PA34-200T
My client ‘PR’ worked for a tech company in Cambridge and needed to fly himself and two colleagues to Oporto for a meeting. PR had Multi Rating but low experience on PA34 so I went along as ‘safety pilot’.
We departed Fowlmere at lunchtime for Bournemouth to clear customs for Bordeaux. Unfortunately, soon after leaving Hurn the PTT button became disconnected and we had to drop into Jersey for a repair. This delayed us a couple of hours and we finally left Jersey at 1815 for Bordeaux. It was now dark but smooth air and we landed at Bordeaux at 2025hrs.
A quick ‘Croque Madame’ and refuel and we departed Bordeaux 2125Hrs for Oporto. We climbed to FL090 towards Biarritz and one pax noticed some flashes below, similar to lightning! It was the French Navy firing range below! This was going to be an approx 3.5hr flight and pax feel asleep. Unfortunately, one of them awoke during some turbulence and had to ‘catch’ his Croque Madame in his raincoat… We opened the air vents!
I was trying different levels at San Sebastian to find smooth air when I noticed it was raining with OAT-15C the rain was freezing on contact. We climbed to FL130 before we were ‘on top’ but at least the clear ice accretion had stopped! The ice remained on the airframe and part of the windshield for 200nm. Unfortunately ‘boots’ are not much of a defence against this kind of icing.
Eventually the sky became clear and we were able to descent to FL070, the ice went and the temperature increased. Both rear pax asleep. We touched down at Oporto at 0040hrs and got a taxi to our hotel and I was glad to get to bed!
We were scheduled to fly back the day after, so I was able to rest as again it was going to be predominately a night flight departing Oporto 1645hrs routeing Nantes and then to Luton arriving at 2355hrs. Mission accomplished. PR is now ‘Big Cheese’ at Gransden Lodge Glider site. I f you bump into him remind him of 3rd Feb 1991 when we were bumbling around Northern Spain in the middle of the night in a PA34!