Mountain minimums

What Happened

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The mechanic later told me that the carburetor was basically falling apart from the inside out.

Safety Tip

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Personal minimums

The best type of accident is one that’s avoided. Are you prepared to make the right choices for the best outcome next time you fly? The AOPA Air Safety Institute’s online course Do the Right Thing: Decision Making for Pilots will help you sharpen your decision-making habits and develop a personal minimum checklist.

aopa.org/ft/decisionmaking

was scheduled to conduct a ferry flight the week of August 28, 2017. The job was to safely transport a 1946 ERCO Ercoupe from the seller at Rice Lake Regional Airport in Wisconsin (RPD) to the proud new owner at a private airstrip about 80 miles west of Phoenix, Arizona. The 1,320-nautical-mile trip would take about 16 flight hours over two and one-half days.

With thunderstorm season still in full swing, I knew it would be no small miracle to make this trip without weather delays. Fortunately, as launch day approached, the multi-day forecast showed an unusual strip of clear weather stretching all the way from Wisconsin to Arizona.

The seller had lost his medical certificate several years before. The Ercoupe had been well-maintained, receiving regular engine runs and an annual inspection every year, but had not actually been flown for a few years. After reviewing the maintenance logs, conducting a thorough preflight inspection, and carefully performing the run-up, I took the 71-year-old beauty to the skies.

One day and four fuel stops later, I found myself at Belen Regional Airport (BRG) in Belen, New Mexico, discovering that the afternoon thunderstorms between there and Phoenix were more active than expected. I quickly assessed the situation, prepared plan B (and plan C), and took off for my home airport in Phoenix (DVT). I would spend the night in my own bed, fly the last short leg to the private airstrip the next morning, and deliver the airplane to the new owner.

The morning was a beautiful, clear, hot summer day in Phoenix. After doing my best to clean 1,240 miles worth of our nation’s finest bugs off the leading edges of the Ercoupe, I departed for the last leg of the trip. Unfortunately, engine trouble led to two rejected takeoffs that both ended without incident (see “Flying Carpet: Powerless” July 2018 Flight Training).

The mechanic later told me that the carburetor was basically falling apart from the inside out. It was replaced and I eventually delivered the Ercoupe to the happy new owner without incident.

The actual engine trouble really didn’t bother me that much when it happened. What kept me awake at night was the “what-if” questions. Were there any other clues that the carburetor was failing? Had I missed something? The answer was no. There’s really no earthly explanation as to how that carburetor worked flawlessly for more than 15 hours before failing when and where it did.

I had disregarded my personal minimum of not flying single-engine piston airplanes over high mountains at night. The evening before the engine failures, I had to circumnavigate the thunderstorms between New Mexico and Arizona. I should have stopped short at an airport in northeast Arizona to spend the night. But after 14-plus flight hours with this smooth-running engine and the thunderstorms behind me, I failed to follow my personal minimums by flying the Ercoupe over high mountains at night, only to find out later that I had done so with a failing carburetor.