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IMC Emergency

Started by bvillepig, January 07, 2015, 07:19:01 pm

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bvillepig

Apologize for being long.

In late September I flew down from HKA for a business meeting. I had to pick my way down through typical afternoon buildups and got the visual into Sebring. I was in an out of clouds and rain for the last hour of the flight and it was pretty easy and fun instrument flying.

On the return trip I studied the weather and figured out my route to avoid the worst buildups as Central Florida was really getting socked in with some nice buildups across the whole state.

I was in control of Miami Center but I could not get my clearance on the ground.  I took off from Sebring VFR but had to stay at 1800 because Miami was so busy I could not get the next clearance higher and would have been in the clouds. Finally I was able to get my clearance and climb but they re routed me to the north into the heavier rain. After I leveled off at 10000 my engine started vibrating very hard and I started to lose power from 63% all the way to 20%. I also lost airspeed from 170 down to 110 during this time.

I went through a few checks but could find nothing wrong other than the  Manifold Pressure and the Engine Vibrating very bad. I thought the prop was coming apart so I declared an emergency. I was in hard rain and clouds.

Within a few seconds after declaring I lost my two GPS and auto pilot. I asked Tampa for vectors to nearest airport and they gave me a 090 heading to Lakeland.  In the transition to hand flying and no MFD moving maps or garmins and trying to troubleshoot what was happening I had began to get somewhat spatial disoriented.

  I made the decision to just fly the airplane and forget about trying to troubleshoot the MFD and the two 430's. I started circling down from 10000. For some reason I chose to turn from 360 to 090 the long way. I pulled the power and got the airplane stable at about a 600 FPM decent and 120 knots. The vibration stopped at around 4000.

I broke out of the clouds at about 1800 on a left base for LAL.  It was a tough 12-15 minutes. I will never forget the tower at Lakeland saying "Welcome to Lakeland" after I touched down. I asked him to thank the controller at Tampa who did a great job. I crossed the threshold onto the taxiway and stopped for a couple of minutes just to clear my thought process. I was having a real hard time concentrating on switching from tower to ground and doing small task that are normal.

The FAA contacted me about a week later to file a report. 
I have not commented on this till now because the report was still open. A couple of weeks ago they closed it and found no fault with me.

The mystery is why all of his happened? We still don't have an answer and I have another 15-20 hours on the airplane.

In summary this really took me be surprise and even though I handled it I won't say it was smooth. There were quite a few moments and adrenaline rushes.  I am glad I did not have my wife or kids with me. It was very hard for me to get back in the plane the next morning and climb through the layer. It had rained all night in Lakeland and had turned into 1400 ovc all the way to central Mississippi.  Fortuneatly tops were at 3500 so I was in clear blue sky all the way home.

I think I will be a little better prepared if there is a next time but it has changed my thought process on making decisions for flying in weather. 



This is the report filed to the FAA

I was cleared to 10 Thousand and in cruise flight when the aircraft began to vibrate abnormally. I began to lose power . The Oil Temp was normal and the engine pressure was normal. I pulled the power back and the vibration diminished. I increased the RPM to normal cruise and the aircraft vibration increased. I called Tampa Center and asked for the nearest field declaring an Emergency. Tampa cleared me to Lakeland where I descended in IMC conditions and landed without incident.

I asked for the nearest maint shop and was given taxi instructions to Flight Level Aviation. I went next door to Aero Mech and waited on the owner a chief mechanic. The owner and chief mechanic Ken pulled the aircraft to the shop and started the aircraft. He ran the engine through all checks and went to full takeoff power . Engine ops were normal and all gauges were normal. He taxied around the ramp for approximatly 20-30 minutes with everything normal. We shut the engine down and restarted and repeated the process.
Everything was normal. Ken's analysis was possible vapor lock or fuel contamination. Possibly water.
It was around 7:30 Pm when he finished so i decided to get a room and spend the night file a flight plan for the next day and return home. The flight home everything was normal.

gotyacovered

Wow... That could have ended very differently!

My first thought was carb icing, helps to have a carb, though;D

Did you take on fuel and sump at HKA? When I'm at a really busy field and do a quick turn around trip (fly down, go to meeting, fly back), I usually don't, maybe i should change that!
You are what you tolerate.

 

GusMcRae

That would have had me puckering and doing some serious "get a grip" talking to myself.

I thought the same thing about carb ice, but didn't figure it had a carb, so scratch that.

