AirDorrin

March 18, 2000

I learned an awful lot on this trip. Susan L. helped me get organized from Dawn’s perspective. I was being timid about over-reserving the airplane. She told me instead of waiting until the last minute Friday night, schedule the airplane all day Saturday and from 6 to 8 pm Friday night as well. That way, I could pick up the keys and ensure it was all ready to go. Since the weather got very cold again, I also was given a phone number for the overnight guy, so that I could call and ask him if the airplane needed de-icing. Finally, I made sure that the gate key actually was working, so that I would not get locked on the airport after hours (this happened once not too long ago.

Come Saturday morning, I realized that by leaving before 7 am, the tower would not be open and I’d have to taxi out myself. The real problem was not knowing exactly what to do about getting an IFR clearance to leave. I decided that I’d try ground anyway just to be damn sure they were not open, then try the listed approach frequency in the absence of a clearance delivery frequency. This turned out to be a moot point when I noticed that ATIS had been updated and therefore ground control and the tower was operating [I probably should have read the A/FD and discovered that it opened at 6am].

The airplane was full of fuel and had 1.5 quarts of oil inside in case I needed it. I set up my GPS, picked up my IFR clearance, taxied out and we were off! The takeoff was just fine in this airplane. I did have problems with the pilots seat sliding back a notch, which could really surprise an unwary pilot. I instructed John that if this were to happen on final approach, I would pass the plane to him and he was to APPLY FULL POWER AND GO AROUND.

We lifted off and experienced no difficulties with the seat. Following my IFR clearance to climb on RW heading to 2000, I call Philly approach. I had filed for 6000 to accommodate my mostly western course (“east is odd”), and philly call right back ‘climb to 6000, continue on course’.

‘Cool’ I thought, we are on our way without too much difficulty. Everything was in the green, times were recorded and the next two things for me to do were to climb to altitude and stay on course – pretty straight forward piloting. The GPS 195 gave me an excellent situational awareness of my intercept angle with my southwestern course that would lead me to my son and North Carolina.

Climbing through 4,000 feet I felt my body shift forward, much like you’d feel if you were driving down the highway and absent-mindedly reduced foot pressure on the accelerator. Amazingly, the pathways in my brain begain processing what I was feeling and associated it with carbeurator icing. Without delay I reached over and move the red carb heat lever to the FULL ON position. The engine started running rough immediately, followed by a CHUNK as the accumulated ICE was drawn into the engine. The entire episode was a learning highlight of this 6 hour flight, and was over 10 seconds after it began.

I asked John to look up in the manual how long I should leave the carb heat on, and the book said 1 minute. It hadn’t occurred to me to ask that question before, since I NEVER EXPECTED TO EVER EXPERIENCE CARB ICING. After about 3 minutes I turned it off. The only thing I was certain of is not to leave it on partially – though I now have one instructor (Tom L.) who insists that partial carb heat is okay…. I think not.

We continued our flight heading towards Salisbury and Snow Hill. I had chosen out route to include Cape Charles and Harcum (HCM) to minimize my overwater crossing. My times so far were dead on to both what was predicted in my flight plan, and what the GPS195 told me after level off. If I didn’t mention that I need to be more oranized with my inflight record keeping, I will.