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robert63 wrote:Had some ice damage the paint at the fuselage. It went through the protection foil, but not much further. It happened even though I used deicing.

I had that happen in one of my bad icing events. I used white appliance paint to repair the damage — worked great. Can’t even notice the repair.

Experienced our first icing accumulation on our DA62 last week, during our non-stop flight from the Washington, DC area to Florida (on way to Bahamas). It was only 20 degF (winds 20G30 kts) when we took off and Potomac Approach immediately vectored us into icy clouds at 4000 feet (to keep us beneath arriving Dulles Airport jet traffic). I was surprised to be picking up ice with such a low temperature at that altitude of -20degC.

Turned on TKS system to "High" position and it got rid of the ice on protected surfaces after a few minutes. A few miles later we were allowed to climb into nice sunshine and sublimation took care of residual ice.

Okay, but for strategy, if it's below freezing and I'm taking off toward IMC, I think I'll run the FIKI for a few minutes, right? Wet the surfaces?

Colin: I agree that we could have spent a few minutes on the ground turning on the TKS to wet the surfaces before takeoff. The reason we didn't was because we thought it was too cold for icing, and we knew the cloud layer was relatively thin. I've never picked up ice at -20degC before. Live and learn...

My standard procedure before taking off into probably icy clouds is to switch on DeIcing and switch it off after around 30s. The TKS pumps are running a little longer and wings are wet.
Moreover it is important in unavoidable icing conditions to open alternate air. If the autopilot starts oscillating around your altitude you might have forgotten to open it.
But more important than strategies for „surviving icing conditions“ and being proud of the capabilities of our DA‘s is to respect icing and staying out of it, whenever possible.When I bought my DA42 I needed 100L of TKS p.a., today it is 30-40L p.a.

CFIDave wrote:I've never picked up ice at -20degC before...

Anti-ice capable aircraft that I've flown have required its use in visible moisture down to -40 deg C SAT.

ultraturtle wrote:

CFIDave wrote:I've never picked up ice at -20degC before...

Anti-ice capable aircraft that I've flown have required its use in visible moisture down to -40 deg C SAT.

Isn't the -40 deg C Sat for engine anti-ice as far as "required use"??!!

jb642DA wrote:Isn't the -40 deg C Sat for engine anti-ice as far as "required use"??!!

True, and airframe anti-ice is only required in actual icing conditions. Just pointing out what range of temperatures aircraft and engine manufacturers have come up with to be vigilant for icing.

Like Dave, I've observed the vast majority of icing in a rather narrow band of temperatures (from about +5 deg C TAT to -10 deg C TAT) but the lower end of that range is typically a bit below -20 deg C SAT.