American mayday near Bella Bella......

Dusty 3 · Post by **Dusty 3** » Tue Nov 01, 2005 10:55 pm

We were on our way up to Prince Rupert today, and we heard this American single engine aircraft say his engine was out and losing altitude. Sounded like the engine would start then stop, happened a few times, then he had it going and was enroute to Port Hardy. Engine quit again, and had to make an emergency landing in Bella Bella. We heard he broke out of cloud or was able to see the airport somehow, landed on runway and the engine quit on rollout i think. Ceiling was suppost to be fairly low, and it didn't sound like he had any approach plates for Bella Bella. But who knows.

Hats off to the pilot, sounded really calm on the radio considering and he made it to the runway! Excellent job.

Helijet was on the ground there, lucky for him just in case something happened.

Anybody here anything on this

Out of Control · Post by **Out of Control** » Wed Nov 02, 2005 12:44 am

Sounds like a fuel issue. But who knows.
Keep us informed on the details

bcflyer · Post by **bcflyer** » Wed Nov 02, 2005 11:44 am

Scary thought running around in that part of the country IFR with only one engine... "shiver"

Hedley · Post by **Hedley** » Wed Nov 02, 2005 11:47 am

Coulda been fuel, or quite possibly carburetor ice. Either one is perfectly manageable by the pilot.

I'm not the sharpest tool in the shed, but I've never figured out why it's considered perfectly reasonable to fly a carbureted engine in the cloud without any indicator of carb icing, like a temp gauge, or even the simple binary light indicator system.

medby · Post by **medby** » Wed Nov 02, 2005 6:52 pm

Tail hook · Post by **Tail hook** » Wed Nov 02, 2005 10:08 pm

Got an a-mail from the owner of the aircraft in question. His pilot climbed to 13000 to get on top coming out of Alaska. Claims the air cleaner was dripping wet and he said it would't make steady power with the carbheat on. I didn't ask but I thought a 180 hp husky would be injected. descended IMC with a turn coordinater and Garmen 396.
Nobody hurt so maybe a lesson learned.

Hedley · Post by **Hedley** » Thu Nov 03, 2005 8:39 am

it would't make steady power with the carbheat on

Just a gentle reminder, people: when the carb heat goes on, the mixture goes rich, so you MUST lean the mixture when the carb heat goes on ... especially at 13,000 feet!

I thought a 180 hp husky would be injected

Nope, fuel injected aircraft are not popular in the backwoods. If the battery goes dead, you're screwed - you can't even prime to hand-prop it.

descended IMC with a turn coordinater and Garmen 396

I'll probably get yet another registered letter for mentioning this, but in an emergency, the emulated flight instrument panel of the Garmin 196/296/396 is updated sufficiently quickly by the CPU to allow a pilot to maintain control without visual reference or any other flight instruments.

The 396 is an awesome unit. Radar, metars and tafs anyone?

Cat Driver · Post by **Cat Driver** » Thu Nov 03, 2005 8:50 am

" I'll probably get yet another registered letter for mentioning this, "

Hedley, you could always wipe your ass with it and then "Return to sender "

linecrew · Post by **linecrew** » Thu Nov 03, 2005 9:51 am

Wow! The Garmin will do that too??!!