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Originally Posted by
For a standard trainer type airplane does anyone (who owns one not used
for training) go out to the airport when not flying just to wipe the
snow off? Does the weight of snow and/or ice damage surfaces, etc?
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in general, snow and ice won't inflict damage to an aircraft. however, larger quantities of ice may damage spars or surfaces, although i have never hear of snow having that effect.
during the great ice storm of the northeast a few years ago a C-172 i used to own got covered with a few inches of solid ice. under the weight of the ice on the tail feathers, the 172 leaned on the tail skid, leaving the wings facing backwards a bit instead of directly down. the weight of the ice was sufficient to bend both wing's rear spars. (the wings supported a block of ice 4 inches thick by 4 feet by 30 odd feet - about 40 cubic feet of ice). snow OTOH would have slid off the wings and not inflicted any damage.
fv