I've been flying this plane a bit lately: https://pilotonline.com/news/local/article_73670ec4-26d3-11e8-b56d-dfbfd0b86f11.html Great little airplane - enough power, nicely balanced, feels more like my old Arrow than the Arrow that's available for rent now...but it's obviously in sad shape at the moment :-( Apparently, the accident was due to a power loss (full or partial I don't know). I know folks here must have some stories about equipment that you have experience with failing someone else. I won't lie - I sincerely hope this is as close as I ever come to having an incident or accident and it's not lost on me that this could have been my story. I was actually thinking of going for a spin in the plane and had other things to do, then saw the news. Thankfully everyone is OK
An airplane I was using for IFR training, mostly at night, had an engine failure just a couple weeks after I had transitioned into my own plane. No injuries and they actually dead sticked it onto a runway. Never really thought much of it.
Turns out it was carb ice. They made it 200’ off the deck and had to land beyond the end of the runway. No engine damage.
Yep, looks like they were doing touch and goes and they forgot it on downwind. Conditions were textbook for carb ice that day...
On a C-180 I flew with partial carb heat ALL the time, even TO. The induction system is so bad on O470 that a little carb heat was needed to help even out the fuel distribution. One thing I never missed when flying FI engines.
My Arrow spoiled me, as well as the injected 182 and DA-40 I've been flying since. I'm not used to all of the proclivities of the carbureted engines anymore and caught myself leaving it out of my GUMPS the first time I flew this plane, which I wasn't very happy about. Won't do that again. I actually used to leave a little carb heat on when I was solo training, especially x-country, because I didn't notice an appreciable power loss and figured "Why not??"
I was talking to someone about Great Lakes biplanes, and I mentioned one I used to fly... then I was curious, so I googled the tail number and it crashed a few months after I last flew it!
It can happen with airliners as well. My aunt once flew from NY to Miami on an Eastern L-1011. Four days later, the same aircraft on the same flight crashed in the Everglades.
Applying carb heat is not routinely used on PA-28's during landing, unlike the Cessna's. Nor is it on the normal landing checklist.
Okeydoke, applying carb heat is not routinely used on PA-28's during takeoffs. Nor is it on the normal takeoff checklist.
Just checked the checklist - carb heat is listed in the pre-landing section of the list we use. Of course, I don’t think a lot of people stare at the checklist in the pattern for better or worse.
I remember that one. "We did something to the altitude." Accident chain started by a burned-out bulb.
The crash was caused by pilot error, but yes, that's what distracted the crew and started the accident chain.
