Riveting Icing+IMC Story

[Chairboy]

I read this today, and got chills.  I imagined myself in that situation with my wife, and my heart was racing.

http://www.fly4fun.com/rwagner/story.html

The more I read, the more I determine that my lack of spin training is a gaping hole in my skillset.  I've found a place locally that does it in a Zlin or Pitts, so I'm gonna start saving my lunch money.

[Hangtime]

Lordy.. scary as hell.

Yup.. unusual attitude recovery and spin training is a VERY good thing. Repeat often. You train enuff, you won't need to think about a damn thing when the need arises.

[Chairboy]

That's my thinking too.  Gods of Kobol, getting a PPL is one of the most expensive things I've ever done.  Not the license/initial training itself, THAT I expected.  But somehow, it looks like now I'm on a waterslide, and I have to spend money to keep the water on while I go down it.  Sure, I can stop spending money on training....  but once I hit that dry spot on the slide, I know I'm gonna bleed.



We're selling our restaurants so we can spend more time with the kids and my wife can start a new biz, and part of the money is budgeted for me getting a plane.  Once we find a buyer, I'm hoping to find something like a 1977-198X Piper Warrior II with basic IFR instrumentation and a mid time engine for between $40k-$50k.

[Toad]

.....No pitot heat in this Tri-Pacer, either....

Our earlier 125 mile flight from the Blaine Airport in Minnesota northwest to Park Rapids -- to have dinner with relatives -- had been uneventful as we flew through and on top of a cloud deck of about 5,000 MSL and landed Park Rapids IFR without incident.

After an early dinner, we planned to depart for home at 6 p.m. Cloud bases then were 1,200 feet and the only significant issue was the possibility of icing climbing through 6,000 MSL to our cruising altitude of 7,000 MSL on top. (tops 5,000)

 

It always starts with some little thing, some error in judgement or an oversight.

[Hangtime]

Nice.. the old boss got a Piper Dakota, loaded to the gills with avionics.. even had a storm scope. Got his IFR ticket, then stopped flying regularly. Now he's down about 140K, and won't fly if there's a cloud in the sky... and even then fly's with a deathgrip on the yoke and his scan glued to the dash.

If evar there was a guy that belonged in an Aeronca Champ...

Pick your bird based on how you expect to fly.. and remember, the calander kills pilots and Mariners routinely. The whole "I gotta be there by..." mentality of getting places... well, 'nuff about that.

My favorite civil bird for occasional IFR and normal $300 day off fer a hamburger rides is a Super Cub... just as much fun to work on as to just tool around for an hour or two soaking up aviating... and gobs of power for a fabric powered bird. Don't let anybody tell yah it's just a Cub.. 160+ horses vs a J-3's 65hp.. well, lets just say it's a blast.

Toad's got an old WWII Primary Trainer.. a Fairchild M-62 aka PT-26.. Full Canopy; but I suspect they stay open most of the time. I envy the guy.. big old Ranger inline 6. Must be gobs of fun to fly.

Anything yah can't crank a window open on is less fun... just don't expect to get anywhere quick.

oh, and congrats on the ticket.. keep 'em flyin!

[Seagoon]

Wow! Now there's a scary story, gripping stuff though, thanks for posting it.

Two Questions though; regarding "declaring an emergency" - it sounds like a civil pilot might actually end up dead before he was willing to make that call. How easy is it to end up getting your license yanked because you ended up in a tough spot because of a decision that could have gone either way? - i.e. two pilots hear the same iffy weather report and decide to fly, the first makes it without any major problems, but because the other one takes off a 1/2 hour later he ends up in a seriously dangerous situation.  

Also, how many civil pilots do fly with parachutes in the plane? Seems like that would be a "must have" for me  (then again - I've parachuted, but never flown solo).

- SEAGOON

[SFRT - Frenchy]

With the EMT flying, I had my little share of icing, in non approved icing flying plane. The typical route between L.A. and Oakland, at 10,000ft in a 210.

Flying with 1 inch of ice sadly became normal. The worst I had was:

Typicall weather briefing: icing between 4,000 and 8,000. The take off from L.A. was ok, IMC at 1,500, took some light icing passing 4,000 poped out at 6,000 climbed to cruising alt of 10,000. The 210 has pitot heat, and body throttle heater.

After 30 min, reaching the Bakerfield plateau, the overcast layer is getting higher. And I'm poping in and out of the cumulus at 10K, grabing ice at each penetration. Nothing unusual there, ice on the leading edge, strut, frozen windshield. My icemeter, is the left wing fuel vent.

