A short story from instrument training:(A)“You can look up now”, my instructor said calmly. As I pulled my hood off so I could see out of the front of the airplane, there was nothing calm about the situation. I was in the middle of a cloud, and I didn’t know which way was up! My body was telling me I was in a left decent, but was really in a right climb. My head was spinning. There was no use in looking outside; there was nothing to look at but white mist that stretched on forever. I look back at my instruments to stabilize the airplane and my spinning head. Soon after my instructor says, “Take a look at the leading edge”. Oh no, I thought. I glanced outside to confirm my fear; we were picking up ice.
Just as I thought, the leading edge, struts, and tires all had an opaque bumpy surface on them and I could now see why; we were in freezing rain. We were picking it up fast so I called ATC for a lower altitude and vectors back to Felts Field so we can get out of this. “Unable”… not what I wanted to hear. They directed us to an area where we could get lower, but we were over mountains at the time so we couldn't get any lower. Soon I needed more power than normal to keep the airplane in level flight. We were picking up a lot of ice adding a lot of weight. The engine sounded rougher. Must have blocked the air intake: not good. “Turn left heading 280… Turn right heading 010 descend 5000’…Turn left heading 360 to intercept final approach course, you are cleared GPS-A into Felts” AHHA! Music to my ears! We could get out of this stuff! Just as we descend to the lowest possible altitude we could go to get out of the clouds we could see the airport! “Cleared to land 22R”. Just like that we went from wondering if we should declare an emergency because we’re picking up way too much ice; to on the ground safely, no ice and sweaty armpits. I never felt so safe being on the ground.
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AuthorsWe are just a couple of kids from Iowa learning to trust Christ daily and aiming to serve Him though mission aviation. Archives
August 2023
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