During the oil embargo in 73-74 I got furloughed along with 2400 other low time airline pilots, I had just completed my 5th year with Eastern. Anyway looking to keep some income coming in I hooked up with a freight/passenger company Monmouth Airlines owned by Ed Brown, that was based at KBLM and did regular trips Allentown, DC, JFK and Boston with Beach 99’s, and they had a contract with the Federal Reserve to haul canceled checks between North Philadelphia and Boston. They used Beach 99’s for passenger operations, with one set aside to support the fright operation to haul 3500 lbs of canceled checks twice a night , however, this night they had the need to haul an additional 1000lbs. Money was tight so when Ed called me late that night in February and asked if I’d fly his Cherokee 6 to Allentown, Boston and back I said sure thing. I really loved the 6 it was a great flying aircraft, very stable, great instrument platform. Weather was not supposed to be a problem, but I noticed that the 6 had no de-icing equipment, no boots, on the prop or tail, but weather wasn’t going to be an issue right and no ICE in the forecast.
Routine into KPNE and another check with dispatch showed no weather issues, however, the 99 crew had reported that they ran into snow showers just west of KBOS and rain at KBOS, freezing level was reported at 7000 a warm front had moved through 12 hours before with a cold front moving through the area even as the aircraft was being loaded and fueled. No known icing at KBOS, 4K broken.
My plan was to get high to take advantage of the tail wind then get down into the warm air ahead of the front as I got within 50 miles of Boston and spend as little time in the cold air or cloud, I filed for 9000, with as direct a flight as I could request and that late at night or early morning I got just what I requested. I departed KPNE heading direct Solberg VOR and let the auto pilot take me to 9K, I enjoyed a nice tail wind and before I expected I found myself 75 miles out of KBOS in solid IMC listening to some of the heavy equipment ahead of me talking about ice build ups while on approach.
I’m getting vectors to the final approach fix , The controller wants to start me down I’m within 30 miles or so, I’m ICE free where I’m at , but ATC needs me down to 4K and 2K for the approach. I start building ICE at 6K, I crank up the windshield defroster , turn on Pitot-tube heat, bring up the power and change my approach plans to shut the approach at 125MPH rather than the 80MPH. The less time I spend on approach the better. I’ll slow down over the runway. Then I hit the freezing rain. The Windshield defroster is next to useless, I have about a two by four inch area that is clear, but that’s it, radio is on but appears dead, no airspeed information, Pitot must be blocked. (yea, it actually does happen, that’s why your instructor had you fly all those landings with the airspeed covered.) The 6 is now a brick and slowing, I’ve got full power , nose down and it’s slowing, I’m still high on the glideslope, I push the nose over some more and wait and listen to the sound of chunks of ICE break off and smack back into the tail feathers. The warm air down by the sea keep me from going into the drink, the 6 shed a lot of weight in the last minute of that approach, the radio is still unreadable, I flatten it out as I slip below the glideslope. I land on the numbers on the runway, I hit hard but the e-perb didn’t activate. I can’t taxi, I can’t see, so I shut it down, I can’t open the door, I can’t get out, I can’t talk to the tower, they towed me to cargo area, chipped away at the ice, to open the doors and get the cargo out. I learned that right after my landing they changed the weather report at KBOS to include an Icing report .
