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ASRS 1853202

ACN 1853202 · 2021-11 · Cessna 150

Pilot flying C-150 aircraft reported loss of engine power in cruise. The pilot applied carburetor heat but the engine eventually lost more power. Pilot diverted and made a precautionary landing.

Pilot narrative

Verbatim, de-identified by NASA. Placeholders: ZZZ, X, Y.

We were flying in cruise and the engine began to run rough. I started my troubleshooting by turning on the carburetor heat. The engine started to run smooth so I turned the carburetor heat off. As soon as I turned it off the engine almost quit so I turned it back on. At this point it didn't seem to matter and the engine had lost most of its power. It never completely shutoff but I had a very significant loss of power. The engine would give me little bursts of power and then almost shutoff. I diverted and made a precautionary landing in fear I was going to have to land in a field. Luckily we had enough altitude to make it to ZZZ. When we landed we did a couple engine run ups on the ground. The engine seemed to run fine. We are waiting until tomorrow to fly it and are going to have a mechanic look at it to determine what went wrong and what actions need to be taken. We will not be flying it until that is done. I personally suspect carburetor icing that the carburetor heat could not keep up with. In the future I will be turning on carburetor heat every couple mins to prevent any trace of ice.

NASA classification · Anomalies

  • Aircraft Equipment Problem
  • Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural

NASA classification · Assessments

Contributing Factors / Situations
Aircraft · Weather
Primary Problem
Aircraft

ASRS reports are voluntary, de-identified by NASA, and represent the reporter's perspective; they are not investigated and cannot be used to infer prevalence. Authoritative source: asrs.arc.nasa.gov ↗