Tips For Flying in ICE

[DirkkDiggler]

Flew C-310's, C-208's and Barons out of Minnesota for 2 years and here's what worked for me:

1. Preflight - Look at the temps aloft and find the freezing level. Also check the cloud tops. Pireps are great if you can find them and they are relevant.

2. As soon as you start picking up ice, climb (unless you know for sure that there is no icing below you, which I found to be rare). You will always be able to descend again if you can't get out of the ice, but if you descend initially, you may not be able to climb again.

3. Watch your airspeed. At Airnet we had a minimum speed in icing conditions. I believe it was 130 or something like that. If you can't maintain your speed above that, sacrifice altitude for airspeed and get out of there.

4. Always have an escape plan in case you can't get out of the ice, and like me the boots break. If you've always got a plan, you should be alright.

5. NASA did a study on ice bridging and PROVED it to be a fallacy. Airnet's policy was to blow the boots as soon as you start picking up ice. Don't wait for a lot of ice to accrue because these boots suck anyway and if you wait, you've got that much more on there that may not come off.

Following these rules, I only had to divert once when the boots failed on the Caravan and my airspeed was falling rapidly. Fortunatly I had a plan to escape and I had the altitude to make it happen because I climbed the second I started picking up ice. You should be fine, and remember that if it's too bad, you can always call the company and say that you'd like to wait an hour to see if things get better.

P.S. Never use Type IV anti-icing fluid on a piston twin. This stuff is meant to shear off during take-off and that really only happens at speeds that jet aircraft fly. The stuff can actually inhibit your lift at takeoff, just when you need it most.

 

[iflyjets4food]

just wondering if any of you had tips for flying in ice. I don't have hardly any experiance at all and i'll be flying 135 in 310s in this stuff starting jan. Just bored at work and wanted to see what ya'll think...thanks

Are you a CFI in LAF?

 

[Jpilot23]

Are you a CFI in LAF?

yeah, untill the 15th anyway....you know me?

 

[Windsor]

If your iced up and you have a long runway, use all of it.

Keep your approaches fast and avoid chopping the power.

Freezing rain is not as bad as they say, just remember that there is warmer air above you, so climb until its rain, then plan your escape.

Anti ice - pitot, prop heat, ect. should be used before entering the ice

Keep a close eye on the boots. Just because the left boot blows, doesnt mean the right one does. Same goes for the tail, although much harder to check.

Teflon sprays are a waste of money and time.

Tops of clouds = bad.

Snow you can fly around in all day. At night it'll give you a good light show on the windshield.

Enjoy freightdawgin, its fun.

 

[414Flyer]

Thats is a good point about tops of clouds being prime for icing. I have seen momentary severe icing from spending time in a cloud top.

If you are at night, like he said before me, you will get some static discharge from the ice crystals. Just enjoy the light show, its much better than flying thru supercooled water and getting tons of ice.

Some people say using Pledge on the boots helps shed ice. I have no idea if it does, but its supplied to me so I use it

 

[CloudyIFR]

Snow you can fly around in all day. At night it'll give you a good light show on the windshield.

Enjoy freightdawgin, its fun.

Most of the time you're right about the snow. However, one of the worst ice days I had was flying an approach in the mountains in a heavy snow storm. Got over 3 inches of ice and had a nice horn going. Amazingly enough though I really didn't notice much a difference in airspeed from other icing days.

Another good place to find ice is over lakes and areas of orographic lifting.

Yep, flying freight is great. If you can fly a C310 single pilot on a daily basis for a year you can fly anything!

Curtis

 

[WMUSIGPI]

nevermind

 

[rocket bob]

Wait to blow the boots... When you're getting scared, wait a few more minutes til your really scared, then cycle em.

 

[iflyjets4food]

yeah, untill the 15th anyway....you know me?

I was in LAF the other day and heard someone talking about going to fly 310s and being concerned because he didn't have much ice experience. Kinda thought it matched up with this thread.

 

[Amish RakeFight]

Typically, if you've got boots, you'll want to get out of there before you lose 10 Kts IAS. Bear in mind that if you go higher, you usually get colder, so whatever you accumulate on the way up, you're likely to keep.

Sublimation (which is a form of evaporation whereby the solid bypasses the liquid state and becomes a gas)will help erode any ice in clear, colder temperatures aloft...