The pilot departed in the Piper PA-28 with 10 gallons of fuel to practice crosswind landings at a nearby airport.
About one hour later and during an approach, he was aiming to land on the runway numbers at the airport in Batavia, Ohio. Shortly before flying over the airport perimeter fence, he reported that “either wind shear or a sudden downdraft dropped the plane.”
The nose landing gear hit the fence, and the airplane hit the ground short of the intended runway.
In a followup interview with the National Transportation Safety Board investigator-in-charge, the pilot reported that, during the approach, the engine was running the entire time without issues.
He added that, once he encountered the downdraft, he applied full power, but the airplane continued descending with “no appreciable response.”
He reported that he did not use carburetor heat during the approach.
The airplane sustained substantial damage to the fuselage and horizontal stabilator.
A review of recorded data from the automated weather observation station located on the airport revealed that, about the time of the accident, the wind was from 210° at 8 knots, visibility 10 statute miles, clouds overcast at 1,100′, temperature 68°F, dew point 63°F, and altimeter 29.96 inches of mercury.
Review of the FAA Carburetor Icing Chart for the given temperature and dew point revealed that the conditions were conducive to “serious icing (glide power).”
Probable cause: The pilot’s failure to apply carburetor heat in conditions conducive to carburetor icing, which resulted in a partial loss of engine power during landing.
NTSB Identification: GAA18CA038
This November 2017 accident report is provided by the National Transportation Safety Board. Published as an educational tool, it is intended to help pilots learn from the misfortunes of others.
I seriously doubt carb icing. Lycoming engines do not, as a rule, ice up. The POH states to use carb heat only when needed. My money is on application of throttle too quickly. There is an AD for not applying full throttle, from idle, in less than 3 seconds or the engine will stumble.
In reading the NTSB form 6120 in the docket, and the 11,000 hour pilot’s description of what happened, I don’t think carb ice was a factor.
This pilot had flown into the airport many times over the 36 years he recounts. He had a preference for landing ‘on the numbers’, so he usually made a low approach. The fence that he hit was 400 ft from the runway, so any lost of headwind would affect his descent rate.
His analysis was that he should have been higher and made a steeper final approach.
I always plan on landing on the first 500 ft of the runway, but I’m usually high on short final, so have to slip it down, usually twice. Also I’m always close enough to the runway, in the pattern to be able to glide to a safe landing.
Practicing power-off 180s to the runway should be part of every pilot’s practice maneuvers.
Read the docket form 6120 and reply with what you think caused this crash.;
https://dms.ntsb.gov/pubdms/search/hitlist.cfm?docketID=60653&CFID=2949764&CFTOKEN=ce0b48dffe12492d-42A13A7E-A717-5CD0-FC44215636BB22BC
My PA 28 burns 10 gallon of fuel per hour during touch and go practice manuvering. If he took off with only 10 gallons of fuel on board I seriously doubt carb ice, it just ran out of fuel IMHO. I’VE never experienced carb ice, the carburetor is mounted to the oil pan, it’s as hot as the oil in the engine. I’m not saying it would never happen, just I’ve never experienced carb ice.
Thank you so much for sharing this about carb ice!I live and fly in the Mojave Desert and have not had much experience good to know!!!
This accident should remind all of us just exactly what carb ice is, what it can do, and how to avoid the problem at all times. The last is easy! Use it ALL THE TIME whenever you retard the throttle, and be very aware of its effects any time that you might experience it. A lot of people I have flown with will check carb ice before landing, and not noticing any problem, will then push it back in. Don’t do that. Keep it on until after landing. That might have been the cause of this accident.
I will give a couple of examples as to what I meant there. First off, carb ice will form in ANY system, but it is most common in carbureted engines. That is because the butterfly in a carb causes a drastic loss in AIR PRESSURE where the butterfly has the intake closed, plus the additional cooling effect of the vaporizing fuel right there. When the engine is cold to start with, e.g., right after startup and taxiing out, the effect is the strongest. However, you don’t want to use carb heat on taxi–you will bypass the air filter when you have the most chance of blowing up dust into the air intake. However, you always check carb heat on runup, right? HOW DO YOU CHECK IT? Pull it on, check for RPM DROP, no drop, push it back in, right? NO! It is ICE, right? HOW LONG DOES IT TAKE FOR not-that-hot exhaust pipe heated hot air, (which is where the hot air for carb heat comes from) TO MELT ICE????? It doesn’t happen instantly, and if you just pull on carb heat, check for drop, and push it back in, YOU HAVE NOT GIVEN IT A CHANCE TO MELT ANY ICE THAT WAS THERE! And this is so vitally important. If you have developed ice on taxi out, you certainly want to find that out before takeoff. I usually give it a twenty-count before pushing the carb heat back in.
