Pilot Injured In Cessna Skycatcher Forced Landing In North Carolina

The sport pilot reported that, while conducting a personal, cross-country flight and while nearing the destination airport, he reduced the engine rpm from 2,350 to 2,200 and began a slow descent from a cruise altitude of 3,500 ft mean sea level (msl) to a traffic pattern altitude of 2,800 ft msl. He added that the carburetor heat was not on at that time, and that, about 2 minutes later, he noticed that the engine had lost all power without any roughness or sputtering. The pilot turned on the carburetor heat, positioned the mixture to full rich, and confirmed that the fuel shutoff valve was not engaged; however, the engine did not respond, so he subsequently conducted a forced landing to a field, during which the right wing struck a fence, and the airplane came to rest inverted.

Postaccident examination of the airplane and the engine revealed no evidence of any preaccident mechanical malfunctions or failures that would have precluded normal operation, and the engine was successfully test run. The atmospheric conditions at the time of the accident were conducive to serious carburetor icing at cruise power, and the Pilot's Operating Handbook Descent Checklist instructed pilots to apply carburetor heat, as required, during descent. Therefore, it is likely that carburetor ice accumulated during cruise flight and that the pilot applied the carburetor heat too late to melt the ice, which resulted in the loss of engine power. The pilot stated that he did not fully understand the potentially subtle nature of carburetor ice.

Probable cause(s): The pilot's delay in applying carburetor heat, which resulted in a total loss of engine power during descent due to carburetor icing.

Note: The report republished here is from the NTSB and is printed verbatim and in its complete form.

Isabel GoyerWriter