I think I posted awhile back, when my 182 was down for something, made the too long xc trip to Brady in the C-150, cruising along fine at altitude and engine started losing RPM with some roughness,,,,, got that adrenaline rush and rapid heart rate for a sec,,, pulled carb heat and it cleared up.  Dang sure got my attention.  Only time I know I had carb ice.

I've had a couple of other instances that I haven't posted that got my attention too.  Might save those to tell over a beer someday when I meet some of you guys.   
It ain't dieing I'm talking about Woodrow,,,, It's living!

Being a pilot isn't all seat-of-the-pants flying and glory. It's self- discipline, practice, study, analysis and preparation. It's precision. If you can't keep the gauges where you want them with everything free and easy, how can you keep them there when everything goes wrong?

Ragnar Hogbrok

Good on you for deciding to fly the airplane.  A lot of pilots have ended up trouble shooting all the way to the scene of the crash.

Making timely decisions and doing the basic instrument flying will save your life.  If your GPS goes out, that's a definite pucker factor since we all depend on them so much.  But, that HSI, VSI, turn and slip indicator, heck even the mag compass can save your life.
"Every normal man must be tempted, at times, to spit on his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin slitting throats." ― H.L. Mencken

Hogville prediction formula:

1.  Insert bad news prediction. A loss, a recruit going elsewhere, a coach leaving, etc.
2.  Tag "hope I'm wrong," on the end.
3a.  Enjoy a correct prediction.
3b.  Act like you're relieved you're wrong and celebrate with everyone else.

bvillepig

It is fuel injected so it wasn't carb ice. The mechanic think's it was vapor lock or water got in the system.  I did sump in the rain at Sebring but did not watch the truck fuel. They did not fuel when I got there. They put in the fuel just before I departed when I reminded them.  I have no experience with water and fuel so I don't know how much can cause the engine to feel like its coming apart.

The main thing I found was that for me it was very hard to do very many tasks at all for a period of time. I have over 1500 hours with the Garmin and the autopilot buttonology. It is second nature for me but during these moments I had a terrible time just programming KLAL into the garmin. Then when I lost the garmin I tried to push the heading bug and get the plane turned toward LAL. The heading bug had no affect. The plane was headed toward a feel I did not like so at that point I realized I was getting into deeper trouble and just flew the adhars. It seemed like an eternity before I broke out.

I am trying to study vapor lock. Some of the IO550 Cont guys say to keep the boost pump on all the time. I was flying the airplane per the POH. Boost pump on during climb and off in cruise.

Does anyone have any experience with water in fuel or vapor lock?

theFlyingHog

I used to sling Jet-A so I can say it's pretty hard to get water if it came from a truck, unless they have a major problem with the fuel being saturated. There should be enough steps and waiting periods that most water would get to the sumps. I have had lots of water in a tank(DA-20) when it was left mostly empty overnight with perfect condensation conditions. Had it fueled up and I shook the plane pretty good before I sumped, got three full tubes of straight water

pigture perfect

Wow, glad you made it home. I don't blame you for not wanting to get back in the cockpit aftre that.
The 2 biggest fools in the world: He who has an answer for everything and he who argues with him.  - original.<br /> <br />The first thing I'm going to ask a lawyer (when I might need one) is, "You don't post on Hogville do you?"

GusMcRae

That's weird you had the GPS outage along with the rough engine,,, seem completely unrelated. 
My alternator went out once and I started dropping avionics in the order of unit pulling the most juice first,,,, 430 first, #2 radio next, then transponder,,, had some battery left in the aera 560 for awhile, but eventually it died, iPad lasted almost all the way home.  Initially thought it was avionics issue, but eventually figured out it was the alternator. 
It ain't dieing I'm talking about Woodrow,,,, It's living!

Being a pilot isn't all seat-of-the-pants flying and glory. It's self- discipline, practice, study, analysis and preparation. It's precision. If you can't keep the gauges where you want them with everything free and easy, how can you keep them there when everything goes wrong?

bvillepig

Quote from: GusMcRae on January 09, 2015, 09:25:40 am
That's weird you had the GPS outage along with the rough engine,,, seem completely unrelated. 
My alternator went out once and I started dropping avionics in the order of unit pulling the most juice first,,,, 430 first, #2 radio next, then transponder,,, had some battery left in the aera 560 for awhile, but eventually it died, iPad lasted almost all the way home.  Initially thought it was avionics issue, but eventually figured out it was the alternator. 
On the Avionics some of the Cirrus are plagued with P static build up issues. The Cirrus does not have static wicks and I was in pretty hard rain. I just don't have enough experience in these "plastic airplanes" lol.