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Took a short 17 mile gyro flight to a near by airport this morning was running 4800 rpm on my 914 Rotax, all of a sudden the rpm dropped to 4400, few seconds later it jumped back up to 4800. It did this about 5 times over the next few minutes. My opinion it was carb iced and as soon as I got on the ground and stopped I looked at both carbs and they were dripping wet and a couple drops water in the drip pans, they were ice cold on the outside. I felt of the turbo and it was fairly hot to the touch and continued to move my hand up feeling the whole system and everything felt cooler as I moved away from the turbo. Ceiling was about 1-k and I was flying at the base of the clouds. It was very humid, when it is humid I can hardly adjust my seat belt as it does not want to slide.
About one hour later on departure for home the ceiling lifted, the belt adjusted easily and all run smooth on way home. Did not think the 914 would ice up ??
  • Re: RPM loss

    by » 6 years ago


    Being a gyro I assume your engine is uncowled? The main reason most of us do not have carb ice issues is we have tightly cowled engines with the carbs located up high where it is quite warm. With an uncowled engine I would personally never operate it without carb heat; either the Rotax airbox system, or the hot water carb manifolds.

  • Re: RPM loss

    by » 6 years ago


    Thanks for your reply, on my RPM loss. Yes you are correct the engine is in the open, very few Gyroplanes are enclosed although the numbers are growing, I have put 514 hours on my 914 engine without a hint of ice, but I have owned four fix wing aircraft where I almost lost the engine twice after I turned the carb heat on.

    Thanks

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