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Hey all,
Had a bit of excitement the other day and was hoping to see what you guys think. (Please forgive the book it took to tell the story!) I recently acquired a 1959 Cessna C-150 with a 0-200 to fly while my Taylorcraft is currently sitting sad, wing-less, and waiting for recover. The 150 was local and had been sitting for roughly two years in an open faced hangar prior to the day I picked her up. The plane had a pre-buy inspection and turned up nothing. It was then flown 10 minutes from a private strip to the airport where the annual was to be done. The flight was uneventful. The annual likewise turned up nothing of major concern. She then sat outside for about two weeks through two major rain storms before I was able to pick her up. The plane was fueled with 100LL prior to my arrival and due to pilot error I forgot to sump the tanks. The flight home was around 1 hour and 20 mins with 4 touch an go landings at an airport along the way. There was absolutely nothing abnormal about this flight and I arrived home without incident. The plane then sat in my heated shop for around a month or so with tanks a little over half full. I scheduled a BFR to maintain currency and the night before the flight I topped off the tanks with 87 octane ethanol free car gas and stored the plane back in the shop overnight. The next morning myself and a CFI departed from my private strip and again due to over sight the tanks went unsumped. We did 8 landings both full stop and touch and go at a near by airport and had been using the carb heat outside of the green arc. On the way back to my home we did a steep turn and a power on stall. At this time I pulled power out to perform a power off stall and carb heat was NOT applied. Within a second or two and with no observed sputtering the engine failed completely. The prop was also not windmilling. All attempts at restart failed. Luckily we were near my home out in flat farm country and we made a successful forced landing in one of my cut soybean fields about a half mile from my shop. After being on the ground about 5 minutes I gave her two shots of primer and a little throttle and she started and ran as if nothing had happened. Realizing my mistake I immediately sumped the tanks. I found no water but some small rust debris. There was great flow from the gascolator and nothing found in the screens. Upon further examination I found that the Silicon around the filler necks of the wing tanks was very shoddy and quite possibly could have let rain water enter the tanks, not to mention the possibility of condensation forming on the inside of the tank from sitting half full for a month. I also noticed a large build up of surface rust on the filler necks but the inside of the tanks show no signs of corrosion only very minor staining in small areas. Again I apologize for such a long post and for those of you still with me is it plausible that either water in the fuel or carb icing caused the engine to fail? Wouldn't it have to be a large shot of water to shut down an engine that fast? It just seems strange to me that there was no stammering or surging in RPM's but rather instant shut off. That day was a fairly high risk day for carburetor icing. Could carb icing form fast enough and great enough to shut down an engine after only a few seconds of idle power and no carb heat applied? Any information at all on this is would be greatly appreciated. I love flying and I love learning and I'm hoping to be able to keep doing both! Thanks to all in advance!
Adam McPeck
1950 Taylorcraft BC12-D N6627N
1959 Cessna 150 N7950E
Had a bit of excitement the other day and was hoping to see what you guys think. (Please forgive the book it took to tell the story!) I recently acquired a 1959 Cessna C-150 with a 0-200 to fly while my Taylorcraft is currently sitting sad, wing-less, and waiting for recover. The 150 was local and had been sitting for roughly two years in an open faced hangar prior to the day I picked her up. The plane had a pre-buy inspection and turned up nothing. It was then flown 10 minutes from a private strip to the airport where the annual was to be done. The flight was uneventful. The annual likewise turned up nothing of major concern. She then sat outside for about two weeks through two major rain storms before I was able to pick her up. The plane was fueled with 100LL prior to my arrival and due to pilot error I forgot to sump the tanks. The flight home was around 1 hour and 20 mins with 4 touch an go landings at an airport along the way. There was absolutely nothing abnormal about this flight and I arrived home without incident. The plane then sat in my heated shop for around a month or so with tanks a little over half full. I scheduled a BFR to maintain currency and the night before the flight I topped off the tanks with 87 octane ethanol free car gas and stored the plane back in the shop overnight. The next morning myself and a CFI departed from my private strip and again due to over sight the tanks went unsumped. We did 8 landings both full stop and touch and go at a near by airport and had been using the carb heat outside of the green arc. On the way back to my home we did a steep turn and a power on stall. At this time I pulled power out to perform a power off stall and carb heat was NOT applied. Within a second or two and with no observed sputtering the engine failed completely. The prop was also not windmilling. All attempts at restart failed. Luckily we were near my home out in flat farm country and we made a successful forced landing in one of my cut soybean fields about a half mile from my shop. After being on the ground about 5 minutes I gave her two shots of primer and a little throttle and she started and ran as if nothing had happened. Realizing my mistake I immediately sumped the tanks. I found no water but some small rust debris. There was great flow from the gascolator and nothing found in the screens. Upon further examination I found that the Silicon around the filler necks of the wing tanks was very shoddy and quite possibly could have let rain water enter the tanks, not to mention the possibility of condensation forming on the inside of the tank from sitting half full for a month. I also noticed a large build up of surface rust on the filler necks but the inside of the tanks show no signs of corrosion only very minor staining in small areas. Again I apologize for such a long post and for those of you still with me is it plausible that either water in the fuel or carb icing caused the engine to fail? Wouldn't it have to be a large shot of water to shut down an engine that fast? It just seems strange to me that there was no stammering or surging in RPM's but rather instant shut off. That day was a fairly high risk day for carburetor icing. Could carb icing form fast enough and great enough to shut down an engine after only a few seconds of idle power and no carb heat applied? Any information at all on this is would be greatly appreciated. I love flying and I love learning and I'm hoping to be able to keep doing both! Thanks to all in advance!
Adam McPeck
1950 Taylorcraft BC12-D N6627N
1959 Cessna 150 N7950E
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