apcooper
Dude, where's my country?
- Joined
- Sep 4, 2004
- Posts
- 201
Just tonight I got to experience my first flight in icing conditions in a 172! I wasn't flying but was riding along in the back with an IFR student for his 250nm requisit XC flight. While descending from 6000 to 3000 on the second leg from Hyannis to Gardner, MA we just started to break out of the cloud layer. The OAT went pretty wild. At 6000 it was +6C. Then at 4000 it was -4C!! We picked up a bit of -FZRA. The windshield became opaque but the wings had only about a fingernail thickness of ice on it. We did the full VOR app w/ circle to land. On the dwnd to base leg my CFII extended full flaps and I was a bit worried about a tail stall. From everything that I could tell though the aerodynamic characteristics seemed not to have changed. There was no apparent loss of airspeed during the procedure turn and the stall speed must not have increased more than 2 or 3 kts since we landed as if there was no ice and the plane obviously didn't stall 10 ft above the rwy. As far as I could tell nothing changed aerodynamically.
My question to all of you is were we just lucky the -FZRA didn't accumulate rapidly and do you belive my CFII should have made a 180 turn back to get out of it eventhough it was only accumulating slowly. We only we 5nm from the airport not counting the PT and ORH was 15nm behind us not in precip.
I admire my CFII. He has over 10,000 hrs. He is low key and NOT a risk taker from what I can see. I do not wan't to Monday morning QB his descision making skills but instead wanted to get many different opinions about this. This somehow seems like a risky game of russian roulette. I actually would have felt safer overloading the C-172 200 lbs or descending 100 ft below the MDA on a non-prec app than I did flying even in light ice. Maybe I'm an absolute chicken when it comes to ANY ice in a 172 or completely ignorant about weight but then again 'a superior pilot uses his superior skills to avoid situations than would require his superior judgement' This is a scenario where it more depends on the planes capability rather than the pilots capibility. In a situation like this it seems as though no weather forcaster can accurately predict the intensity of FZRA and it seems like mere luck whether it will be light or severe!!
My question to all of you is were we just lucky the -FZRA didn't accumulate rapidly and do you belive my CFII should have made a 180 turn back to get out of it eventhough it was only accumulating slowly. We only we 5nm from the airport not counting the PT and ORH was 15nm behind us not in precip.
I admire my CFII. He has over 10,000 hrs. He is low key and NOT a risk taker from what I can see. I do not wan't to Monday morning QB his descision making skills but instead wanted to get many different opinions about this. This somehow seems like a risky game of russian roulette. I actually would have felt safer overloading the C-172 200 lbs or descending 100 ft below the MDA on a non-prec app than I did flying even in light ice. Maybe I'm an absolute chicken when it comes to ANY ice in a 172 or completely ignorant about weight but then again 'a superior pilot uses his superior skills to avoid situations than would require his superior judgement' This is a scenario where it more depends on the planes capability rather than the pilots capibility. In a situation like this it seems as though no weather forcaster can accurately predict the intensity of FZRA and it seems like mere luck whether it will be light or severe!!
