3
« on: November 18, 2007, 11:33:35 AM »
Night VFR?
After a trip to Livermore CA, I delayed my return flight until the 100+F temps got down to a reasonable 90. Before leaving, I put in 10 gallons each side as insurance and headed home, but by delaying the departure time I was left with about 1 hour of night flying during the 2 hour trip. The Long was running perfectly so I was confident and enjoying the beautiful trip over the mountains, taking pictures and listening to the O320's steady beat.
Thirty miles out, 7,500msl - 3,000agl, over mountainous terrain and very dark I was decending east of Mt Shasta for LMT with scattered rain showers. I could see the lights of home between the cells when the engine stopped producing power completely. The VSI showed 1000 down and rain was rattling on the canopy. No roads, no lights under me and a poor daytime memory of what the gound looked like for a forced landing. I went through the emergency checklist mentally, circut breakers, mag check, carb heat, full throttle, mixture rich, best glide speed, aux pump, switch tanks (1/2 full each), scan instruments, nothing wrong and still going down. So, I flipped on the landing light, declared an emergency with the tower and started "looking" for a place to set down. Outside the canopy and below, it all looked black.
On the Garmin, I could see a road and headed for it but could not see any car lights or anything that I could line up on so I was going to shoot a night gps approach to a road that was invisible.
As a last resort, I did some heavy stick work and jinked the airplane abruptly in all directions hoping to get some fuel into the lines and get power back. It worked! The Lyc started popping and by playing with the throttle and mixture, I got 1500 to 1700 rpm which was enough to limp to the airport. After shutdown, I sat in the cockpit for a long time until the shaking stopped and went over the possibilities that could cause engine failure. At first I thought it was carb ice.
The next day, I checked the fuel system screens and found what looked to be very fine steel wool and some brass particles in the gascolator and carb inlet screen. I suspect I picked up some bad fuel and almost bought the farm because of it. This is something you can't plan for except to 'rock hop' from one potential forced landing area to the next while maintaining your basic heading. Tough to do at night.
My rule of NO night flying has been reinstated.
Show Posts