I don't have "little experience" flying in icing conditions...I have a lot
of experience flying pistons, turboprops, and jets in an area of the country
so prone to icing (on the west slopes of the Cascades) that the Concorde was
sent out here for icing certification...I flew media folks to Grant County
airport for the occasion.

A good source of information would be Dr. Marcia Politovich at the National
Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado ).
She is known in the aviation meteorology community as the Ice Queen, and has
lots of experience flying in icing research airplanes....but then again you
are not impressed by credentials.

Bob Gardner

"john cop" wrote in message
om...
Thank you. Makes sense.

In my little experience, the icing was ferocious within, in seemed,
the top 10 ft of the cloud (it was probably more like 100 to 500 but
who knows - it was 20 years ago and I wasn't taking notes at the
time). I always assumed that it was the sun heating the vapor,
droplets, whatever, and forcing them to a higher altitude so they were
a very nearly at their super cooled limit. The dividing line between
ferocious and minimal icing conditions was sharp and very pronounced
during the decent which suggested to me, that sun heating (energy
transfer, if you prefer) was the cause or at least a significant
contributing factor.