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Carb heat during landing

My practice has depended a lot on the engine and installation. When learning to fly my Luscombe I learned quickly to turn on carb heat a little bit before reducing power because the little Continentals are renowned ice makers and the carb heat airbox was not that big. Once you had the carb good and warm, the power could be reduced and nothing bad would happen. On a go around, your right hand could push throttle open and carb heat off in one motion, and everything went well.

On my current plane with an O-320 Lycoming,
the manufacturer guidance is to use “as required” and I’ve learned that it’s rarely necessary. The only time I’ve had carb ice is when taxiing out with a cold engine, before takeoff. I’ve never had symptoms of carb ice in flight and don’t typically use carb heat for approach in my warm climate.

Last Edited by Silvaire at 10 Jul 22:10

The FAA state carb ice cannot occur above 25C.

Have they not flown out of Galveston in the summer then?? 30+degC and you can SEE the humidity…

Regards, SD..

skydriller wrote:

you can SEE the humidity…

Sure, but the question is if the temperature drop in the carburettor is large enough to form ice when the OAT is +30°C.

ESKC (Uppsala/Sundbro), Sweden

I can see there’s just as much debate and just as little consensus here as there is anywhere else. I think I’ll stick to my habit of carb heat when reducing power for descent in the circuit, then turning it off on rollout or go around. I don’t hear any real downsides to doing so.

EHRD, Netherlands

It’s when things becomes irrelevant that we make all sort of arguments I pull carb heat when I throttle back, I push it when I go full power as the associated hand mouvement with two fingers is natural…

Carb heat & flaps & mixture are those things that fall under “as necessary or as required” in the checklists, there are two schools: 1/ those who will teach you to always leave this way as not to forgot and 2/ those who will teach to use it as necessary: in my aeroclub, the SOP is to fly with mixture full rich all the time and set carb heat HOT on descent and set carb heat COLD at 100ft agl ready for the go-around, irrespective of conditions, my understanding the end goal is to make sure “people do not to forget it” NOT “make good use of it”

Last Edited by Ibra at 11 Jul 12:10
Paris/Essex, France/UK, United Kingdom

We had the engine stop in our PA28-180 on short final when the pilot failed to use carb heat. On checking the graph in the attached CAA notice, he was in prime icing conditions.
https://publicapps.caa.co.uk/docs/33/20130121SSL14.pdf
20130121SSL14_pdf

Avionics geek.
Somewhere remote in Devon, UK.
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