I feel some G forces!!
I look at the AI and I am in a descending, right wing low attitude!! I pick
up the wing and notice that the ap cut out! Hmmm or did I forget to turn it
back on?! On my plane there is no audible warning if the ap is turned off
(is that required? If not it should be!)
5) atc comes on and wants to know why I'm not turning to intercept the 232
radial. I re-set the ap and advise that I am turning now. This frustrates
me more and I'm starting to sweat and wonder what I got myself into.
6) I'm now a bit disoriented now and I look down at my GPS and somehow it
got zoomed all the way out to the continental US!! WTF!! I zoom back in
cursing that I don't need this or any more distractions. ATC clears me for
the vor-a approach but had me maintain 2000 until PONDE (the FAF) and gives
me a modified missed for some reason. This adds more work. I set the
approach into the GPS.

The pitot finally cleared and at 2000 I was not picking up any more ice.
AAMOF the ice began melting off the windshield and when I finally got to the
FAF I blew a sigh of relief and descended out of the clouds at 1800'.

When I landed and watched all that ice sliding off my wings, tail, cowling,
windscreen and thought about the unusual attitude I allowed myself to get
in, I vowed that I will learn many lessons from this flight.

Most of all I should have realized that the freezing level was right inside
my assigned altitude and I should have never launched. Second, needed to
add pitot heat to my IFR Before Takeoff checklist section, to have all the
approaches out for the DEPARTURE ap, as well as, the destination in case you
find yourself coming back sooner than planned. And lastly, I called my A&P
and said I had to have an alarm on the ap disconnect.

I really found myself with my shorts around my ankles. I hope you too can
learn something from my mistakes, idoticy and short-sightedness.

Kobra

In article ,
"Kobra" wrote:

I thought I would share my most recent IFR flight so that some of you can
learn from my mistakes. This was quite a humbling experience.

Did you advise ATC that you were in icing? and that icing was the reason
for the return?

As another poster noted asking for vectors will lighten the workload.
Good job sorting things out.

--
Dale L. Falk

There is nothing - absolutely nothing - half so much worth doing
as simply messing around with airplanes.

http://home.gci.net/~sncdfalk/flying.html

Kobra ) wrote:

I thought I would share my most recent IFR flight so that some of you can
learn from my mistakes. This was quite a humbling experience.

I am echoing the others by also thanking you for having the courage to
post this experience. These types of anecdotes are very valuable to all
of us low-timers.

Now that you are safely on the ground, I have to admit that I let out a
little laugh at your description of the GPS being zoomed all the way out
at the most inopportune moment.

--
Peter

Thanks for sharing your tale.

I'll raise another vote for asking for vectors. Also, in a high workload
environment, prioritization of tasks is key. In other words, ID'ing the
navaid is a task you can defer until you've got things situated. Keep up
your scan: Keep the wings level, hold your altitude (or rate of
climb/descent) and maintain sufficient airspeed. Take a deep breath, relax,
and listen to your training. Keeping a chart for the departure airport out
is a good idea as well, especially since it contains relevent frequencies,
airport diagram, etc. I hope your girlfriend will overlook that flight and
fly with you again.


"Kobra" wrote in message
...
I thought I would share my most recent IFR flight so that some of you can
learn from my mistakes. This was quite a humbling experience.

I took off in my Cardinal RG with my girlfriend from N14 in NJ for a
flight
to Reading (RDG) in PA. The weather was reported as 2600 overcast, 7
miles
vis, wind 040 at 5. I filed IFR and received the simple clearance: RBV,
ARD, PTW, direct, maintain 2000, expect 4000 5 mins after departure.

I took off and climbed to 2000, headed for RBV and contacted departure.
They told me to go up to 4000 and go direct ARD. That would be the end of
what started as a routine flight. At about 3800' I started looking for
ice.
By the time I got to 4000 I had about an 1/8 of an inch. I contacted ATC
and explained the problem and they descended me to 3000. By time I got to
3000 I had a 1/4 inch and it appeared that it was no longer accumulating
rapidly. I couldn't determine if it was continuing, but at a much slower
pace. My px was getting nervous. The windscreen was frozen over. That
made me nervous. I put the heat on and put the defroster on and within a
minute I had a baseball-sized hole to look out of.

I set the ap and asked atc if I could go lower. Answer, "no". I
requested
to return to N14. They gave me a couple of turns for traffic and told me
to
stand by. Then a series of problems started.
1) My mind was focused on the ice.
2) my mind was focused on my nervous px.
3) I'm giving instructions to her to get the approach charts for N14 out
of
my flight bag and she's having problems finding it and I'm getting
frustrated
4)atc now changes my clearance to return to N14 and tells me to intercept
the RBV 232 radial and descend to 2000

As I am setting the freq. I notice that the airspeed in 55 mph!! I
instinctively pitch down and this scares my px and she lets out a scream.
I
check the other gauges and when I realize I am not in a climb and the
power
is set right I suddenly realize the pitot is just frozen. I turn on the
pitot heat. DUH!! I start to ID the nav aid and spin the OBS to 232 when
I
hear a loud sound of air rushing!! Getting louder!! I feel some G
forces!!
I look at the AI and I am in a descending, right wing low attitude!! I
pick
up the wing and notice that the ap cut out! Hmmm or did I forget to turn
it
back on?! On my plane there is no audible warning if the ap is turned off
(is that required? If not it should be!)
5) atc comes on and wants to know why I'm not turning to intercept the 232
radial. I re-set the ap and advise that I am turning now. This frustrates
me more and I'm starting to sweat and wonder what I got myself into.
6) I'm now a bit disoriented now and I look down at my GPS and somehow it
got zoomed all the way out to the continental US!! WTF!! I zoom back in
cursing that I don't need this or any more distractions. ATC clears me
for
the vor-a approach but had me maintain 2000 until PONDE (the FAF) and
gives
me a modified missed for some reason. This adds more work. I set the
approach into the GPS.

The pitot finally cleared and at 2000 I was not picking up any more ice.
AAMOF the ice began melting off the windshield and when I finally got to
the
FAF I blew a sigh of relief and descended out of the clouds at 1800'.

When I landed and watched all that ice sliding off my wings, tail,
cowling,
windscreen and thought about the unusual attitude I allowed myself to get
in, I vowed that I will learn many lessons from this flight.

Most of all I should have realized that the freezing level was right
inside
my assigned altitude and I should have never launched. Second, needed to
add pitot heat to my IFR Before Takeoff checklist section, to have all the
approaches out for the DEPARTURE ap, as well as, the destination in case
you
find yourself coming back sooner than planned. And lastly, I called my
A&P
and said I had to have an alarm on the ap disconnect.

I really found myself with my shorts around my ankles. I hope you too can
learn something from my mistakes, idoticy and short-sightedness.

Kobra

Thanks for the report, hopefully it will help others avoid the same or
similar circumstances. I'm glad everything worked out for you. Here are a
couple of links to sites that I have found interesting during the past
couple of weeks.

http://aircrafticing.grc.nasa.gov/courses.html

http://www.aopa.org/whatsnew/newsite...050103ice.html

The AOPA site has a link to a 45 minute video that can be downloaded, it's
also available from Sportys. It's been recommended highly in the news
groups by Bob Gardner and other CFIIs and is absolutely one of the best
icing video's that I have seen. Definitely worth a look. Lots of emphasis
on preflight planning for possible "outs" if you should encounter icing.
Can/should you climb? descend? continue? divert? delare an emergency?

Jim