In article ,
george152 wrote:

Some Other Guy wrote:
What really does change when you fly something like a Skyhawk through
thick rain?

I just do sims, and all that happens there is a lot of noise and pretty
raindrop smears on the the windshield but the performance seems unchanged.

What happens in real life?


depends upon how well you polished the canopy

Another effect happens with laminar-flow wings. You slow down! I had
this happen with a 180 HP Comanche, flying through light rain. I lost
about 5MPH IAS in the rain and gained it back when I flew out of the
rain.

Another effect has happened to some of the Rutan Eze designs.The rain so
disrupted the flow over the canard stabilizer taht it lost
effectiveness, causing a dive.

Another effect is that rain will destroy a wood prop, if it doesn't ahve
leading edge armor.

Yet another effect is that rain will strip away the leading edge paint
-- even the modern polyurethanes. The old enamels and lacquers would
really strip away! When I started flying 50 years ago, I would see
Bonanzas land with whole sheets of paint missing from their leading
edges.