Emergency

"pgbnh" wrote

I have long been convinced that becoming a truly proficient and competent
pilot is the result of the sum of a series of 'mini-emergencies' (not to
minimize yours - sounds like a REAL emergency). What I mean is that over
years of flying we all face small crises and we learn how to deal with
them.
And each time we do, we become better crisis managers.

I have to disagree, on that one. A proficient pilot never puts himself in a
situation like that, in the first place, ideally.

Dealing with them is all spin control. (not the kind where you go round and
round)
--
Jim in NC

"Peter R." wrote

If one flies a lot, one is bound to experience an unplanned mechanical
failure of some type that could be classified as a minor emergency.

Proficiency is not always about "avoiding" a situation, but rather
sometimes it is about "handling" an unavoidable situation.

True, and I hesitated to write that, because of situations not of the
pilot's doing, but examples given (carb heat, poor fuel planning, switching
to wrong tank at night, ect) "should" not ever happen.
--
Jim in NC

"Mortimer Schnerd, RN" wrote

That's an overly idealistic point of view.

Yep, you're right. I can't completely argue that point, but still, many
emergencies, especially those caused by the pilot, should be avoided. I
guess it was the examples given that rubbed me the wrong way. :-)
--
Jim in NC

On 2006-03-28, Dan Luke wrote:
A quick scan of the instruments showed the IAS at 100 and falling; normally
it would indicate 125 at that altitude.

As soon as I got this far in your story, I thought 'carb ice!' - I think
it comes from flying an old Apache IFR which would ice up on the slightest
hint of visible moisture...

--
Dylan Smith, Port St Mary, Isle of Man
Flying: http://www.dylansmith.net
Oolite-Linux: an Elite tribute: http://oolite-linux.berlios.de
Frontier Elite Universe: http://www.alioth.net

The throttle was fully open, the RPM was set for 2500 and the mixture was
leaned to 10.5 gph.

Thanks for the excellent story. Congratulations on handling the problem
well--I'm glad everything worked out ok!

One thing puzzles me though: if carb ice was limiting the fuel flow,
shouldn't the fuel flow gauge have shown a decrease?

--Gary

"Dylan Smith" wrote:

A quick scan of the instruments showed the IAS at 100 and falling;
normally
it would indicate 125 at that altitude.

As soon as I got this far in your story, I thought 'carb ice!' -


*Now* you tell me!

As soon as I got this far in your story, I thought 'carb ice!'
************************************************** *********************

I have iced up, at least once, every carb I have flown behind and it
doesn't matter the brand of engine...

My son is learning to fly and I have been a casual instructor for him
in Fat Albert the Apache... In the Warrior he flies, his real
instructor makes him just pull the carb heat on to verify there is a
slight rpm drop and immediately shove it back in.. When he flies with
me I am constantly on his back about checking/using carb heat.. He
finally got exasperated with me one day and said to the effect: If you
are so smart why does Wally instructor make me keep the heat off...
My reply was two questions..
ME: Have you ever heard of an airplane crashing because of the pilot
failed to use carb heat?
HIM: Well, yeah, sure...
ME: Have you ever heard of a plane crashing because the pilot used
the carb heat?
HIM: Uuuh, let me think. pause No.
ME: I rest my case!

BTW Dan, ya did good!

denny

Dan Luke wrote:
It was the 3rd leg of an Angel Flight and I wasn't even supposed to be
flying it. I'd already flown the second leg from Natchez, MS to
Monroeville, AL, but the 3rd leg pilot had mysteriously failed to show--no
call, no nothin'. It was late, I was tired and I was mad. I had two pax
aboard.

We were in the clouds and in the dark in a Cutlass RG approaching Macon, GA
(MCN). The outside temperature was 13 C and moisture was streaming back on
the windshield. The throttle was fully open, the RPM was set for 2500 and
the mixture was leaned to 10.5 gph. The autopilot was holding course and
altitude. I was studying the ILS approach plate when I noticed the AP's
"up" trim warning light illuminate.

