REFLECTOR: IFR and icing question

[Glenn Babcock]

Peter,

I ran into un-forecast ice on an IFR trip from Charlotte to Chicago. Just light rime ice, it covered the leading edge of main wing and canard. I have a heated pitot so no instrumentation problems. 

I lost a few knots of airspeed and the pitch to maintain level flight may have been a bit higher but otherwise it flew fine. I was at 12,000, called Center and got cleared to 14,000. The climb was good and it got me out of the layer, so the buildup stopped. No problems with pitch issues in the climb. 

A short while later I was in clear air so I descended into warmer air and the ice came off. Some may have hit my MT prop but there was no damage. It flew fine the whole time. 

I still try very hard to avoid ice, but now I feel better knowing how well the plane handled this situation. Like you, I previously thought that even trace ice might have a significant affect, but I really wasn't bad at all. That said, it certainly got my attention when it happened!  :-)

Regards,
Glenn

On Oct 16, 2012, at 5:29 PM, Scott Baker <scottb33333 at gmail.com> wrote:

> Hello Peter,
> There have been several reports on the Reflector that speak to your question.
> One story comes from Jack Sheehan (Seaford, VA) on a flight in the pacific northwest.  Give Jack a call to discuss details.
> Bottom line is that the aircraft will ice, that the windscreen is also prone to ice, that the aircraft continues to fly - and that if caught in icing conditions, the suggested action is to add some speed while looking for an "out".
> To the best of my knowledge, prop ice has not been a factor, nor has ice that has been shed hitting the propeller.
> Never been there myself.  Imagine icing encounter is a sobering experience.
> Best,
> Scott Baker
> 
> 
> On 10/16/2012 12:07 PM, Peter Braswell wrote:
>> All,
>> A friend of mine and I were talking about IFR flying this morning when he posed an interesting question.
>> 
>> While we both know that flying into known icing conditions in an A/C not properly equipped is a strict no-no, it does sometimes happen that we pick up rime ice or structural ice until we can get out of the conditions causing it.  For anybody that has had this type of experience in the Velocity, are there any special considerations specific to this aircraft?  For example, does the canard become critical quickly causing pitch issues?  The wing?  The prop?
>> 
>> Interested to hear an experience with regard to the Velocity, IFR and marginal weather.
>> 
>> -Peter
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