ice: Re: REFLECTOR: Decisions, decisions...

[Jack Sheehan]

The airplane performed very well. This is the second time I have had 
significant ice. Once was enroute to Oshkosh where although it was 
summer when I asked for an IFR clearence to OSH Chicago said they 
would be able to clear me direct if I could climb to 16,000. I was 
not paying much attention to ice since I was sitting there in my 
shorts and tee shirt and it was 90 degrees when I left Virginia. This 
was a good amount of rime which slid off the wing as a complete 
sheet. I use Rejex to coat the wings during the summer for bugs and 
think that it may help with ice.
The Reno ice was a mix between rime and clear and stayed on the 
leading edges of the canard,wings and winglets. Prop seems to not get 
ice due to engine and exhaust heat. I picked up ice at about 11.500 
while VFR in the mountains east of Reno going through some showers 
that moved in from the coast. I called Reno and climbed to 14,000 to 
go direct Reno I was probably only up there for about 15 minutes in 
which I did see some windshield ice but as i was decending most of 
the rest of the flight on vectors to the ILS there were no 
performance issues. But then againg I was not trying to climb and I 
was fairly light . single pilot and about half fuel. So I could carry 
the weight. I did not see any aero performance issues. When I taxied 
to the FBO I got out and made my required visit to the mens room and 
then came back out to get some stuff out of the airplane (10 minutes 
later) ground temp +40F and there was still about 1/8 -1/4 of ice on 
all the surfaces.
I feel the airplane did just fine. I am not looking to do it again though.
My experience is very similar to information Wes Rose had relayed a 
few years ago. He routinely operated IFR out of the Detroit area and 
had seen a lot of ice.
-- 
Jack Sheehan
Executive Director
National Consortium for Aviation Mobility (NCAM)
Visit the following sites
http://www.ncam-sats.org, http://www.sats2005.com, http://sats.nasa.gov