- Joined
- Jun 2, 2015
- Messages
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Just wanted to pass along some info that happened to a friend of mine yesterday.
He was flying a Comanche 250 at 9500'. The sky was clear and OAT as 55. He started loosing engine power and his manifold pressure went down to 14" from 22". He did the normal troubleshooting such as turning on the fuel pump and switching tanks. He pulled carb heat and got the normal drop so he turned it back off. He just kept telling himself that it could not be carb ice. He told the controller that he could not maintain altitude and descended to 5500' and the problem cleared. After 30 minutes of getting thrown around he went back up to 9500' and the problem did not come back (or so he thought).
We were discussing the flight and I suggested that he pull the data from his JPI 900. Once we looked at the data it was obviously carb ice. Every time the IAT dropped below 32 the manifold pressure started decreasing as well. After his ascent back up to 9500' he was just started to get more carb ice when he started his final descent.
I thought that carb ice did not occur at WOT but I was wrong. I did know that you can get carb ice at temps in the 50's but thought it would be during a descent or flying through visible moisture such as clouds.
This has really raised my awareness to carb ice and I thought it would be good info to pass on.
He was flying a Comanche 250 at 9500'. The sky was clear and OAT as 55. He started loosing engine power and his manifold pressure went down to 14" from 22". He did the normal troubleshooting such as turning on the fuel pump and switching tanks. He pulled carb heat and got the normal drop so he turned it back off. He just kept telling himself that it could not be carb ice. He told the controller that he could not maintain altitude and descended to 5500' and the problem cleared. After 30 minutes of getting thrown around he went back up to 9500' and the problem did not come back (or so he thought).
We were discussing the flight and I suggested that he pull the data from his JPI 900. Once we looked at the data it was obviously carb ice. Every time the IAT dropped below 32 the manifold pressure started decreasing as well. After his ascent back up to 9500' he was just started to get more carb ice when he started his final descent.
I thought that carb ice did not occur at WOT but I was wrong. I did know that you can get carb ice at temps in the 50's but thought it would be during a descent or flying through visible moisture such as clouds.
This has really raised my awareness to carb ice and I thought it would be good info to pass on.
