Comments on: Light Aircraft and Icing http://www.plasticpilot.net/blog/2008/03/31/light-aircrafts-and-icing/ General Aviation and Aviation In General Thu, 11 Mar 2010 18:02:37 +0100 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.5 hourly 1 By: Mike http://www.plasticpilot.net/blog/2008/03/31/light-aircrafts-and-icing/comment-page-1/#comment-10836 Mike Thu, 06 Nov 2008 05:12:57 +0000 http://www.plasticpilot.net/blog/2008/03/31/light-aircrafts-and-icing/#comment-10836 It is a nice article. It is a nice article.

]]> By: PlasticPilot http://www.plasticpilot.net/blog/2008/03/31/light-aircrafts-and-icing/comment-page-1/#comment-1872 PlasticPilot Tue, 01 Apr 2008 18:33:12 +0000 http://www.plasticpilot.net/blog/2008/03/31/light-aircrafts-and-icing/#comment-1872 I agree with you Jess. Climbing through an icing layer is usually not a problem. What can me more problematic however are approaches with long level segments. Taking Geneva as an example (guess why), coming from the north-east to runway 05 requires to fly about 45 miles at 7'000ft. No way to get down, because of rocks. So if there is an icy layer from 7'000ft to 10'000ft, this would mean approximately 15 to 20 minutes in that. This is probably more than what it reasonably possible, even with a FIKI light aircraft. I agree with you Jess. Climbing through an icing layer is usually not a problem. What can me more problematic however are approaches with long level segments.

Taking Geneva as an example (guess why), coming from the north-east to runway 05 requires to fly about 45 miles at 7′000ft. No way to get down, because of rocks. So if there is an icy layer from 7′000ft to 10′000ft, this would mean approximately 15 to 20 minutes in that. This is probably more than what it reasonably possible, even with a FIKI light aircraft.

]]> By: Jess Sightler http://www.plasticpilot.net/blog/2008/03/31/light-aircrafts-and-icing/comment-page-1/#comment-1866 Jess Sightler Tue, 01 Apr 2008 02:18:43 +0000 http://www.plasticpilot.net/blog/2008/03/31/light-aircrafts-and-icing/#comment-1866 I have no personal experience, but the FIKI piston pilots that I've heard from have all agreed that it isn't powerful enough for prolonged flight into real icing conditions. Having said that, what it did do was to allow them to fly into "known icing" conditions long enough to (legally) break through a thin layer of light icing while climbing or descending to land. And, of course, it buys you time to get out of a bad situation in some cases as well. My suspicion is that the DA-42s normal use will not tend to lend itself to the types of flights that some other FIKI piston aircraft have been prone to (cf. Cessna 210). I have no personal experience, but the FIKI piston pilots that I’ve heard from have all agreed that it isn’t powerful enough for prolonged flight into real icing conditions. Having said that, what it did do was to allow them to fly into “known icing” conditions long enough to (legally) break through a thin layer of light icing while climbing or descending to land.

And, of course, it buys you time to get out of a bad situation in some cases as well. My suspicion is that the DA-42s normal use will not tend to lend itself to the types of flights that some other FIKI piston aircraft have been prone to (cf. Cessna 210).

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