Prop Icing! + pics

[Sky King]

28 degrees, thick fog, right at sunrise, I was hoping to get some spectacular shots and video breaking above the fog. Flew low at first then ascended considerably to try to get above the fog. No break in sight so time to come down. Descending, my P3P seemed a little louder than normal. As I finally got it to about 300' and stopped when I saw it, it started to yaw. Obviously gave my heart a race thinking it would crash or take off. It did it 2 or 3 times when I would stop the descent. Scary! The good news is that I was right over head. As I descended slowly, I did a hand catch as always and then noticed the icing on all 4 props! No wonder it was acting weird! In almost 2yrs of flying Phantoms, even in sub zero temps, this is the first time I have "iced." Just another experience, I'm glad I got a good landing out of.

 

[Jeff48920]

Glad your phantom made it home.
Most times flying in low temps also means flying in low humidity. Mix fog and subfreezing temps will cause this every time. You need to be careful also in high humidity and slightly above freezing temps as the conditions generated by the prop speed will cause icing also. Finally, temps aloft are going to be generally significantly lower than ground temps.

 

[flyNfrank]

That's actually a cool pic.

 

[DeputyDrone]

You discovered what has brought down many airplanes in the past.

 

[Sky King]

You discovered what has brought down many airplanes in the past.

I've been a wing "watcher" flying right seat before! It can reduce lift to near zero very quickly. So, maybe we need winter props with microscopic heater elements on them? LOL

 

[Mark_DeKruyter]

Cool, thanks for posting that.

 

[phantom13flyer]

I'm glad she made it home. Thank you for sharing .