Well, was it trimmed full down? If not - the you simply needed to trim it so it remained level. There is no way that the airplane will continue to climb properly trimmed - unless you W&B is so far back - this sounds like operator error to me.
I experimented with carb heat and mixture, nothing seemed to help when I would try to pull power to help keep it from climbing. I always made sure I was over or around some sort of airport when trying these things.
I made the decision that keeping it at 75% wouldnt hurt anything except making my arm fatigue a bit no worries. Trim was set do full down (is this okay?).
Something is wrong if your trim is full down and you are still climbing, your W&B is withing in limits and the controls are properly rigged.
2. After reaching my 2nd major checkpoint (KBAZ) it started to rain and my windshield was rolling the droplets off. I did not freak out as nothing was sticking to the windshield at that point. The OSAT was 27* so I was concerned of icing but this was my first time to fly in rain and below freezing so I stayed calm and vigilant. Always watching for signs of ice on my thinest surfaces, nothing was visable but I knew it was only a matter of time. 5 minutes pass into the rain and San Antonio Approach informed me that there was a Pirep north of pleasanton of freezing rain @3000ft. Not exactly sure what freezing rain looked like, I confirmed the report and explained that I was flying in rain myself which I wasnt sure if it could be classified as freezing or not because nothing was sticking to the wings.
At this point im cruising @ 165knots and I have 12 minutes till KPEZ. At any point I noticed ice on my leading edge I had planned to put it down at the nearest airport. San Antonio Approach told me I was clear from traffic to KEPZ and told me to change freq and squawk VFR. I didnt want to but did as I was told (I feld kinda vunerable switching to unicom) After the initial letdown of SA Approach kicking me off their freq I quickly realized that I can handle the situation by myself. Hell... I only had 10 minutes to go at this point. Those droplets were starting to stick to my windshield and disrupt my visability, not drastically but by at least 30-40%. I was on high alert for the rate of accumulation. Nothing visable on my wings, felt safe aside from windshield.
Pleasanton spotted, Blue water towers spotted south of runway. Announched trafic that I was inbound for runway 34 (winds 350@ 8 gusting 15)
At this point my windshield looks like I drove through a swarm of bee's and am having trouble seeing out of it clearly. Periphial vision is my friend right now.
Back to the engine sputtering when I pull power, I made the decision that due to having no traffic between me and the runway that I would get close to the right base but above pattern altitude @2500 (I figured that would allow me to make the runway if the engine quit)
Turned for long final obviously high, pulled power and to my amazement it was running perfect... Maybe I need to get better at leaning it out? Topic of discussion for the ride with my CFI.
[there is no possible way for ice to 'roll off' at temps under 32] while all ice melts at 32 it is possible for supercooled droplets to look like they are rolling when they are still ice. Also - Did you have the defrost on? This might warm enough of the windscreen that the local temperature is above 32 thus - you don't see ice.
Next time - if you are in rain and your OAT is showing 27F get your arse on the ground as fast as you can - you are very lucky.
Yeah, I wonder too how large a contributing factor that was.
