Sort of akin to w= hat happened to the folks on the French Airbus who were driven from about 35= K into the sea in a perfectly good airplane because the pilots didn't know h= ow to recognize and deal with lack of airspeed indication. HELLO!!

My two cents.

John Barrett

Sent from my iPad

On= May 13, 2013, at 10:43 AM, Colyn Case <colyncase@earthlink.net> wrote:

Somebody is going to call me not a "real" pilot but in the i= nterest of getting from 99.995% safe to 99.999% safe (see my article this mo= nth) I'll say anyway that I personally won't launch IFR without:

functioning xm weather
fully functioning auto-pilot
accident stats say that adding a second pilot dramatically impr= oves safety. If you don't have that, auto-pilot is the next best thin= g.

"single pilot IFR is almost an emergency. = the first thing that goes wrong after that IS an emergency."

Colyn

On May 12, 2013, at 5:53 PM, Keith Smith wrote:

Hi Jim,

The heading hold isn'= t reliable and the alt hold eventually gets into a PIO after a few minutes, e= specially if you try to transmit on the radio. I've gotten used to doing 3 1= /2hr legs without it at this point. I engage it for brief periods if I= need to reorganize the cockpit or eat lunch.

Keith

On Wed, May 1, 2013 at 4:38 PM, James Collins &= lt;jcollins@snet.net<= /a>> wrote:

What happened To your a= uto pilot. I know you had one. Nice report. I've also seen some of your trip= s on YouTube always great.

=46rom Jim Collins iPad

On May 1, 2013, at 10:19 AM, Robert R Pastusek <rpastusek@htii.com> wrote:

Keith,
Very nice report. Did you notice that with the weather conditions you experi= enced, you normally pick up ice at/very near the cloud tops? I=E2=80=99ve no= ticed this to be true over a rather surprising range of OATs=E2=80=A6 Lesson= for me has been, don=E2=80=99t dawdle in and out of the tops=E2=80=A6

Bob

= From: Lancair Mailing List [ma= ilto:lml@lancaironline.net] On Behalf Of Keith Smith
Sent: Tuesday, April 30, 2013 7:58 PM
To: lml@la= ncaironline.net
Subject: [LML] challenging flight with the LNC2 yesterday

Flew the LNC2 to K= entucky today for the condition inspection. This was a tricky flight. I brie= fed the weather in some detail the night before to get a feel for tops (9-12= k along the route of flight), convective activity (none), likelihood of icing (possible above 9k), winds (hairy at 3= 0kt headwind initially, then 5-10kt later on).

Verified the weather this morning, then set off from N07-K24. Cleared route w= as "upon entering controlled airspace, direct Chatham NDB, vectors LANNA V30= ETX V39 MRB ESL V4 HVQ AZQ LOZ, direct."

Picked up the clearance via phone, told the controller I could depart VFR, h= e was happy to hear it, so off I went. This complicated things slightly as I= now needed to talk to Caldwell tower (KCDW) immediately after departure sin= ce my route of flight would take me through their airspace. The challenge would be to talk to them and get a= freq change to NY Approach before butting up against the next Delta, which w= as Morristown (KMMU). Caldwell cut me loose as I was passing abeam the tower= , so I checked in with NY Approach who quickly identified me, got me onto a 180 heading and climbed me to 7000= . Once they had me above the Newark arrival stream, they turned me west towa= rds SBJ (not on the original plan, but easily added to the flight plan and b= acked up with the VOR receiver a few seconds after that).

I spent the next 2 hours or so not being able to see a darned thing, which i= s pretty tiring when you're hand flying. The workload was absolutely relentl= ess between wind shifts, updrafts and downdrafts, monitoring outside air tem= ps, turning the ram air on and off when going in and out of precip, and monitoring inlet air temperature (= carb temp), employing carb heat, etc. I cannot stress the importance of havi= ng a carb temp gauge in non-fuel injected aircraft that flies IFR.

