Mooney pilot who survived crash due to CO poisoning shares his story

[mhoran]

Incredible story about a Mooney pilot who crashed due to CO poisoning and survived: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ebhig-vr9o.

My plane has the CO Guardian, which for the first few years of ownership did not work properly. We had it replaced a few years now, but I still have yet to have it wired into the audio panel. The G1000 also has the ability to integrate the CO Guardian into the PFD and annunciation system, though it requires wiring that Diamond never hooked up. The next time I'm at the avionics shop I plan to have one or both of these modes enabled.

I find it surprising that CO detectors are not mandated, as it's such a simple solution to a deadly problem. Last year the Power Flow inspection found a crack in our exhaust manifold. Had that not been detected, something very similar could have happened to me.

[Boatguy]

I used the Pocket CO detector for four years, but just switched to a Lightspeed Delta Zulu which has the CO detector built into the headset.

[smoss]

a simple $20 battery operated CO detector from Home Depot kept in the cabin probably works as well as any. I've used one as a backup for years, and it's plenty loud to hear through noise cancelling headsets and all (when test is occasionally hit accidentally).
https://www.homedepot.com/p/Kidde-Code- ... /312603985

[Steve]

Wow. I would have taken this guy to the nearest casino (after we stopped at a hospital for some 100% O2). Lots of things conspiring against this guy (long day, flight at night, the CO), yet he survived. I heard a similar story several years ago, where the pilot woke up on the ground. CO poisoning is insidious, to be sure. I also have the CO Guardian unit. Mine is wired into the audio panel, and I test it during the Annual Inspection.

[steve_falconer]

Thank you for sharing the story. Powerful. I also have a CO Guardian. http://guav.co/manuals/Guardian-Avionic ... 52-FMS.pdf

[ingramleedy]

Thanks for posting. For some reason I thought my g1000 nxi had carbon monoxide monitoring, but it appears this is an option not installed.

[dmloftus]

Unbelievably lucky guy. Our panel mounted unit frequently gives false alarms in hot weather (several DAN threads on this problem) and I consider it unreliable. I did not have it serviced at it's last TBO. I mounted the following unit on the dash, which gives an accurate numeric readout for $99. It even picked up some cleaner used on the Powerflow exhaust system burning off after annual.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B076S ... UTF8&psc=1

[dant]

I canceled a flight once because my Sentry sounded its CO alarm. Had the exhaust inspected by a mechanic, the whole deal. Come to find out, the sentry's CO sensor is unreliable when the sentry is charging. I don't know why, but it reliably fires CO warnings when I have it plugged in to the brick for charging. I bought something that looks very much like what David has and use it these days, though I must say I only really pay close attention in the first few flights after I start using the cabin heat (it's almost always off).