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Decent into Cleveland
Have been inactive for many years.
About 20 years ago, when flying up from the south, I got suckered in. The tops slowly rose untill I was flying at over 15,000 (Mooney 201) near Cleveland, It was clear on top and the temp was in the mid 40s on the ground, and the freezing level was high enough so I wasn't worried. When cleared for decent, ice formed at an incredible rate - must have picked up over an inch of rime in seconds near the tops. Once below the sun heated top layer, the accumulation virtually quit. Breaking out below at about 4,000, the temp was already well above freezing, but no ice was dissapearing. While being vectored into the approach, I ran some test to make sure the plane was behaving normally and was capable of climbing. On hind site, I should have refused the approach clearance and waited for the ice to fall off. Anyhow, after having read accounts about people stalling on final and etc., I brought her in about 20 knots fast over the numbers and chopped everything. I damn near overran a 5,000 ft. runway - the sucker didn't want to land. Rime ice, I have since found, can lower the stall speed (raises the dragg). It increases the leading edge of the wing. This was verified by test I did for a senior project in a wind tunnel using an airfoil, rubber cement, and sugar. The Reynolds number was way off for that test, so it could be suspect. However, I had occassion to take to one of the crew of the icing planes over at NASA who confirmed all this and it sure would account for my landing problem above. Anyhow, after parking the plane, ice was still falling off in big chunks for 10 or 15 min. |
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