About 1h to go, the ice starts to pile up, and it's time to do something about it. The comon action is to descend, but I really don't like going to the 7,000 MEA above mountains while already packed with ice, hoping not to find ice when Wx brief called for icing.

SO I climbed ... at least tried to. Climbing to 12K, was slow but manageable. Alas, at 12K, I was still in the clouds, in and out, but the ice was still heavy. So I asked for 14K, and climbed.

The climb was painfull, it was something like accelerate to a poor 90 kts, climb till stall warning, level, accelerate 90kt, climb. Eventually, like 30 minute later, I reach 14K.

By that time I'm Iced up to hell, I barely maintain altitude close from the stall speed, but I'm poping in and out of the cloud, preventing more ice accumulation.

It's not too bad, about 10-15 min to go before I have to start my descent, at 14K, plenty of time to figure out something. About 5 min later, the oil temperature jumps in the red, and the engine starts to loose power. I figures my nose is all iced up, probably covering the oil cooler. So I asked for a descent, and reduce the manifold in a gentle "controled glide", it's almost time to get down for the STAR alt anyway.

At 9,000, I get off the clouds, and the oil temperature came gradually back in the green. by the little hole in the windshield ice I can see that only blue sky is ahead. By 7000 the windshield ice melted. I eard a loud bang from the left wing, and the plane jinked sideway. I know the sound, it's the melting ice, a wide chunk flew away, I just have to wait for the other wing to do the same. About 30 secs later, crack Boing, and the plane flies straight again. Only minor ice remains on the leading edge.

The approach into Oakland was ineventfull, the typicall non-iced cloud layer between 2000 and 4000.

Maybe one day I'll have a plane that can fly into known icing, but for now it's the best I have to do the job. It may sound reckless and stupid, but I HAVE TO (nb1 killer) go. I fly a time sensitive medecine for cancer. The patient is waiting to get his life saved at the destination, and I have to make it. In about 100 flights, only once I couldn't make it, not due to icing, but low ceiling. The RVR (runway visibility range) was 500, the ceiling 100ft. I tried 6 times, but could only see the ruway markings when straight above it at 100ft. What an horrible feeling to have to go back to LA with the medecine still onboard, after 6 attempts, the medecine died already:o My worst landing was RVR 700, ceiling 100 ft, but it was at night, so I could see the rabbits first, then the runway lights. I touch the ground without even knowing it

Oh well, fun stuff, hopefully luck will remain on my side, so patients can keep getting the best treatment.

[eagl]

We had an interesting lesson in judgement calls a few years ago at Sheppard...

The weather was pretty marginal, as it was winter which meant occasional fog, icing, snow, and clouds up to whatever altitude you like.  It was above freezing on the ground, and the freezing layer was supposedly at about 4000 ft.  We were sitting around waiting for the clouds to lift past 500 ft so we could launch a weather ship to check and see if the practice areas were clear, and sure enough the weather shop decided they were through taking 20 calls a minute from 200 bored instructors and student pilots so they called the ceiling at 700 ft overcast.

The first available weather ship happened to be 2 FAIPs...  First Assignment Instructor Pilots.  2 1st Lts with a total of maybe 700-800 hours between them.  Their instructions were simple - take off, climb above the weather, and go find out if the weather was really good enough to send out instructional sorties.

What that REALLY meant was "Go see if there really is icing in those clouds", although they didn't know it at that point.

They launched out, and at 300 ft entered the clouds.  Oops, guess the cloud deck is a little lower than expected.  Passing 500 ft, they pick up moderate mixed icing, so less than 45 seconds into the flight they declare an emergency and request immediate short vectors to the ILS at the lowest possible altitude.

Somehow they staggered around the air patch and landed about 10 min later, landing by looking out the side of the canopy due to having zero forward visibility through the completely iced over windscreen.  I think they gained about 5 years worth of real-world experience in that 10 minutes.  A year later an instructor suffered dual engine failure in a descent at 10,000 ft due to ice ingestion after picking up less than half of the ice these guys were carrying around, so they were probably a minute or so from punching out.  I wonder how much ice they would have picked up hanging from their chutes...

For the next 3 years during my tour at Sheppard, that was the standard joke whenever the weather was just barely good enough to consider sending out a weather ship to check things out - "Lets get a couple FAIPs and find out if there really is icing up there."

