flying in snow

Jose,

Lot of bad information and old wives' tales on this thread. sigh

Outside of clouds, when you are flying in snow it will not stick to
the airframe. Even heavy wet snow will not stick, so airframe icing
is not a problem. The concerns to be aware of when flying in snow are
the very serious restriction to visibility that often occurs. When
flying IFR you may be able to see the ground during the approach, but
not pick out the runway until you are over it. You've got 500 feet of
vertical visibility, and about that horizontally, but you see the
runway from above and try to circle for it. Lots of dead pilots
because of that error. Once you start the turn you lose sight of the
runway and have no visual reference horizontally, so you are trying to
do a circle to land without the requisite vis requirements. It's best
to miss the approach immediately. If you are VFR and fly into snow
the problem is that vis can change very fast and can put you into IMC
in seconds. Otherwise, the concerns about flying in snow are P
static, if your airplane doesn't have good static wicks. If you start
to lose your radios you can try holding your hand, fingers spread
wide, about a half inch from the windshield and move it back and
forth. Sometimes you'll feel the static discharge you get after
walking across a rug and touching metal, as the airplane discharges,
and you get the radios back for a few minutes. It doesn't always
work, but it works often enough it's worth a try. The other concern
is with wet snow in that it can pack the air filter on the engine air
intake and either reduce the air flow or block it. At that point you
just switch to carb heat or alternate air as appropriate for your
aircraft.

You will only get rime ice when in clouds, you will not get it in
snow. Clear ice comes from freezing rain and is another matter
entirely.

Suggest you check out back issues of IFR Magazine for more information
on flying in snow. They've dealt with it at length. Here in Michigan
we fly in snow all the time, it's just no big deal. With frequent
lake effect snow you learn to chose an altitude to stay out of the
clouds because that's where the ice is. If it's snowing, you're fine
(if you are IFR, you may be screwed if VFR because of vis). Runway
operations are a different matter, and getting around the airport may
range from merely exciting to impossible. You may also find that
after stopping your brakes have melted snow which then refroze as ice
and locked one or both wheels. On landing you tend not to try for
greasers as you may have a locked wheel, and it takes a while for
enough friction on the tire to build up to apply enough rotational
force to break the ice. In the meantime you listen to a tire squeal
and you have little rolling control from that tire, so if you touch
down a bit firmly the wheels will get a good rotational jolt from the
runway and break the ice fairly quickly. Just be ready to steer the
airplane with aerodyanmic controls after landing as the runway may be
very slippery and a tire or two may not be turning.

All the best,
Rick

(Teacherjh) wrote in message ...
In a typical spam can (say an archer), which has no deice at all (save pitot
heat), is it safe to fly in snow? More generally, of course the snow will
bounce off and not stick to the wings (right?) but what about the clouds that
are producing snow - will they also produce airframe ice? If it's above
freezing on the ground, and the clouds are very high, and it's snowing, then as
I climb I'll (yes?) climb above the freezing level - is there danger in that
transition when it's snowing? (I presume there's no freezing rain or sleet,
else I'd see it on the ground, no?)

Jose