Almost a statisic

In article , "Kobra"
writes:

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.


Thanks for sharing so we all will be reminded and learn. It's not easy to
share a story when we are not the hero. My last incounter with ice in my
Archer was four years ago in a decent to land at a gas stop on the way home.
We got a motel and had a clear flight home the next day.

Chuck

Thanks for the valuable narrative. Glad it had a happy ending.

--Gary

Brad Zeigler wrote:

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.

Yes, I concur with keeping out the charts. I always put the approach in
use at my departure airport when departing IFR (whether it is IMC or
not) into the yoke clip. I don't remove it until well underway. I also
flag the destination and alternate airport approach plates in my binder
using Post-Its. That way I can find at least three airports fairly
quickly in a pinch. It is hard for a non-pilot who hasn't done it
before to find approach plates for you. It is even hard for me
sometimes given that I think of flying into Grand Canyon airport (N38)
and not always Wellsboro, which is where the approach plates are
indexed. I usually use a red flag for the departure airport plate
location (in addition to the plate on my yoke), a yellow flag for my
alternate and green for my destination. It is pretty easy for a
passenger to find the "red" approach plate section in the binder and
then they just have to find the appropriate plate from that section.


Matt

Again, thx for sharing. Never stop flying the plane!
That lesson still comes thru every time I read of a successful outcome of a
bad or less than perfect situation.

Victor J. (Jim) Osborne, Jr.

Great story, and a valuable insight into how people become statistics.
You've laid out your train of thought for other people to examine, and
this is very useful. A couple of things you should be aware of.

There is NO autopilot for GA use that you can 'count on.' Disconnect
annunciator or not, ALL of them can cause problems up to and including
smooth but fast control deflection to the stops with no annunciation.
An unannounced disengage is a relatively benign failure. You need to
be prepared for the autopilot to do that at any time. Thus you need an
autopilot scan. This is a limited scan that includes only the most
critical instruments, none of which are being used by the autopilot.

For example, if you have an STEC, you need to be monitoring the AI.
The AI will usually be vacuum in such an installation, and the STEC
electric. As long as the AI is showing straight and level flight, no
other scan is necessary while the autopilot flies the plane -
simultaneous AI and A/P failure is extremely unlikely. On the other
hand, if you have an A/P that uses the AI, monitor the TC and
altimeter. Get the idea?

You need to realize than an A/P is only a way for you to take your
hands off the controls and narrow your scan, not a way to stop looking
at the panel - regardless of what sort of annunciators it is equipped
with. Multigyro redundant autopilots are possible, but not in GA. An
autopilot is not a copilot.

Having said that, a disconnect annunciator is not a bad thing to have.
However, I would balance the cost of that against other things that
might give you more bang for the buck, unless money is unlimited.

Second, if you are flying in IMC in subfreezing temperatures, you are
flying in known icing conditions. Period. This isn't legal unles
you're in a very old airplane or a very expensive one, and given your
reaction I know it's not the latter.

This regulation is pretty routinely broken - sort of like speeding -
and I'm not telling you that you shouldn't ever break it - but I am
telling you that you should always have a plan of escape. If you've
picked up some ice, that's not necessarily a sign that you've screwed
up - that can be a calculated risk - but if you've picked up ice by
surprise, that's a sign that you've either not done a proper job of
preflight planning or not understood the weather picture. Usually,
it's the latter since few pilots will ignore the hazard intentionally.

Whenever I plan an IFR flight, I ALWAYS ask for the freezing level.
Unless it's so far above me that I can comfortably remain well above
OROCA or so far underground that it's too dry for any serious icing, it
is a factor. Not necessarily a no-go, but always something to
consider. Can you count on getting below the freezing level if you
need to? Over all your route? How fast? Do you have enough excess
power to climb out of icing conditions? Where are the tops? These are
all questions to ask yourself.

In professional aviation there is the concept of a takeoff alternate.
The idea is this - if you have a problem, where are you going to go?
If your departure is well above mins and there are no other issues,
then you return. What if it is not? What if the only approach will
require you to circle - can you do that with a windshield covered in
ice?

You don't necessarily need to have plates out for your departure
airport, but you DO need to be prepared with a takeoff alternate - be
it your departure airport or something else. Just something to think
about.

Michael

Thanks for all your kind words.

I received an email from a member who asked some questions and I thought I'd
post the questions and my answers:

Why didn't you notify ATC as soon as you noticed ice building up?

Perhaps my post was not clear, but I didn't notice ice until about 3800' and
when I leveled off at 4000' it was massively clear I was picking up ice at
an alarming rate. I did indeed call up ATC immediately and told them,
"Philly approach, NxxxxG, I'm picking up ice at this altitude. I can't stay
here." They immediately lowered me to 3000'. By the time I got to 3000' I
had 1/4 inch or more. My next thought was, "am I still accumulating ice at
3000'?" The answer was not clear. It appeared that I was not, but maybe I
was slowly. I was looking VERY closely and I could not detect any more ice
build up. BUT...
1) my px was very very nervous as we both just saw a video on ice just two
days eariler. The video scared her and here we are 48 hours later in ice!
2) Even if I wasn't picking any more ice up now, it didn't mean I wouldn't
pick ice up later in the flight.
3) I was headed toward higher terrain and a higher MEA.