The first 2/3 of the flight generally took place at around 8000ft, almost en= tirely in stratus clouds with light to moderate precip and a smooth ride. It= 's hard to explain or recall the sights and sounds of the trip, but here are= the 3 most memorable parts:
1) Keeping close track of temps at 8k, 9k and then 10k, eventually hitting i= ce at 10k, dropping back down to 9k and watching the ice go "buh bye"....twi= ce.

2) Getting tired of being in IMC and in and out of performance-robbing cloud= s, I had a pretty good feeling that if I could get on top, life would be a l= ot better. I was able to get the climb from 8-10k but the controller said it= would be a few moments before he could get me higher. The OAT was dropping, and I knew I had a very, very= narrow window to get this climb done, or I was going to have to drop back d= own and try again later, or not at all). Just as the first crystals of ice s= tart forming on the canopy, I receive the climb to 11k. By then, the speed has wound up a bit, and I have= the ability to trade it for a quick zoom to 11k where I can sense by the ch= ange in lighting that I should pretty much be on top. Sure enough, at about 1= 0,800, with 115kias (ie, just about out of gas in the zoom), I pop out on top, the OAT immediately shoots= up to +6C and the ice quickly disappears. I have nothing but blue skies abo= ve, and every cloud I can see out to the horizon is below me. Success. I let= the speed wind up, carb heat off, ram air on and off we go in 'go fast' mode at last, free of the shackl= es of IMC. It was a calculated risk, and it paid off. My workload went down t= o near 0 for the next hour as I enjoyed the view. As it happens, the tops ev= entually dropped down to around 7k, but I stayed at 11k as the fuel burn was lower in any case and the wind= s were pretty light by that point.

3) best descent phase I think I've ever had...continuous descent from 11k do= wn to 3600ft for the IAF, except for one level off at 6k to bleed off some s= peed prior to entering the tops again, in case the ride wasn't as smooth. Sh= ot RNAV RWY 17 approach at around 180kias because I knew it would be VMC below 3k and I was planning on doing= a low approach to greet my friend at the field anyway. Broke out, got 500ft= below the clouds while remaining on the approach, canceled IFR. Spotted wha= t I thought was the field, but the angle didn't quite right. It was close, but not quite. I was on the fin= al approach course, but the airport looked slightly off center and the runwa= y was about 20 degrees off. I double checked the plate to see how the final a= pproach course related to the runway orientation and noted it was straight in. I looked more closely outs= ide and noticed the airport dead ahead, about 1.5nm away. I left the power w= here it was, pitched down a little more and savored the 215kias low approach= that followed. Slow pullup at the end (actually, at that speed, it was more a case of releasing some of t= he pressure on the stick, allowing the plane to do what it wanted to do whic= h was climb). 700ft into the climb (a few seconds later), start the crosswin= d turn, power to 12" and set myself the challenge of not touching that again since the winds were practi= cally dead, making for a very predictable pattern. Gear...flaps, base, more f= laps, what an amazing view. Turned a 1/4 mile final (tight pattern today), o= ne more GUMP check and a nice touchdown to end a truly interesting flight.

What struck me after landing was that this was a really challenging flight, n= ot because of stick & rudder, but because of the thought process and dec= ision making a long the way. I could've absolutely stayed at 4-6k the whole w= ay, been miserable, flown slowly and gotten there in one piece, but took a calculated risk to get on top and= then reaped the rewards with a much reduced workload.

It also occurred to me that flying by reference to instruments for 2 hours s= traight was tiring, but not especially difficult. I can definitely credit th= e simulator with having helped with that task. I fly a couple of times a wee= k (enroute and approaches) and never feel rusty when getting in the airplane, even if I haven't flown in I= MC for 4-5 months.

If you're thinking about getting an instrument rating but haven't done it...= you're missing out on whole new world of sights, sounds, utility, challenges= and fun. Do it!

Keith Smith