TB20 Ceiling vs POH Figures

See after 6:30. 90kt IAS at FL210.

@Peter
Related to this video / flight, do you remember what part of the climb was VMC, what part in IMC ?

Actually, climbing through clouds (i.e. often a bit turbulent, and eventually with icing) with a residual 100ft/min (is it less ?) appears to me like “impossible mission”.

Nearly all of it was VMC. But I had to zigzag a lot to achieve that, starting with flying in the opposite direction for most of the climb. I didn’t enter IMC until about FL190.

I wouldn’t just climb up straight into solid IMC whose tops are known (from the IR image) to be so high.

With full TKS one could do it OK.

The writeup for that trip is this one, I think.

Peter wrote:

With full TKS one could do it OK.

With TKS it is not impossible you will no longer be able to climb that high because of the added drag from the panels.

Well, the STC says “no performance change”.

I will of course find out in due course but having seen a fair few TKS installations, some of them were quite messy, with the sealant bead creating a depression, instead of a smooth continuation of the leading edge curve.

But also if you have TKS, you have the ability to fly in IMC for a couple of hours and this will influence the decisionmaking. Without full de-ice, one does all kinds of crazy things to avoid IMC.

For what it’s worth, Socata’s TB20 POH supplement for factory installed TKS approved for flight in known icing states that the TKS installation will reduce climb rates “up to 100 fpm” and increase take-off distance by 10%.

An N-reg TB20 is not FIKI (a US specific term which maps onto US specific wx services). This is because the FAA requires dual alternators, a heated stall warner, and some other stuff.

An EASA-reg TB20 is approved for flight in specified icing conditions.