[Wolfala]

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Perhaps one of the most misunderstood and under emphasized area’s of flying – simulated and real world is no matter how many systems the federal government deploys and no matter the regulations written behind those deployments, pilots and aviators always manage to coax themselves into the false sense of security that somehow the rules were not written specifically to apply to them.

Often times I found myself sitting on the flight line at the edge of a squall that was about to unleash, watching in amazement as a Corporate crew hurriedly readied the plane and passengers that were already late to get in the air before the weather came down. This macho candoism might seem like a remnant of the bygone days of World War 2 aviators, but folks – it’s very much alive and kicking.

The evening of January 11th 2005 was a normal evening, except for the 45 IFR flight plans that were filed for the New York Blizzard Bash 2005. Rob Shagrue was getting his feet wet for the first time in the tower position. Jason sat at his consol twisting his fingers into contorting positions waiting for some traffic to come his way. I sat alternating between monitoring Rob’s progress with flight plans and coordinating with Jason on Center and Rob in the tower.

The weather wasn’t good, but at the same time it was not terrible. 600 broken up to 9,000, moderate chop in the clouds with occasional moderate icing in clouds and precipitation. Winds were heavy out of the west 37 knots gusting to 45. Most aircraft that were filed were certified for flight into known icing conditions present today and had little or no trouble circumventing the trouble spots.

With departures running from all across the country into New York’s Kennedy and La Guardia, there were few moments of pause for everyone. That all changed suddenly: departing off Williamsport PA was a Cessna 172 going to New York. The pilot had filed for 9,000 enroute on a GPS direct course. Rob gave him a turn and handed him off to me passing through 5,000 feet. The Skyhawk driver reported nothing out of the ordinary – but the controllers kept a close watch on him just incase he ran into any trouble.

The Cessna 172 as many a pilot knows is a robust airframe that has taken punishment in its 40 years of existence from pilots of all walks. You can load it up with the doors bursting at the seams and it will still be within CG limits. At 160 hp, it is the Ford Explorer of aviation – not getting you there quickly, but being reasonably comfortable and tolerant of mishandling. What it is incredibly intolerant of is being asked to perform missions for which it is not properly equipped to handle: today called for FLIGHT INTO KNOWN ICING CONDITIONS – for which under 14-CFR-91 it was not certified.

The 172’s flight tag continued east towards the outer limit of the localizer to 27 at Williamsport when the radio opened up with a desperate cry “I’m out of control, I’m stalling!” My heart sank into my stomach, and I’m sure anyone who was on the frequency at the time can attest to the collective gasp and subsequent feeling of dread that followed. After what seemed an eternity, the Skyhawk pilot regained control; I gave him a turn back to 270 for the ILS back into Williamsport. I did not want to descend him early fearing his wings would be so loaded up that he would fall short of the runway, he stayed high until I was reasonably assure that even in his state, a brick would glide. For all of its aerodynamic innovations, the 172 with ice is more closely related to riding a pregnant yak then an aircraft.

Passing the compass locator and descending onto the glide slope, the Skyhawk got the handoff to Tower which was advised of the emergency.

What motivates perfectly good pilots to commit heinous acts of stupidity is what separates the pilots from the aviators. Students of flying are unlike students in any other realm of endeavor; what sets them apart is their habit of plunging gaily ahead into situations that would turn a veteran of the trade ashen white.

Now, there’s nothing inherently dangerous in most of those situations—given adequate training on the student’s part. What makes the subsequent adventures hair curling is the blissful unawareness with which the young student charges ahead. To the knowing, it is somewhat akin to watching a blindfolded person walking briskly toward the rim of a cliff. I only wonder if innocence is what protects them from harm.

For most students, that first encounter with hazard, alone, with only one’s judgment to match against the wiles of nature and machinery, eclipses any and all close shaves to follow. This leads to the reason why it is sometimes more difficult for the students to tell their story rather then it is the advanced pilot: students know that the outcome is frequently entirely out of their hands, that there is reliance only on luck and none on self. The veteran can at least reasonably argue, if only with them selves, that they’re skills determined the outcome.

[cpxxx]

My only ice story is the time the engine began to run rough when I picked up some carburettor ice. Scary for a minute or two as the countryside below was less than hospitable for a forced landing.

I remember when I got my IR. The boss came up and congratulated me. Then he said, 'But, if I ever catch you using it for real in one of our aircraft I'll kick your arse from here to...........'

Basically, particularly in this part of the world you must assume that all clouds in winter, hide icing conditions, forecast or unforecast.  You don't go there unless you and the aircraft are equipped for it.