Moderate to severe icing... any good stories you care to share?

I do, but for some reason I am no longer able to upload pictures, and this story is useless without pictures.
It's about 3 days, and I still can't figure out what the problem is.
sigh.................
 
If you pick up ice and don't have FIKI, you are branded an idiot.
 
coloradobluesky said:
If you pick up ice and don't have FIKI, you are branded an idiot.
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seems a little extreme as long as you planned an out or have no indication by forecast or report of ice being present. If you ground yourself every single time ice is possible you're gonna not be flying very often between October and April.
 
the-most-interesting-man-in-the-world-i-dont-always-ice-up-but-when-i-do-it-is-moderate-to-severe.jpg
 
First post on the forum.

Not near as intense as some of you guys and it was more bad weather than icing but there was some icing and I wasn't licensed at the time.

It was the last bit of time I needed before getting my license and it was a 3 leg x-country. Late march, southern Manitoba, snow on the ground but partially melted. The route, CJA3-CJS5-CYBR-CJA3. Checked the weather looked good, phoned for a wx brief, was told there was a storm a ways out but I should be back by then. First leg aimed for 5500 ASL which was 4600 AGL at CJA3 and about 4000 AGL at CJS5. I was almost to the first stop and in the last 20 miles or so the clouds started forcing me down. I ended up coming into the airport at a little lower than 2500 ASL. Did a touch and go, got up to 2500, realized that I was barely above VFR minimums and grounded myself. Called ex brief, had a good laugh at how I found the worst of it, decided to wait a half hour and try again.

I try again, get up to no more than 2500, realize it's no better, but decided to power on. I had gps guiding me on route and I could still see the ground so just went for it. CYBR is class B airspace so there's a control tower but the pilots are still in control of almost everything. I report 15 miles out and am informed it's below minimums. I'm still technically a student so I don't know if I can get special but I try anyway. I text my cfi to see what my chances are and by the time he gets back to me, I'm approved, so I keep plowing forward. I enter the circuit, turn base, look for the runway and see nothing but white! I zoom in on the gps and just before I pass centre I turn final, keep coming down, see the runway just after turning final, bring it in for a nice landing. I inform tower I'm coming into the club to wait it out, park the plane, go in, phone wx brief. I get the same guy that gave me my initial brief of the day. We laugh again at how I found the worst again.

I wait an hour. I get going, get cleared for takeoff, start climbing aiming for my flight planned 4500 ASL, but before I get there, everything goes white! I start coming down looking at the instruments, clear the clouds but barely notice because the whole windscreen is covered in clear ice. My defrost is doing its job so I end up with about a 4" diameter window to peek through. My side windows are clear so I look at my wings and they've got ice too. I was still within 10 miles of CYBR so turning back was high on my options list. The flight characteristics felt normal so again I just went for it. I do the last leg at about 3000 ASL. I get into CJA3, get my license signed off, and as I'm looking out the window it dawned on the that I'm not even relieved to be on the ground. I wanted to go back up. It was a good experience, good for learning, good for stories, and I came home safe.
 
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Alex Siemens said:
I wait an hour. I get going, get cleared for takeoff, start climbing aiming for my flight planned 4500 ASL, but before I get there, everything goes white! I start coming down looking at the instruments, clear the clouds but barely notice because the whole windscreen is covered in clear ice. My defrost is doing its job so I end up with about a 4" diameter window to peek through. My side windows are clear so I look at my wings and they've got ice too. I was still wishing 10 miles of CYBR so turning back was high on my options list. The flight characteristics felt normal so again I just went for it. I do the last leg at about 3000 ASL. I get into CJA3, get my license signed off, and as I'm looking out the window it dawned on the that I'm not even relieved to be on the ground. I wanted to go back up. It was a good experience, good for learning, good for stories, and I came home safe.
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Yikes! I hope that either

1) this post was not for real, or

2) it was a long time ago and you're a lot older and wiser now. I think most of us would have needed a change of underwear right about then.... :eek2:
 
azure said:
Yikes! I hope that either

1) this post was not for real, or

2) it was a long time ago and you're a lot older and wiser now. I think most of us would have needed a change of underwear right about then.... :eek2:
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It was little more than 2 years ago. It's tough to describe exactly what I felt looking outside from the clubhouse. I was most certainly grateful it ended the way it did, but it wasn't ever overly frightening while in the midst of it. Except for a couple moments here and there, I always had a visual to the ground, and 2-4 miles vis. I always had my gps so I was never going to lose my route and while not instrument rated, during my required hood time, my instructor made sure I was quite comfortable running off the panel. That is why you have to have hood time in order to get your license, instances like this where weather sneaks up on you.
 
azure said:
1) this post was not for real, or
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@azure Intent of post was real, although I should have directed it more to those that are instrument rated and regularly flying in the soup, but I didn't and the usual suspects came along and took their mandatory dump in the thread. Lesson learned. :D
 
azblackbird said:
For you instrument rated (or VFR for that matter) GA pilots, do you have any harrowing icing experiences you would care to share?

What were the conditions, how did you handle it, and what (if any) were the resulting consequences?
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Severe ice? No. But used to fly an old Aztruck around the Great Lakes a lot with mod ice. The airplane did just fine.
 
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MassPilot said:
His description of Class B airspace as well as getting his license signed off at the end were both strange comments to me.
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Would he have meant class E? Seems to me Winnipeg would be class C and all other airports for quite a good distance are all smaller.


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I actually thought AZ just thought the question about the Alex post was not meant for the Alex post but for the overall OP post by AZ ... then Everyone just ran with saying Alex was AZ ...
 
Volzalum said:
I actually thought AZ just thought the question about the Alex post was not meant for the Alex post but for the overall OP post by AZ ... then Everyone just ran with saying Alex was AZ ...
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Yep, that's how I read it too. Seemed like a strange interpretation, but not enough to raise my suspicions. In any case Alex is still here (i.e., not banned), last I checked...
 
Volzalum said:
I actually thought AZ just thought the question about the Alex post was not meant for the Alex post but for the overall OP post by AZ ... then Everyone just ran with saying Alex was AZ ...
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Nah---can't be. Check out post #96. AZ replies to Azure's point about the post not being real with "Intent of post was real, although I should have directed. . . . " Not sure how you could read that any other way. If AZ were talking about the intent of "Alex's" post, he'd have said "he should've directed. . . ."
 
starglider said:
Nah---can't be. Check out post #96. AZ replies to Azure's point about the post not being real with "Intent of post was real, although I should have directed. . . . " Not sure how you could read that any other way. If AZ were talking about the intent of "Alex's" post, he'd have said "he should've directed. . . ."
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I interpreted AZs response had absolutely nothing to do with Alex's post. AZ was responding as the OP and just assumed the other post was directed at him. My interpretation was AZ didn't realize that Alex's post got a question from the next post at all.
 
Yeah, he seemed to think I was talking about his OP rather than Alex's post... not sure how as I quoted Alex's post. But Alex was relating a story, not something you would "direct towards" a particular readership. I'm pretty sure he was referring to his original question in the OP.
 
azure said:
Yeah, he seemed to think I was talking about his OP rather than Alex's post... not sure how as I quoted Alex's post. But Alex was relating a story, not something you would "direct towards" a particular readership. I'm pretty sure he was referring to his original question in the OP.
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And the fact that Alex has not been "ejected" suggests that the mods don't think they are the same person.
 
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denverpilot said:
Or they were lenient. Or they couldn't prove it from the server logs.
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There's also the lack of a clear motive. I could see why someone might create a separate user account if he had been banned, but Alex was already posting by the time Azpilot got ejected.
 
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