Never heard it before until doing some researches. I am wondering why it has never been mentioned in any of the lights I flew on the sim. That feature is not present on every general aviation airplanes is it? I mean it's always there but is it not made automatically? When researching for it I found out that many instructors were quite surprised and amused to see how very few simmers were able to explain what this is.
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This is a good example of how getting right into simming a big jet can completely steer you away from what you need to know for flying GA planes safely. Failure to understand carb heat and correctly applying it will cause you an engine failure at the least convenient time one day!
- Some GA planes have a carb heat some don't - which are which and why?
- What is the relationship to carb heat and alternate air?
- Do planes which do not have carb heat still have alternate air?
- Do planes have an alternate air control if not a carb heat control?
- What information is necessary for you to apply partial carb heat?
- If you apply carb heat for a rough running engine, and the engine then runs worse, what should you do? Why? For how long?
- If you apply carb heat, and it's not enough, what two engine controls can you adjust to get a little more carb heat? Adjust how?
- When might you need to urgently apply carb heat, but have not encountered carb icing conditions?
- Why should you never use carb heat while taxiing?
- If your plane is equipped with an indicator associated with carb heat, what is that indicator?
- What does the yellow arc on that indicator mean? Where will the yellow arc be on the scale? Will there be any green or red lines on that indicator?
- Will a piston engined airplane which does not have a carb heat control always have an electric fuel pump? Why?
- Could an airplane which does have an electric fuel pump also have a carb heat control?
- Where does the heat resulting from the application of carb heat come from?
- If you have had an engine failure, will applying carb heat help you get it started again? Why?
- What would be a practical warm outside air temperature where you would be unconcerned about carb icing?
- What other atmospheric factors will affect carb icing?
- Can you get carb icing on the ground?
- If you're flying in very well below freezing air, is carb heat a risk?
Instead of an evening at the sim, invest that evening to research the foregoing questions, and come back to us with your thoughts. (Hint - one evening won't be enough!) What you learn about carb heat, the atmosphere, and induction systems to answer these questions will save your life one day, and please your instructor no end when you can articulate the answers correctly.
Depending upon how comprehensive your answer, I'll offer to make this into its own carb heat thread, 'cause it could very easily be its own topic. Your commitment to begin with this topic will get you a lot of wisdom from posters here with life experience with the use of carb heat (or not
).