Backcountry Pilot • Carb Ice?

Carb Ice?

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Sat May 24, 2008 9:37 am

Here ya go

I think Lamar may have bought out ARP. Productis are very similar. I have had both. Page 385 in A/C Spuce 2006/2007 catalog. It is called Iceman Carburetor Ice Detection System, pt. # 10-00057 $296.95. Have a visual light and auditory signal. Mine is wired into my intercom so that I can here it through my headset.


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Sat May 24, 2008 9:54 am

58Skylane wrote:I've been in a good habit of always pulling the carb heat on at run up and on final.


I have never liked that Idea, I believe one should pull carb heat before reducing power, you have lots of throttle plate opening and lots of heat.
You also have time to play with the mixture if you choose.

If you wait til final, when your throttle plate opening is reduced and engine has lost some heating potential you may find yourself with a dead engine.

Just my opinion though 8)
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Sat May 24, 2008 10:01 pm

mr scout wrote:
58Skylane wrote:I've been in a good habit of always pulling the carb heat on at run up and on final.


I have never liked that Idea, I believe one should pull carb heat before reducing power, you have lots of throttle plate opening and lots of heat.
You also have time to play with the mixture if you choose.

If you wait til final, when your throttle plate opening is reduced and engine has lost some heating potential you may find yourself with a dead engine.



My bad, I should have said on down wind :oops: .
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Wed May 28, 2008 8:19 am

I got a reminder last week coming back from Reno. Ever so slowly MP dropping, I kept pushing the throttle in.

Then the light came on. I am getting carb ice. Pulled the carb heat with the result you would expect. Readjusted the throttle and it was 1/2" further back.

I'm pretty sure if I had tried to land and didn't use carb heat it would have died.

Reminder to self. Look at the check list like I learned in flight school!

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Wed May 28, 2008 10:10 am

In 600 hours I never had carb ice in my Lyc O-235...that I detected.

Now I have a Lyc O-360 with a carburetor temp gage, and it frankly confuses the hell out of me.

At cruise power the carb temp is almost always well below freezing... down to 15 degrees fahrenheit at times. In fact, the higher the power setting, the lower the carb temp. When I pull the throttle back, the carb temp goes up. On a typical day when I reduce power abeam the numbers, I watch the carb temp climb into the 50's.

I understand that the more fuel that runs through the carb the greater the cooling effect...but I'm not sure I understand why I don't develop carb ice while in cruise with a carb temp several degrees below freezing. I've never heard of anyone running carb heat at cruise power, though that is what I would have to do to keep the temp above freezing.

By the same token, it's hard to rationalize pulling carb heat on for my final decent when the carb temp is way above freezing. Am I missing something key here?

I've never gotten noticeable carb ice in the O-360 either, though I'm sure it can happen. I don't typically fly in a lot of humidity.
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Wed May 28, 2008 10:30 am

Hammer wrote:
Am I missing something key here?

.


Yes you are, all that gauge is telling you is that if your in the condition for ice to form the carb throat is freezing so it can form.

Only the optic ones can detect ice, the others just tell you a condition.

They are still a great tool and I have used them both. If you are in a Ice forming condition keep the needle just above the freezing mark and you wont have ice.
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Wed May 28, 2008 10:39 am

mr scout wrote:
Hammer wrote:
Am I missing something key here?

.


Yes you are, all that gauge is telling you is that if your in the condition for ice to form the carb throat is freezing so it can form.

Only the optic ones can detect ice, the others just tell you a condition.

They are still a great tool and I have used them both. If you are in a Ice forming condition keep the needle just above the freezing mark and you wont have ice.


Thanks for that explanation. It was something I wondered about also.
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Fri May 30, 2008 1:59 pm

Re: Carb Ice?

Wouldn't you know it. After 20 years of flying and never having this occur during taxi and takeoff (only had it in cruise), I had this very thing happen to me a couple of days ago. Needless to say, it got our attention. As soon as we rotated, it felt like a cylinder was missing, then about 2 seconds running very rough. The funny thing is the runup, including the carb heat RPM drop, was normal and smooth. I figure that it must have formed quickly from the time we taxied onto the runway to the time we rotated due to going to full throttle and the increased air flow/moisture being pumped into the carburetor. Interesting experience. I'll be more mindful of this in the future.


Skystrider wrote:I had an interesting experience Monday afternoon. My friend and I got the plane out about 5:00 pm for a couple practice T & L's. We had not flown for eight weeks because of the weather and the runway conditions. After start up we let it run at about 1400 rpm for a few minutes to warm up and then did a taxi down the turf runway and back checking for soft spots. We then did a run up and everything checked out normal so off we went. The plane accelerated a bit slowly and we took maybe half the runway to get off the ground as opposed to a few hundred feet. I noticed that it was not climbing with the speed it normally does. So I stuck close to the airport and landed. Once again I did a runup and everything checked out. I then held the brakes and did nearly a full power runup to check where the RPM's were. Again, it appeared normal. So off we went again. Same result.

This time however, I was paying such close attention to the instruments that I was a bit high and fast on final so rather than force it, I went around. When I shoved the power in, it responded like it always does and really climbed! So I went around and landed and put her away till I had more time to make checks.

It occurred to me today that I had pulled carb heat on the downwind leg rather than on base/final because I was trying to be more cautious. Maybe there was carb ice that melted and that resulted in the normal power when I went around?

Anybody had any experience with carb ice while waiting for the plane to warm up? Could that be it?
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