That reduced another "out". So after thinking that through I asked if I
could go lower (I really knew the answer). They said, "no, say intentions."
I immediately stated that I wanted to turn back to N14.

Next problem is they dicked around with me for a while before turning me
back and I didn't say anything. This is also when all hell was breaking
loose with the pitot freeze, the unusual attitude, the GPS zoom out, the
"lost" approach chart, the nervous px, the ice, the new clearance, the new
missed, turn to intercept the 232 radial..."radial?, OBS? 232? 232 set on
the bottom? no on the top! bottom? No TOP!, To Flag?, From Flag?, what's my
heading?, what my name...?"

My worst mistake was that I should have "demanded" a lower altitude and
accepted any heading change. I should have said, "No! I need an immediate
decent, I'll take any heading!" My next worst mistake was not admitting
that I was over-whelmed and needed a vector as other posters suggested.

Did you file a pilot report?

No. Only because I was so busy that I couldn't handle it. Maybe I could
have done that on the ground, but I didn't think of it.

Were you concerned that you might get a violation?

No. That was the last thing on my mind. I just wanted ATC to get me to an
ice free altitude or in VFR conditions. I remember saying to the controller
that I wanted to decend to VFR and cancel IFR when clear of clouds. But I
didn't get that. I did not want them to clear me for the VOR-A approach and
keep me in icing conditions on the way. I wanted to hear, "...turn left
230, decend at pilots descression to VFR and cancel IFR when able. That was
always my "out". I'm in flat land here in NJ. The ceiling was reported at
2600. I knew I could always decend. But I let ATC vector me around at
3000' for an approach I did not want. I have now learned to be more
assertive with ATC and will learn to say, "unable...I need an
immediate...blah, blah, blah..."

Did everyone see the Icing video put out by NASA and AOPA? I watched it
very closely after this incident and wish I watched it MORE closely the
first time.

Kobra

I'm in flat land here in NJ.

antennas

Jose
--
Money: What you need when you run out of brains.
for Email, make the obvious change in the address.

There was a Cessna single that crashed on a flight from Colorado
Springs to Denver some 4 years ago (or so) due to icing. The MEA is
10,000' (as I recall) and MOST of the terrain is well below that. They
wouldn't vector him any lower. He kept saying he needed lower, and
couldn't hold altitude etc. If he wanted to go lower, he needed to say
"cancel IFR" or "I declare an emergency and am descending" and then
descend. Don't expect ATC to try and vector you below their MEA (MVA,
MIA) towards "safe" terrain. They have tried that and it doesn't work.
They wont do it. Nor should they.

I'd HATE to be faced with the choice of descending below where ATC
could vector me. But if it's that or stall the aircraft in IMC, I guess
it would be better to go lower towards lower terrain, and take my
chances.

It's stuff like this why I don't fly with low ceilings when it's below
freezing or there is an airmet for icing. Better to get a hotel.

In article , "Kobra"
writes:

Thanks for all your kind words.

I received an email from a member who asked some questions and I thought I'd
post the questions and my answers:

I sent your email to a 737 pilot friend and got this reply:

*Chuck

A interesting story, thanks for sharing.

FYI, the 737 - and every other "big" airplane I know of - DOES have a rather
obnoxious aural warning when the autopilot disconnects. I believe that
requirement came out of an accident where an L-1011 descended into the Florida
Everglades at night while the crew was fixated on a landing gear abnormal.
They had the autopilot on, but it disconnected and no one noticed since all
three pilots were concerned with the gear problem. Moral of that story ( and
many others): let's always have SOMEBODY flying the plane.

There was also an accident in a large turbojet aircraft (727?) years ago (as I
recall it was a freighter) where the crew forgot to turn on the pitot heat
before takeoff. They were climbing when the pitot tubes iced up, and crew
responded to the increasing indicated airspeed by pitching up more and more
until they entered a stall/spin. Not good. Needless to say, the crew
perished.

Seems like it's been a long time since anyone's thought of a new way to kill
themselves in an airplane; we just stick to the tried and ture ways.

Cheers,

Stan
*

Kobra wrote:

My worst mistake was that I should have "demanded" a lower altitude and
accepted any heading change. I should have said, "No! I need an immediate
decent, I'll take any heading!" My next worst mistake was not admitting
that I was over-whelmed and needed a vector as other posters suggested.

In an emergency, you don't need permission from ATC to do whatever is
necessary to respond to the emergency. It is good form to let them know
as soon as you can what you are doing, but if you encounter ice, a
thunderstorm, etc., do what you need to do and sort things out with ATC
later.


Matt