A touch of ice

This morning I got up early and went out to the airport to crank up for a flight to KCFD, about 800nm away.

I ended up taking off right at sunrise, but didn't get to see much of it. I entered the clouds at about 500' and started talking to Charlotte approach. Before long they had me climbing up to my requested altitude of 10,000'. Around 6,000' I noticed the temperature falling off pretty quickly to get near freezing so I turned on the pitot heat and started watching for ice. Still in the clouds once leveling out at 10,000' I started to see a bit of ice just forming on the wings. I immediately turned on the TKS anti-ice fluid and it started working with a few minutes. I reported the conditions to ATC and, after leaning out the engine for cruise, was paying careful attention to the ice.

After a bit the TKS had cleared most of the slight icing that had accumulated and it appeared that before long I would be out of the clouds, so I stayed put. However, within 5 minutes or so I was back into a bit of light rain that had moved in a touch faster than expected. I re-activated the TKS and requested to go down to 8,000', with the expectation that I'd drop down to 6,000 if it wasn't warm enough at 8,000'.

ATC filed a PIREP or two for me as I reported conditions in the area. At 8,000' ice accretion with TKS off was noticeably slower than it had been at 10,000' but I wasn't going to mess around, I asked for 6,000'. Down at 6 the temps were warm enough that the clouds and rain were passing off the wing instead of sticking to it. Around that time I was also coming out of the rainy area and entering much clearer air. I brought up ForeFlight Mobile and decided to take a look at the PIREPs being fed by the Mobile Link and XM receiver. I was happy to see "my" PIREP show up on the map!


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Updating data on the Garmin Perspective system

Image
After changing from the Avidyne system to the Cirrus Perspective (G1000) system, I had to relearn an important part of owning an airplane: how to update all the data the systems use. There's even more data in the Perspective, including AOPA directory data and more charts. In this walkthrough, I make use of the Jeppesen app for Apple OS X: JDM .  It has worked well for me, though I did need to call Jeppesen when I first set this up to get my subscriptions fixed up.  They gave great customer support when I did. The process starts (optionally) by hooking up a ground power unit (GPU).  In the case of the Cirrus, you can certainly do this without it, but I tend to hook it up just to be sure.  The systems draw about 8-10amps while updating, but you won't generally have the power on for long.  One tip I've read: power up the GPU before plugging it into the plane, at least for the one I bought.  That saves the plane from seeing any power spikes that might have occurred when t
Read more

Hiking to Rocky Peak in Steamboat Springs

Image
Did a great hike today that is not in the commonly used hiking apps.  The trail is generally easy to see, though there were times that we lost it.  There are plenty of bushes and undergrowth draping over the trail, so bring long pants. Leg gaiters might be nice too, just to protect your legs a bit. Many parts of the trail are actually drainage ditches.   Here's a KML file from our trip down - we followed the trail much better after learning what to avoid on the way up. We went right after a thunderstorm had come through the previous night, so got pretty soaked due to the plants being wet.   Found the path to the top and saw 2 moose along the way - gorgeous views for the entire trek.  2 miles to get to the top from the parking near the hot springs with about 1800' of elevation gain.  Certainly not a beginner's hiking trail, but not a problem for those with some experience (and lungs that are used to the altitude).
Read more

G1000 transistion training - emergencies - final flight

Image
For the final flight in my G1000 transition course we focused on failure scenarios. Not the "engine goes POOF" kind but the avionics kind. Normal situation This picture shows what the 2 Garmin screens show in a normal (non failure) situation. You can see we have 2 screens - the left PFD focusing on flight performance (airspeed, heading, attitude, altitude) and the right screen (MFD) focusing on engine data, mapping, checklists, and everything else. Failed PFD screen In this scenario the screen that is right in front of you (the PFD) has failed. This basically means the screen has gone dark. We simulate that by dimming the screen down to 0% brightness. After darkening the PFD we shot a GPS approach into Rock Hill. When this failure has occured you shift the G1000 into Reversionary mode. That means the info that is normally split across 2 screens is now merged into 1. It actually duplicates the same data on both screens, but since the PFD screen is no longer functioning
Read more