Yep, I've had that happen a couple times in
heavy snow - you get a slug of the wet stuff and just about the time you're
trying to remember where the alternate air source is, the thing fires right back
up.
Those experiences (for me) were the extremes
and occurred when I decided to go into heavy precip in pretty hard IFR
conditions over mountain passes where there's lots of unstable air. These
conditions were forecast and reported during my weather brief. I
essentially knew the risks I was taking. I'm not saying this a a good
thing for every new IFR pilot to do, or for that matter, for most IFR trained
pilots to ever do. I'm comfortable with it sometimes, but I doubt if many
pilots are or even should be.
But there is one HUGE gap between flying in
these conditions and not flying in the clouds ever, or even not flying in
the clouds unless you have a low marine layer with no zero degree temps, etc,
etc. as has been suggested in related postings. There are a
myriad of IFR days with below freezing temps where you can fly IFR, avoid almost
all risky encounters and still get from A to B MORE safely than trying to
dodge the clouds and get there VFR. I've had some friends and
acquaintances over the years who tried to fly VFR when they should have gone IFR
and I miss them now that they're dead.
I'll say it again - the engines don't stop
running just because they encounter the clouds!
Regards, John Barrett Barrett/Garrett Enterprises,
Inc. PO Box 428 Pt. Hadlock, WA 98339 www.carbinge.com
Well actually. I was climbing out on a missed approach
and hit a wall of rain that
killed the engine. I put the nose down and looked
where the runway should be and it
started up again. Still fly IFR
though.
David Lowry
----- the
engines don't stop running just because they encounter the
clouds.
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