When I did my flight from Calabria LICR to Boccadifalco LICP along the N coast of Sicily – here – the externally mounted camera got well covered with a sticky substance. Also the engine inlet air filter got covered with it. The top of the engine likewise. The fuel injectors (there was a mysterious problem once, starting on #4) got ultrasonically cleaned and a huge amount of crap came out; the Lyco injectors have an air inlet
The material was apparently not sand (from the Sahara, etc) because it was sticky and took a lot of wiping to get it off.
Could well be. The local volcano is quite active most of the time, this way or another. Even if eruptions are too weak to generate a VA Sigmet, you can still get some material in the air.
When the Islandic Volcano grounded Europe but for VFR, I did fly in this period and ended up with a malfunctioning Alternator two weeks later. That thing sits right in the air intake of the Mooney (something I am going to change by adding a cowl closure) and got the full exposure to that very dirty air. When sent for overhaul, they said all contacts had been full of a sticky and nasty brown substance. Unless some animal has misused my alternator as a whatsit and knew how to do that with astonishing target accuracy, my bet goes for volcanic ash. Mind, that was a couple of thousand miles away, so concentration was minimal (enough to totally ruin our phenological sensors however). So next to the Etna? My bet definitly is on VA.
Been there many times pro (CTA & PMO), and a few times privately, in and out of times of Etna activity, and never saw what you describe.
I did wonder if it was something “chemical”.
However, if it wasn’t for the camera deposit I would not have noticed anything. Nothing on the windscreen for example.
Just doing the Annual on the plane.
The engine parts are covered in a nasty sticky corrosive sludge. The pitot tube has also been somewhat “eaten”.
I was flying there at the same time and it will be interesting to see next month whether I got something of it although I haven’t noticed anything. The only difference is that I flew at much higher altitude.
The worst rate of accumulation was approaching Bocaddifalco from the east. The video I posted shows this.
As we could see in the Islandic Volcano crisis, people reacted the same as with Covid. Government was cautious and shut everything down, people “knew better” and shouted “fake news”.
We, who flew despite better advice, we SAW the consequences with our own eyes and pocketbooks. And were called names for publishing our findings. The Germans took until Monday to certify their sensor plane as the LBA had gone home for the weekend and measured once the gist of the ash had gone and concluded “no danger”, while those who did it on Friday, Saturday and Sunday got plenty of results. Still, we were called names.
VA is dangerous and expensive to clean, if at all possible. I lost my alternator due to this and, thinking back, possibly the shower of sparks box, which caused huge problems years later. Peter appears to have worse problems. This sounds 100% like that engine has been massively exposed to VA levels much higher than what we had from the Islandic volcano.
But of course, nobody will take measures to prevent people from flying into VA areas, even though they are known, too much money on the line.
No electrical issues. Just cleaning needed.
The pitot
What happened to your alternator?
Peter wrote:
What happened to your alternator?
It died about 2 weeks after the flight in question. When it was taken apart for overhaul, they found it was full of a brown sticky substance. In the end it was scrapped as cleaning it would have taken more time and $$$ than to exchange it with a similar one.