O-K, at the ten-count point, YOU GET AN RPM RISE. You HAD carb ice! What do you do now? Keep the carb heat ON as you taxi into position, and LEAVE IT ON until you have full power. That ensures that you don’t have any ice until you are at full power. Then push it back in. You should see some additional power when you do that, because you are no longer feeding HOT AIR to the engine. And with the butterfly fully open, you don’t have that restricted air in the carb throat that caused the pressure drop/supercooled air that caused the ice to form to begin with.
OK, now you are climbing out with full power, but you know that you are in an environment that is conducive to carb ice. You are super-attentive to ANY indication of power drop, because that tells you that ice might be forming again. And you are super-ready to pull on carb heat again should you see that power drop. AND IF YOU DO SEE THAT POWER DROP, which meant that ice has formed again, and you pull on carb heat, YOU ARE PREPARED FOR THINGS TO GET WORSE IMMEDIATELY power-wise. The engine probably will go a little more rough. It might even act like it is going to quit. BECAUSE you are now dumping hot air into a restricted opening because of the ice. Remember that ice doesn’t melt immediately. DON’T PANIC and think that pulling on the carb heat “caused bad things to happen, instead of good!” Give it time to melt the ice. Then the power surge when it does will be SO gratifying! Then you can push the carb heat back in, and for the rest of the flight, be very aware of it possibly happening again. And you are mentally prepared to do the same thing.
I was taking off from a high-mountain strip in a bowl one time, and had just finished the climb over the bowl rim, headed down towards the Sacramento Valley. Just barely over the rim, because I knew the rest of the trip would be downhill. And the engine lost power. I was too low to turn back and get to the strip, so I headed downhill, pulled on the carb heat—no immediate effect and I was getting REALLY low over the rocks, so set up for a possible emergency crash. I had left on the carb heat, and 15 seconds later, the engine surged back to life as the ice I had built up in the climb, AT FULL POWER, melted off. Under those conditions, I had built up a LOT of ice because the air intake almost had to be blocked off by ice before the engine power croaked from it. It took a LONG time to melt it! Some of the longest seconds of my life. Climbing out of that valley had climbed into cooler air—ice formation location.
A second time I was flying IFR thru widely-spaced thunderheads at night in my Cessna 180. I had been flying for about an hour, level. I didn’t realize it at the time, but the air temp AND HUMIDITY had changed until I was in an ice-formation area. The engine very slowly seemed to need a little extra power, until about fifteen minutes thru this slow sequence, I suddenly realized that I had actually gotten to full power, and the engine basically wasn’t responding any more. LIGHT BULB!!!! Yanked on the carb heat, and shortly I had full power again. Rather suddenly, when the last of the ice melted off and flew into the engine. The ice had very slowly been building up.
That airplane was such an incredible stallion of a plane. Every time I got the slightest bit careless, or not paying attention, it turned its head around, just like an arrogant stallion, and snickered, “GOTCHA AGAIN!!” It taught me so much——
Learn what carb ice is, guys,. Learn everything about it, and learn what to do about it when its presence is even slightly possible. It is hard to believe you can get ice on a 70-degree day, but you can.
And it can kill. Recently in New Orleans an air show pilot was taking a lady news reporter for a demo ride. He rushed his taxi- takeoff and climbed out excessively steeply. At about 1,000′, he reported engine power loss, and tried to return to the field behind him. He stalled and spun, killing both of them. The probable cause from all who witnessed the crash was two things. Undetected intake ice, even tho he was in a fuel-injected plane, that caused the power loss. And then trying to return to the field in a plane that absolutely would not tolerate such an action. I fly such a plane all the time, my Christen Eagle. A high-angle takeoff power loss, at that altitude, and an attempted 180-degree turn is just not physically possible. Even the power loss there in that attitude would be very challenging.
Been around this activity for 62 years, now, guys. 10,000+ hours of instruction given. And all that time has given me experience that I hope to pass on to everyone. And I will tell you, experience is a brutal, occasionally vicious teacher. Learn from everyone else’s mistakes. The best way I know of to learn. Listen to all the stories, and learn from them. That’s what it is all about.