Identifying Ice

[TAILspin38]

I have been reviewing freezing levels and icing conditions. Being new to flying and having never seen ice on the plane, am looking for some insight. Where would the first visual indication likely show up, how easy is it to notice on our WHITE composite wing, and ease of identifying it at night (which we do a fair amount of)? Can a piece of dark tape be placed on the leading edge of the wing to help accent? Thanks for any worldly experiences.

[Bryce]

During the day you'll easily see rime or mixed on the leading edge of the wing root. Not hard to see. At night, good luck with that. Maybe use a strong flashlight and look at the root again?

[mysands]

I have seen ice on the wing root during the day, in and out of fair-weather cumulus tops, with the OAT probe reading +4C. They are not very accurate (impact air heat?)?

Sandeep

[Pbwears1]

Put a strip of black "Gaffers Tape" on the pilots side wing /root...the contrast is helpful

[TAILspin38]

Thanks for all the feedback

[waynemcc999]

Also be alert for prop roughness -- this happened to me once at 12,500' over central Texas. At the same time we picked up a burst of ice dust on the wing leading edges. We solved the wing issue by descending to warmer air... and shed the bit of ice on the prop by pushing up the prop RPMs to full (~2700) for 15 seconds or so, then back to normal rpm (e.g. 2450). YMMV

[Bryce]

I don't think I'd be flying the DA40 at night in potential icing conditions. I owned my DA40 for about 1.5 yrs when I picked up a not so insignificant about of ice flying over Lake Tahoe during the early morning. No ice forecast, but it was there. ATC did a good job of letting me climb and try to find bands of no ice, but no luck. I started getting pronounced prop vibration and cycled the prop several times to try to shed ice. That wasn't working, and airspeed was decaying. After telling ATC I was about to declare and go below the sector MVA, a biz jet spoke up and said if I could hold out and make it to a fix about 2 mins ahead, the cloud bases were just above the MVA. In the end I made it, but it was very stressful. It took about 10 more minutes for prop ice to break off, and another 30 for wing ice. It scared the crap out of me, so when I landed in SoCal I decided to sell my DA40 and bought a G36 Bonanza with TKS. Long story short, I'd be careful flying the DA40 at night in potential icing conditions. Just me, YMMV.

[TAILspin38]

Thanks Wayne and Bryce, all great advice

[dmloftus]

I also would not fly in anything close to icing conditions at night. If that is a mission requirement, you need a different plane. In 2021 I was surprised by totally unforecast icing conditions on descent into Austin and landed with 1/4" to 1/2" along the entire leading edge. Luckily I had enough airfield to make my approach at a much higher speed to maintain control. It takes one close call to find religion about flight safety, some aren't so lucky to walk away from their first encounter with serious icing.

[TAILspin38]

Thanks David, I have been studying hard on weather and NTSB reports. I understand that the danger area is around 5C to -10C, and visible moisture. Can you give me some of your possible scenarios of go and no goes. All WISDOM FROM EXPERIENCE is greatly appreciated, thanks