Hi Everyone

Coming from a warm climate I am not used to snowy conditions and was flying into Calgary today when I had a double engine flameout and promptly dumped it into a field.  I am not sure myself or my virtual passengers survived.

The worrying part is I don't know where I went wrong.  Airframe and prop deice were on and intake doors illuminated green saying closed.  My understanding is this ensures that the airflow is not choked off by show and ice.  I don't recall reading anything about an engine anti ice system but maybe I missed it.

Can anyone offer any thoughts?

Cheers

Barra

Sure it was ice? You didn't run out of fuel?

you've certainly got the engine intakes stucked by the snow.

Be sure to open ENG BYPASS DOORS (overhead) in snowy conditions, or the engines risk to flame out.

You also need to have them open to start the engines if it's particularly cold. Operators do different things but Flybe for example leave them open all the time.

Hi Everyone

i went back through the documentation and realised my mistake with the bypass doors.

Are snowy conditions the only time the bypass doors should be opened? What about heavy rain? Also here in Australia should they be used on gravel runways to avoid FOD ingestion? Documentation is a little sketchy on their use.

The bypass also uses heaters, are they automatically switched on at all times during use or do they have a sensor that detects cold conditions and switches them on and off accordingly?

Cheers

Barra

The official guidance in the FCOM is to open the doors during:

 

Icing conditions (inc when ICE DETECTED is displayed on the ED)

Heavy rain

Areas prone to bird activity

Contaminated runways (guess this includes gravel)

 

Or you can leave them on all the time, as Flybe and other operators do.

 

HTH.

Thank you Ben for the information, I obviously don't have access to the FCOM.

Not sure them permanently open would be an option in warmer climates such as Qantas Link however I can see the point in colder wetter climates.

Thanks once again.

Barra 

@Barra,

 

The information relayed by Ben and Samdim are correct.  Make it habit to have the engine intake doors open all the time, especially during icing conditions.  The doors act as an exit route for FOD to help prevent it from entering the engine.

At Colgan we operated with doors open all the time, until we found out that leaving them open after pre-flight lead to the secondary heater mats burning out quickly as they're already trying to be energized when AC power is applied. We changed our procedure to only open them during icing conditions. But the above is correct- it can be a good route for FOD to exit, so you'll never go wrong leaving them open.

Good example......for the reason our operation leaves them open. 

 

RW application: -

Just as we flared  with the mains already on the ground our aircraft hit 3 birds which struck the no.2 engine props and we ingested a bird(s)into the engine intake.

 

Severals hours later when our mechanics arrived to perform the bird strike inspection and possibly boriscope the engine (inthe event of ingestion), they determined that the bird(s) all exited via the engine intake bypass door and were not injested into the engine.

great reason to keep them open!