Newly minted Instrument Rated DA40 pilot

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carym
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First Name: cary
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Re: Newly minted Instrument Rated DA40 pilot

Post by carym »

Charbie wrote:Colin, read both of your icing stories. Very informative and will stick in my memory.
Icing is nothing to fool with, even in a FIKI plane. I have lived in the upper midwest all my flying career (Minnesota and now Indiana) and have been in icing situations many, many times. Two years ago I was taking an Angel Flight passenger (who was a weather man) from St Louis to his appointment in Columbus OH. We hit some ice at 7000 feet before getting to Dayton OH. I turned my de-ice to "normal" but the rate of accumulation became worse and I had to turn it up to "high". Ice was flinging off the props and banging on to the fuselage (which led to multiple areas of damage on the ice shield). I tried contacting ATC (Dayton approach) 3 times to ask for a lower altitude but they never got back to me. I was ready to declare an emergency on the 4th call when they got back to me, but still wouldn't let me go lower because of other traffic going into and out of Dayton. We did make it safely to Columbus OH, but there was several inches of ice on some of the unprotected surface, and some ice remaining on the de-iced surface. The icing forecast was for the possibility of light ice only. This was moderate to severe (based on the rate of accumulation). I have had one other severe event in a non-deiced C310 (which is why I made sure my next plane was FIKI certified).

Please, if you do not have de-ice equipment on board stay out of all potential icing situations. You can never be sure when you will encounter ice that is beyond the capability of your plane. I don't want to read about a DA40 that went down because of icing.
Cary
DA42.AC036 (returned)
S35 (1964 V-tail Bonanza)
Alaska adventure: http://mariashflying.tumblr.com
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Colin
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Re: Newly minted Instrument Rated DA40 pilot

Post by Colin »

"Several inches of ice" on any surface would have me too nervous to get back in the plane for a return trip. I'd be in a hotel. Probably until June.

The TBM 700 that crashed in New Jersey in Dec 2011 was due to icing. It's an INCREDIBLY capable plane. The pilot was in icing and knew it and was asking to get up out of it, but didn't declare an emergency. A Citation pilot that went through the same area near that time said it was the worst icing he had seen in thirty years of flying.

My impression from Cary's story and many others is that you just don't know what it will be like and the difference between "I can shrug this off" and "the plane is plummeting out of the sky" can be a few minutes. If I wind up with a FIKI plane it will be used in the most sparing fashion. I plan to declare emergencies right and left if I actually see stuff sticking to the plane.

My PP instructor was in the schools little PA-28. He's a transatlantic heavy iron pilot that retired to run a flight school. He said he was returning from the desert and flying through rain. He said planes ahead were complaining about icing and asking to divert. He was "warm, fat and happy, chugging along through the clouds." Then he got to the spot where it changed to freezing rain. He said he went from happy to declaring an emergency in less than thirty seconds.
Colin Summers, PP Multi-Engine IFR, ~3,000hrs
colin@mightycheese.com * send email rather than PM
http://www.flyingsummers.com
N972RD DA42 G1000 2.0 s/n 42.AC100 (sold!)
N971RD DA40 G1000 s/n 40.508 (traded)
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