Plane Down! A carburetor heat mishap

Good photo of a 182 being towed down the road! Based on the
METAR data, conditions were certainly conducive for carburetor
heat, but were they really too extreme for carburetor heat to be
effective?

---------------------
No one is hurt in an emergency landing not far from Carlisle
Airport.

The owner of the airplane that made an emergency landing Thursday
in a South Middleton Township cornfield says "carburetor ice" may
be to blame.

J.R. Sides, owner of Chambersburg Skydiving Center, says the high
humidity and accelerated descent led to a buildup of ice around
the carburetor causing the engine to stop as it approached
Carlisle Airport.

http://www.cumberlink.com/articles/2...ews/news01.txt


Nearest METAR data:
KCXY 171656Z VRB06KT 7SM FEW029 29/24 A3000 RMK AO2 SLP157
T02940244
KMDT 171656Z 00000KT 6SM HZ FEW027 29/24 A2999 RMK A02 SLP 155

Capital City is about 15 miles east of the accident site, and
Harrisburg Intl-Olmstead is across the river from Capital City
and slightly downstream.

John R wrote:

Good photo of a 182 being towed down the road! Based on the
METAR data, conditions were certainly conducive for carburetor
heat, but were they really too extreme for carburetor heat to be
effective?

Sounds like he didn't realize he had ice until he hit the throttle and nothing
happened. By that time, there wouldn't be any carb heat.

George Patterson
None of us is as dumb as all of us.

Good photo of a 182 being towed down the road! Based on the
METAR data, conditions were certainly conducive for carburetor
heat, but were they really too extreme for carburetor heat to be
effective?

Sounds like he didn't realize he had ice until he hit the throttle and
nothing
happened. By that time, there wouldn't be any carb heat.

George Patterson
None of us is as dumb as all of us.

For what it's worth, I had the carb heat cable break on a Mooney Ranger a long
time ago.

That airplane liked to develop carb ice. The EGT was a good indicator of it
forming, as I remember.

I was flying a NDB approach in snow -- the storm came on hours before it was
forcasted to. When I tried to fly the miss I pushed in throttle and nothing
happened. I already had carb heat on and I I tried everything -- landing
lights, gear, radios -- everything. I found when I pulled the mixture back the
engine developed a little power. I was able to fly I think to Scranton on
feeble power, hand flew an ILS to near minimums in snow storm -- I was not
going to miss that approach.

Anyhow, got down, we rented a car and got to where we wanted to go. When it was
time to fly the airplane again it started up fine, but during the runup when I
pulled on the carb heat knob it just came out of the panel -- like a foot of
it!

The moral of the story is, if all else fails, you may be able to get some power
by messing with the mixture.

The event still scares me, that storm dumped half a foot or more in the
mountains of eastern PA, they never would have found us had we gone down!

What I remember most about the storm is NY center told me airports to the west
of my destination were experiencing snow, those abeam it and to the east were
not reporting problems. I thought I had a decent chance of making the approach.


In the 15 or 20 minutes it took for me to get to Scranton they went from pretty
good conditions to fairly low IFR. I think I had a mile or so of vis when I
touched down.

In article , tony
wrote:

That airplane liked to develop carb ice. The EGT was a good indicator of it
forming, as I remember.

Manifold Pressure gauge works just as well.
If the MP drops and the throttle hasn't been touched, ice is a good
suspect.

In article , EDR wrote:

That airplane liked to develop carb ice. The EGT was a good indicator of it
forming, as I remember.

Manifold Pressure gauge works just as well.
If the MP drops and the throttle hasn't been touched, ice is a good
suspect.

Yeah, or just RPMs in a non-complex airplane. I remember the first
time I got carb ice. It was textbook. RPMs were a little down, so
I bumped up the throttle. After the second time bumping the throttle,
I pulled the carb heat. Of course, that made things worse 'cause the
mel****er has no place to go 'cept into the engine. Fortunately, I
had read the textbook on this one.


Morris

Journeyman wrote in message ...
In article , EDR wrote:

That airplane liked to develop carb ice. The EGT was a good indicator of it
forming, as I remember.

Manifold Pressure gauge works just as well.
If the MP drops and the throttle hasn't been touched, ice is a good
suspect.

Yeah, or just RPMs in a non-complex airplane. I remember the first
time I got carb ice. It was textbook. RPMs were a little down, so
I bumped up the throttle. After the second time bumping the throttle,
I pulled the carb heat. Of course, that made things worse 'cause the
mel****er has no place to go 'cept into the engine. Fortunately, I
had read the textbook on this one.


Morris
And how about just using the primer to pump gas direct into the intake
to keep it running a little while? Have used that technique at least
twice over my 45 years of flying.

SelwayKid wrote:

And how about just using the primer to pump gas direct into the intake
to keep it running a little while? Have used that technique at least
twice over my 45 years of flying.

I can't see how that can possibly work. Carb ice blocks the induction in the area of
the butterfly valve. It doesn't matter how much gas you pump into the manifold, if
the induction is blocked by ice, there won't be any air getting in.

George Patterson
None of us is as dumb as all of us.

SelwayKid wrote:

And how about just using the primer to pump gas direct into the intake
to keep it running a little while? Have used that technique at least
twice over my 45 years of flying.

I can't see how that can possibly work. Carb ice blocks the induction in the
area of
the butterfly valve. It doesn't matter how much gas you pump into the
manifold, if
the induction is blocked by ice, there won't be any air getting in.

George Patterson
None of us is as dumb as all of us.

For what it's worth, I found when the carberator heat cable broke on the Mooney
Ranger I was flying, I had to significantly lean the engine to get the mixture
to the place where it'd fire and let me limp along to the nearest airport I
could get into.