GGURN PA31-350 ‘Panther’ Zurich to Leeds
The flight from Leeds to Zurich to collect the aircraft owner (RB) was uneventful except for some light airframe icing at FL090 during the last 150nm which was easily handled by the pneumatic boot system and the electrically heated prop system. This system heats the four boots on each prop in a sequence which heats two of the boots on each prop at a time and the subsequent current draw is portrayed on a dedicated ammeter.
Single crew IFR flight of this type is quite demanding and the arrival sequence at Zurich requires careful consideration not only due to the surrounding terrain but also managing the workload. After landing I was given a taxy sequence which was too much for me to remember whilst performing the after landing checks and grappling with the taxi chart. I remember a ‘Hold short’ instruction and had to ask the controller to repeat his instruction which was unusual for me and probably made me a little unpopular!
Having got to my stand, I went to Ops and encountered considerable difficulty filing my return Flight Plan. The routes to the Northwest included several ‘one way’ airways and my filing ‘DCT’ was not cutting the mustard with Swiss ATC and in fact the only plan that worked was to accept a departure towards Poland(!) and hope we would get a better routing. That, in fact, is what happened. As soon as we were through 3,000ft on departure, we got a track virtually direct back to Leeds.
RB was flying and he was very familiar and competent on ‘type’, nevertheless passing FL090 a huge flash appeared from the left prop followed by a ‘Catherine wheel’ effect of sparks and streaking electrical ‘hash’. RB was startled by the effect (as was I) and I asked him to pull the prop heat CB which immediately terminated the firework display. We both sat in silence for a moment and then I decided the likely cause was a ‘burn out’ of one of the boots on the prop and that we could continue the flight but gather some alternates enroute in case of any further issues.
We completed the flight without further incident and our landing at Leeds was uneventful. Subsequent examination did in fact reveal a single boot with a hole in it which presumably had caused a short. The prop appeared undamaged and continued in service for many hours. It could be argued that an immediate diversion may have been more appropriate however without passengers and with another pilot on board I felt on balance the likelihood of catastrophic failure of the prop was small and an acceptable risk.