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A short flight to Long Beach this morning, with cloud coverage and winter temps en-route. With the forecast showing a chance of icing, we make certain we have good “outs” and decide to launch... expecting to divert prior to our destination. We’ll see how this plays out. Thanks for flying with us. Wayne, GeezerGeek Pilot

Wayne, this is another great video! How did you feel when you had a trace ice? I've never flown any icing conditions in DA40 so I'm curious on which scale (1-5) the trace ice like in this video is:

1 (no big deal) - 2 (be more careful) - 3 (consider divert) - 4 (no, descend now) - 5 (you'll be killed)

Tosh, I've picked up ice (all were rime) only a handful of times...

One time with trace icing and no other effect on the aircraft (no pitch change, no TAS change, no change in control feel) but we had unfavorable terrain ahead and increasing precip ahead, and so we did a 180 back home. On your scale: 2 for the icing; 3 for the divert.

Another time (over Texas at 12,000') it was a 3 second burst of light icing on the leading edges (we must have flown thru a small wet snow band), but created a bit of prop roughness. We pushed the prop full forward and that shed the prop ice. We picked up no add'l ice, the front was breaking up, so we continued without issue. On your scale: 3.

The other few times were much like on this video. Lots of good "outs" with above freezing temps just a few thousand feet below. Zero impact on aircraft parameters or handling. On your scale: 2.

With PIREPs reporting ice along my route and close to my altitude... I'm a "no go". With no reports and only green/yellow on the precip map, I'll launch only if I have multiple high-certainty "outs".

Good question... thx!
Wayne

Great video.

From the video it looks like only some very light rime icing.

But in level cruise if I start picking up any ice (even in a FIKI Diamond twin), I'm immediately calling ATC and telling them about the icing to request a climb or descent. ATC may also use your request as the basis for issuing an icing PIREP. (Icing during departures or arrivals rather than in cruise may require a different strategy since you're already changing altitude.)

Icing tends to exist mostly in cloud *tops*, so climbing -- if you can get out of visible moisture -- is often better than descending. Most icing layers are less than 4000 feet thick.

Dave, I agree about pickup during cruise. In this case, the trace rime I got was in the climb (5K to 9K) with the lure of getting on top. Even though the tops crept up, I didn't collect any add'l once at 9K, and then soon thereafter started a series of descents.
Thanks,
Wayne

I had icing twice in our DA40. The first time was during an IFR lesson and we continued our climb watching the airspeed really carefully. The second time was flying from Phoenix to Santa Monica and I complained immediately. Even in the DA42 I won't fly into conditions where ice is reported, I'm just too much of a chicken. I read about the TBM over New Jersey that went down in reported icing conditions because they were worse than reported. That plane is more capable than mine. But I have loved the FIKI equipment when I have encountered a bit of icing here and there, sort of expected because of the temperatures and conditions. I always have outs.