A quick scan of the instruments showed the IAS at 100 and falling; normally
it would indicate 125 at that altitude. I had detected no change in the
engine sound. I immediately hit the AP disable switch to prevent its
stalling the airplane. This was right and wrong, as I now had to do all the
flying while troubleshooting the problem. What I should have done was
disable the altitude hold and allow the AP to continue keeping us on course
and wings level.

Any attempt to lift the nose resulted in a sickening drop in airspeed. The
situation was now officially scary: we were going down on a dark, rainy
night over central Georgia.

I shoved the prop and mixture full forward, confirmed the throttle was wide
open and the primer was in. No improvement. There was no unusual
vibration. The engine still sounded good and was still making 2500 rpm, but
the prop was probably in flat pitch to do it. I tried the electric fuel
pump: no joy. I glanced at the JPI engine analyzer and saw that all four
cylinders showed roughly even EGTs. All this took much less than a minute;
maybe only 30 seconds.

Finally, I pulled the carb heat. Within a few seconds I felt a surge of
power and we began to climb. I don't know for sure what a death row inmate
feels like when the governor calls at the last minute, but I'm guessing it
feels something like that.

My heart was pounding in my chest and I was so stoked on adrenalin my hands
were shaking. The front seat passenger was looking at me wide-eyed--he
didn't know what was happening, but he had figured out *something* wasn't
right. I had wandered 40 deg. off course and Atlanta Approach was repeating
a frequency change instruction. In a few moments I had us back on course
and altitude but I was still somewhat rattled and blew the readback on
Atlanta's initial approach instructions. Got that sorted out and made an
uneventful ILS approach to runway 5 at MCN.

Not a totally satisfying performance. I ended up doing the right thing and
we lived; that's the good news. The bad news is that allowed myself to rush
things. A moment's thought would have prevented the autopilot mistake. A
calmer, more orderly flow through the engine controls would have led me to
the carb heat sooner and saved a few unnecessary extra seconds of high
anxiety. Next time I have an emergency (please: NO next time!) I'll try to
take it a little slower.

I'm still surprised that the carb iced up at full throttle. Conditions were
in the bad area of the carb ice chart, but my engine has never seemed prone
to the problem. In 650+ hours I've only detected carb ice once before, and
that was after a long taxi on a cool, rainy day.


Happy to hear you pulled out of your emergency situation well and
without any drastic procedures. Icing can occur at any altitude. All you
need is high moisture and favorable temperatures, which is what you had.
Fuel/air passing the venturi in the carb can drop as much as 60 F.

Thanks for sharing your experience. It helps make all of us safer.

--
Mike

"Gary Drescher" wrote:

The throttle was fully open, the RPM was set for 2500 and the mixture was
leaned to 10.5 gph.

Thanks for the excellent story. Congratulations on handling the problem
well--I'm glad everything worked out ok!

One thing puzzles me though: if carb ice was limiting the fuel flow,
shouldn't the fuel flow gauge have shown a decrease?

I never got around to looking at it (I keep it displayed on the KLN-90B).

--
Dan
C-172RG at BFM

"Denny" wrote:

As soon as I got this far in your story, I thought 'carb ice!'
************************************************** *********************

I have iced up, at least once, every carb I have flown behind and it
doesn't matter the brand of engine...

My son is learning to fly and I have been a casual instructor for him
in Fat Albert the Apache... In the Warrior he flies, his real
instructor makes him just pull the carb heat on to verify there is a
slight rpm drop and immediately shove it back in.. When he flies with
me I am constantly on his back about checking/using carb heat.. He
finally got exasperated with me one day and said to the effect: If you
are so smart why does Wally instructor make me keep the heat off...
My reply was two questions..
ME: Have you ever heard of an airplane crashing because of the pilot
failed to use carb heat?
HIM: Well, yeah, sure...
ME: Have you ever heard of a plane crashing because the pilot used
the carb heat?
HIM: Uuuh, let me think. pause No.
ME: I rest my case!

Good point. Rest assured my carb heat is going to be on a lot more in the
future. It rained on me almost the whole way home from Macon that night; I
had the CH on the whole way.

BTW Dan, ya did good!

Thanks.

--
Dan
C-172RG at BFM