Birthday Present, oops

I think I would've picked a road. Hard to tell what's under the ice/snow. Glad everyone is alright.

Based on the cold looking conditions, probably not carb ice. Probably not enough moisture in the air. Fuel starvation is always up there on the list for engine failure.

Again, at least everyone is alright.

 

Don't planes have carb heat anymore?

Is that plane carb'd... or injected?

Just wondering...

 

That plane is over 50 years old. So I would guess it had the original engine and carb heat. That was an unusual plane in that it had a reduction gearbox and ran at 3200 RPM engine speed.

 

For those learning to fly, carb heat is used frequently as a lot of time is spend at lower RPMs. Once you start flying cross country, you'll realize that you just sit in cruise flight at a constant RPM for a long time. Carb ice can sneak up on you. I used to just pull the carb heat every 30 mins or so, and see if any was there.....

 

Thanks, Lou...

I looked up the 175... has a GO300, not an IO300 engine, so carbed.

So, if it was carb icing... why didn't he pull the carb heat on. It doesn't take very long for power to come back, I've heard.

(I remember reading FLYING as a kid; they talked about carb heat all the time.)

Or is the relatively high RPM a factor? I've read that icing is more likely at lower RPM, like landing. Also that it usually happens when the humidity is high...

 

+1. Very good habit!

 

If you don't see carb ice clues coming your way and apply carb heat early it will eventually kill the engine. Once the engine dies applying carb heat is just too late to solve most carb ice issues. Walk out to an airplane that is sitting on the ground with the engine off and apply carb heat. Nothing is going to happen cause you have no engine exhaust heat to induce into the induction. At idle there will be some heat but most likely not enough to melt a fully iced carburetor that has choked off your air supply. In worse case induction icing conditions most POHs suggest full throttle, max engine leaned and full carb heat and leave it that way. Remember carb heat is more of an anti ice prevention than anything else.

 

May I throw in some old time stuff? When I was flying the Ford powered Pietenpol the carburetor was very good at growing an ice muff on the outside. Small cantaloupe in size, and one had to use the carb heat most often when flying in the Pacific Northwest. When I was turning off the downwind after pulling carb heat on I made the mistake of looking out the left side to check the carb when it let loose a chunk of ice that rang my bell a bit. A different little airplane.

 

Great story, Bob...

 

Is that an upgraded engine? I thought the 180 had and O-470...

 

Thanks...

The same thing 'happened' to my 3.0L Porsche engine... it's a 3.2L now... No carb icing, it's injected.

 

I England i had a Ford Escort that would suffer from terrible carb icing, so i moved to southern California got paid real money and bought new cars with fuel injection.......Problem solved