From: bryan@intellistor.com (John Bryan)
Subject: Re: Frost Accumulation Summary
Organization: Intellistor, Inc.
Date: Tue, 12 Jan 93 17:05:34 GMT

In <1993Jan8.130113.10379@nlm.nih.gov> masys@nlm.nih.gov (Dr. Daniel R. Masys) writes:

>In article <3260@contex.contex.com> brian@porky.contex.com (Brian Love) writes:
>>
>>In what was close to a "Never Again" scenario, I put down in Du Bois, PA
>>(DUJ) this past Christmas day with about 1/4" of ice on the leading edges.

>Hey Brian, you must have punched through the same Alberta Clipper that
>I did on Christmas morning.   I was westbound over the eastern part of
>Ohio, bucking those smooth 50kt headwinds when it really hit the fan
>(literally).  Conditions went from a high thin overcast to a white out
>with blowing snow and moderate to severe turbulence in just a few
>minutes.

I suspect that this was the same storm that got me two days before.
Not quite the way it got you, though.

This is definitely my "worst-ever" trip, but it could have been much
worse, I suspect.  It wasn't really all that bad.

We had signed up for N5342A, the T-C210, for the trip to Chicago,
leaving Monday 12/21 (as I recall).  We got a call Friday to let us
know we weren't taking it anywhere on Monday; someone had cracked
another cylinder and burned up a part in the turbocharger by running
it too lean.  (Not me, thank goodness.)  The part was supposed to be
in by 10:00am Tuesday and installed in time for a 2:00pm departure, so
we planned on that.

Tuesday morning, I was told the part was in and being installed, and
we could go as planned.  Got to the club/FBO and found out they were
mistaken; it had been a part for another plane from the same place
(oops!) and we couldn't go that day at all in N5342A.  We debated
waiting a day and going Wednesday, but with no assurance the part
would actually arrive, that was shooting dice and we decided to check
out the other options.

I wanted to take the A-36 so badly I could taste it, but I've never
flown it or anything like it (Beech Sports 11 years ago probably don't
count for much); likewise the F33.  In the Cessna fleet, the best
available were three (!) 182s.  One of them had long-range fuel tanks,
bringing its range up close to that of the T210, so we diddled some
schedules around and took that.

Now I'd never flown a 182 before, although I've flown a 172 (once), a
172RG (many hours), and of course many hours now in 210s and T210s.
Club policy is that I could fly the 182 without an explicit checkride
provided the Chief Pilot had authorized it.  Sure enough, from some
months before when it looked like we'd have to revert to the 182, he'd
entered his authorization in my file.

I studied the book a while and then discovered that while we'd been
fiddling, a high-wind warning had gone into effect (chance of winds 50
knots gusting to 70 or more).  The actual winds were 22 gusting 35.
The linecrew said I (as an "experienced" pilot -- how would they
know?) could take a 182 out in winds up to 35 knots -- not one knot
more.  We waited for a lull in the winds, untied it, and off we went.

What was really annoying was that Stapleton, 12 miles away, was reporting
winds at 7 knots, and Centennial (20 miles away?) was reporting only 5
knots.  *sigh*

All that beating about the head and shoulders I got back at the
University of Illinois about taxiing in wind paid off (I think) --
even through the worst gusts nothing (bad) happened.  When we
completed the run-up, the wind had even shifted around to be nearly
straight down the runway.  "Great!" thought I.

"JeffCo Tower, 97848 ready to go runway 29R," I called.

"848 hold short for IFR release," they said.  I fiddled around some
more, and watched the windsock with a sinking feeling.  It shifted
around again, moving farther and farther from the runway orientation.
"Alas," thought I.

"97848, cleared to takeoff runway 29R, wind 220 at 22 gusts 30," he said.
The windsock looked more like 200, but hey.  We taxied out, sat briefly
through one gust, then off we went.

Quite a crab as we climbed out.

Anyway, we got underway pretty late (4:00pm as I recall) and I was
glad I'd just recently (21 days I think) done pretty thorough night
currency with my instructor.  And I was glad all the lights seemed
to work on 97848.

The autopilot was DIW (dead in the water).

However, there was something wrong with that plane.  The weight and
balance worked out all right, but it kept wanting to drift to the
left.  About the time I'd get the rudder trim set so it wouldn't do
that, it would start to want to climb.  I'd get that all settled in,
and then it would be drifting off to the left again, or the right.  I
fought the trim all the way to Cedar Rapids, where we arrived about
10:00 pm (30-50 knot tailwinds all the way!).  Uneventful landing (I
flared a little high, but the gear are shorter on the 182 than the
210); it worked out fine.  We talked about going on to Chicago that
night (arriving around midnight!), but the forecast for morning was
good VFR and so we checked into a hotel.

I looked out the hotel window the next morning, and discovered the
clouds were about eyebrow level, and fog to boot!  What happened to
my good VFR?

The ATIS (aren't handhelds great?) was reporting "100 foot ceiling,
sky obscured, visibility 1/4 mile in light snow and fog."  We decided
to have a nice long breakfast instead of the quick one we'd planned.

When we got to the airport, ATIS said "500 foot ceiling, sky obscured,
visibility 1 mile in fog."  That sounded a lot better, so I called the
FSS for a full briefing, and got 29 pilot reports of moderate to
severe icing near Waterloo, not too far away from Cedar Rapids.  I
called back 20 minutes later, and the briefer told me there were no
reports of icing.  I queried that, and he explained that pilot reports
expire after an hour (I knew that!), and apparently they'd all expired
in the past 20 minutes.  (He'd just come in, he said, and hadn't seen
any icing reports).  "Huh," I thought.  "Hmmm."

I decided to go.  Then I decided not to.  IFR in possible icing, in a
plane I didn't know and hadn't been very comfortable with the day
before?  That wouldn't hold trim, and the autopilot dead?  The
ceilings in the Chicago area sounded manageable (800-1000 most
places), but still...

We rented a car and drove to Chicago.

Probably the smartest flying decision I've ever made (well, turning
back to Des Moines some years ago, while still limited to VFR, when
clouds started to close in from all sides, may have been smarter) (but
maybe not).

Maybe I should have taken the 172RG with the long range tanks...
-- 
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