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.

Date: 2021-11 · Aircraft: Cessna 150 · Phase: cruise

Anomalies: aircraft-equipment-problem-critical|deviation-discrepancy-procedural-published-material-policy

Synopsis

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.

Narrative

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.

Source: NASA Aviation Safety Reporting System (public domain). Reports are voluntary submissions and are not verified by NASA.