Well last weeks flight from Belgium to Hungary was well call it interesting. I was cleared initially to FL110 to stay VMC on top however in Germany due to miltary excercise I was told to descent to FL090 which would put me in the smuck at minus 5 degrees….I told the controller that this would put me in a difficult level to fly..(unless I would go down to FL060) so I was allowed to dance around at FL100 just above. However closing in on Frankfurt the tops where rising and I started to pick some slight ice. After the second hand-over I was finally allowed to climb to FL130 in the blue with some O2 in my nose…After Regensburg the clouds became more convective with tops way beyond I was able to outperform (even with only a Turbo this would put you in a rather difficult situation I believe) so I elected to descent to FL080 to avoid surprises like sudden ice build up. Again I picked some light ice but when descending to FL080 it became water though my ride was wild with constant power changes to stay below maneuvering speed. Now this flight was as far I am going, even in summer with freezing levels at FL70 (quite low this time of year btw) and even higher from Linz onward. I spent almost 2 hours in full IMC on this flight, with some good turbulence and rain washes…
If I can’t descent to above freezing levels safely on my Route it’s a sure NO GO for me on long distance flight. I can understand Peters comment to try to stay as hi as possible but descending from FL140 to FL080 or lower takes along time when ice start to form, so the trick is IMHO to anticipate what is coming or expected 
I love the Gramet that Achim build as it gave me exactly the input to tactically plan the mission in combination with the weather maps. My plan was to descend to FL070 when crossing Austria and fly all the way over Vienna along the Danube value to avoid the mountains and then go south. I exactly followed this plan and it worked though ATC wanted to give me shortcut over the mountains but this would have significantly reduced my safety margin or plan B so I kindly refused the offer..
Planning the trip in detail and allow alwaysa plan B is essential. With a NA no de-cing aircraft this means your grounded a part of the year for long distance flight IMHO
If I can’t descent to above freezing levels safely on my Route it’s a sure NO GO for me on long distance flight
I would agree with that. It depends on how much hassle it would be to descend. In IFR flight (which is basically what we are discussing here, because you won’t get ice in VFR, will you 
… well not unless flying a 2000kg+ aircraft ) any “forced” descent followed by a landing other than the intended destination is a huge hassle.
Even if I have to divert to Biggin Hill, which is a 15min flight from Shoreham, it costs me about £250 extra in fees and taxi fares. I’ve done that a few times.
With a NA no de-cing aircraft this means your grounded a part of the year for long distance flight IMHO
Yes, except for the odd trip here and there. Actually I don’t find the winter wx to be statistically worse than the summer wx. It probably is worst in Oct/Nov/Dec. The huge difference is the wx at the destination… who wants to be in say Croatia when it is +TSRA and +5C?
Anyway, the solution to this is obvious: €€€€€ and usually a loss of payload
Re writing about icing openly, I respect everybody’s view on it. For myself, I know that all the people who don’t like me know exactly who I am and where I live. But I have been writing about this stuff for a decade now. FWIW I don’t think a prosecution is possible because one could just say one made it up. Let’s face it – 73.564% of everything on pilot forums is made up on the spot But if one had an aviation industry job, that is different. Especially if the boss has a reduced SOH. Also as a matter of basic policy one should never reveal one’s surname anywhere online (unless it is Smith, Mueller, etc) and AFAIK nobody here is doing that.
In the last seven days, in most parts of Germany the freezing level was around 5000 feet, sometimes a tad below. And lots of cloud. In the end of June! So, you really can’t fly IFR without ice troubles here right now (unless you can somehow get on top, obviously)…
In the last seven days, in most parts of Germany the freezing level was around 5000 feet, sometimes a tad below. And lots of cloud. In the end of June!
In fact, I’m sitting in an office in Hamburg with an open window and it feels like the freezing level is at 0 ft amsl this week. Unbelievable.
Back on topic: Can someone comment on the usability to penetrate icing during the climb of an airplane such as the C182 with a turbo-charged engine and a hot prop but no further anti-icing equipment? I’m particularly looking at an evaluation of a heated prop in comparison with a TKS de-iced prop. I hope this may also be valuable input for the document the original poster wants to compile.
This thread and the information contained was one of the best I have seen on EGA.
Thanks all.
Patrick wrote:
Back on topic: Can someone comment on the usability to penetrate icing during the climb of an airplane such as the C182 with a turbo-charged engine and a hot prop but no further anti-icing equipment? I’m particularly looking at an evaluation of a heated prop in comparison with a TKS de-iced prop
That is a very powerful platform. The Turbo 182 (fixed and RG) has plenty of excess power and can maintain that excess power until its service ceiling. The wings and airframe can handle ice very well. Icing is usually found in a rather small altitude band and the best tool to get out of it is a turbo charger. That does not apply to a TCU/CB which can have icing over a large altitude band.
The heated prop is obviously nice but in my experience not a game changer. Prop icing is felt as massive vibration. I’ve never experienced that vibration and power loss but have had more than a tiny bit of airframe ice on many occasions.
Keep in mind that IFR does not mean cruising inside clouds for a long time. It means penetrating clouds. The faster the better, therefore excess engine power is what really helps.
Yesterday I experienced light to moderate icing while climbing through Cu although it wasn’t forecasted. However, it was expected looking OAT before entering the clouds. Forecasted temperature was few degrees higher and tops were supposed to be lower but the reality was little bit different. According to autorouter’s briefing I was supposed to hit some icing on descent further north but that didn’t happen.
There are quite a few good free resources on the web, including a very good power point style video. Some of the NASA material can be found on YouTube.
http://icebox.grc.nasa.gov/education/products.html
http://aircrafticing.grc.nasa.gov/courses.html
The PPL/IR European Instrument Flying book has an icing chapter, which modestly was penned by myself. Robert Buck’s Weather Flying has good advice.
Without turbine performance I would suggest you need to plan strategically and use the SigWx to plan your route around icing areas. Depending on the type of front and your location climbing is a safer option than descending, but the primary advice is ensure your planning gives you the situational awareness to not encounter the problem in the first place.
Knowing the vertical and horizontal profile of various fronts and cloud formations is a good exercise. One night cargo operator with turbo props uses this as a standard interview question. eg you are flying from west to east through a warm occluded front at night in Northern Europe in autumn, describe the low, medium and high clouds and hazards as you progress.
In the Jurassic period one of the ATPL/CPL papers had a similar exercise where you had to read the charts, calculate when a twin turboprop would encounter the front, when it would expect to leave a sector of the front, and what conditions you would encounter at different stages of the flight. Lots of real world practical flight planning which unfortunately seems to have been lost in the modern antiseptic EASA question bank cramming world.
A serious question Robert… does that actually work?
You have far more experience than I have but I have rarely found the wx to be that predictable. The Sig Wx especially is pretty useless for light GA now, with the fronts removed along with all wx data in any area where CBs are forecast.
Peter my experience has been mainly in MEP hence my affection to the gods Pratt and Whitney. Slogging around FL100-160 in Pistons IFR helps develop a religious fervour for turbine equipment. There are still some operators out there doing classic high value document night cargo in forty year old Navajos (Beech 18s used to be the aircraft for these night cargo short sector ops). It would make a good article to interview some of these pilots flying at three am over the Irish Sea!
What I mean by SigWx is that it helps plan strategically, in particular how you are going to plan frontal passages and areas which are no go. It doesn’t mean you won’t run into air mass convective icing or orographic hence studying as much weather literature as you can.
