Flying through known or forecast icing

Bob Gardner wrote:

George, your heart is in the right place...but if you think that someone at
ATC has a pad of ticket forms just ready to write you up, you are sadly
mistaken. I was told by an officer of the controller's union that
controllers are not interested in the certification status of an airplane or
a pilot.

A former Assistant Administrator for Regulations and Certification told me
that it is the pilot who encounters icing conditions and makes no attempt to
escape who would get a violation...but only if that failure resulted in an
accident/incident or required special handling by ATC. No one at a Center
operating position knows if a pilot climbs or descends through a cloud.

This has certainly been my experience also. I recently flew from
Lebanon, NH to ELM on a day with the freezing level around 4,000 and an
MEA of 6,000 across the mountains of southern VT. I picked up some
light rime and requested higher and got between layers. The clouds
again arose to smite me, so I requested higher again and broke out on
top at 10,000. My requests were calm and matter of fact and the
controllers were extremely accomodating. There was never even a hint
that they questioned why I was flying an Arrow on such a day.

Matt

In rec.aviation.ifr Matt Whiting wrote:
: This has certainly been my experience also. I recently flew from
: Lebanon, NH to ELM on a day with the freezing level around 4,000 and an
: MEA of 6,000 across the mountains of southern VT. I picked up some
: light rime and requested higher and got between layers. The clouds
: again arose to smite me, so I requested higher again and broke out on
: top at 10,000. My requests were calm and matter of fact and the
: controllers were extremely accomodating. There was never even a hint
: that they questioned why I was flying an Arrow on such a day.

Because you didn't have a problem, they don't have a problem. If you had
*had* a problem, they would have found this problem and busted you. Isn't it great?

-Cory

--

************************************************** ***********************
* Cory Papenfuss *
* Electrical Engineering candidate Ph.D. graduate student *
* Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University *
************************************************** ***********************

wrote:
In rec.aviation.ifr Matt Whiting wrote:
: This has certainly been my experience also. I recently flew from
: Lebanon, NH to ELM on a day with the freezing level around 4,000 and an
: MEA of 6,000 across the mountains of southern VT. I picked up some
: light rime and requested higher and got between layers. The clouds
: again arose to smite me, so I requested higher again and broke out on
: top at 10,000. My requests were calm and matter of fact and the
: controllers were extremely accomodating. There was never even a hint
: that they questioned why I was flying an Arrow on such a day.

Because you didn't have a problem, they don't have a problem. If you had
*had* a problem, they would have found this problem and busted you. Isn't it great?

Maybe, but I really doubt it unless my problem resulted in an accident
or maybe a "deal" for the controller if I had to make a descent that
they couldn't clear quickly enough. Even though I've flown in northeast
winters for 28 years and tend to "take a look" even if icing is a
possibility, I've only once ever gotten into anything I'd call trouble.
Even then, I didn't need to declare, I just needed a block altitude
clearance so I could descend until I could maintain altitude.
Fortunately, I reached the equilibrium altitude prior to reaching ground
elevation. :-)


Matt

Maybe, but I really doubt it unless my problem resulted in an accident
or maybe a "deal" for the controller if I had to make a descent that
they couldn't clear quickly enough. Even though I've flown in northeast
winters for 28 years and tend to "take a look" even if icing is a
possibility, I've only once ever gotten into anything I'd call trouble.
Even then, I didn't need to declare, I just needed a block altitude
clearance so I could descend until I could maintain altitude.
Fortunately, I reached the equilibrium altitude prior to reaching ground
elevation. :-)

So what you're saying is that you're lucky to be alive.

Paul Folbrecht wrote:

Maybe, but I really doubt it unless my problem resulted in an accident
or maybe a "deal" for the controller if I had to make a descent that
they couldn't clear quickly enough. Even though I've flown in
northeast winters for 28 years and tend to "take a look" even if icing
is a possibility, I've only once ever gotten into anything I'd call
trouble. Even then, I didn't need to declare, I just needed a block
altitude clearance so I could descend until I could maintain altitude.
Fortunately, I reached the equilibrium altitude prior to reaching
ground elevation. :-)


So what you're saying is that you're lucky to be alive.

In that case, yes, luck played a role. But I was also starting out at a
very high altitude (11,000', which was 2,000 feet above where any icing
was forecast) and flying away from the icing conditions (Lake Erie) with
a 60K tailwind, so I did have many things in my favor. Hitting ice that
high certainly wasn't expected though or I would have deviated farther
south of the Lake.

Matt