I am sitting in the airplane with a pilot new to our FBO.\u00a0 He has come to get checked out to fly with us, so we are about to go up and I am going to watch him perform the perfunctory maneuvers and landings to see if he is safe and we can trust him with our airplanes.\u00a0 It will be just one of those typical flights.<\/p>\n
After I watch him pre-flight, we are soon at the end of runway doing the pre-flight checks.\u00a0 He runs the engine up to 1700 rpm, checks the mags, and then pulls on the heat.\u00a0 Everything looks normal and then he turns to me and says, \u201cThat doesn\u2019t feel right.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat do you mean?\u201d I ask.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe carb heat control. Try it out.\u201d<\/p>\n
I reach down and sure enough, it doesn\u2019t feel right.\u00a0 There is a slight tug to the cable, a \u201cchink\u201d if you will.\u00a0 While the control does not \u201cfeel right,\u201d the engine is operating normally and loses 100 rpm when carb heat is applied.\u00a0 I look to the pilot and say, \u201cYeah, it doesn\u2019t feel right but it is working.\u00a0 Your call.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI guess it\u2019s OK,\u201d he said. \u00a0So we continue the preparations for takeoff.<\/p>\n
So we take off.\u00a0 Into a hot, humid day, the conditions of which puts us into the heart of the carburetor icing envelope.<\/p>\n
When we reach 200 feet agl, the engine sputters in the rpm drops to about 1800.\u00a0 It was a classic case of carb ice.\u00a0 The pilot looks of me as I reach for the carb heat control.\u00a0 I pull it out and the unthinkable happens.\u00a0 The cable comes off the carburetor heat box in the engine and the next thing I know, I am holding the handle and the entire cable in the cockpit.\u00a0 The engine rpm remains at 1800, we are still a 200 feet, the airspeed has dropped to just under 55 knots, and now we are over houses.<\/p>\n
Taking control of the aircraft, I make one of the shallowest, lowest, and slowest turns of my lifetime.\u00a0 Luckily, we are the only aircraft in the pattern early this morning.\u00a0 Since the winds are calm, we can land opposite direction on the runway we just departed.<\/p>\n
As we squeak over the trees at the end of the runway, a sense of relief rushes through my body.\u00a0 I take unusual delight in the sensation of the wheels touching down on the grass runway.\u00a0 We taxi over to the maintenance hangar and turn the aircraft in for repair.<\/p>\n
As we preflight the next 150, we talk about the lessons learned from last flight.\u00a0 Even though this was a short flight, we both learned a great lesson by the time we had the airplane back on the ground.\u00a0 I would hear the phrase as a mantra later in my days flying in the Navy.\u00a0 \u201cIf it doesn\u2019t feel right, it\u2019s not right.\u00a0 Don\u2019t fly.\u201d<\/p>\n
This flight from so long ago taught me valuable lessons.\u00a0 In addition to learning the key concept of not going if it doesn\u2019t feel right, I also learned there is no such thing as a typical flight.<\/p>\n
-30-<\/p>\n
\u00a9 2010 J. Clark<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I am sitting in the airplane with a pilot new to our FBO.\u00a0 He has come to get checked out to fly with us, so we are about to go up and I am going to watch him perform the … Continue reading