Cloud Seeder
SNS3Guppy,
Many moons ago I did a lot of cloud seeding, both line seeding at minus 5 degree centigrade and cumulus/cu nim in a Cessna 310 with minimal de ice/anti ice equipment. In the pre-flight met briefing for the area to be seeded, it was most important to know the outside air temperature at the lowest safe altitude. If the OAT at Lsalt was not above zero, then the line would not be seeded. Our location of seeding was in Australia, so the system worked well. In other countries this would not be the case.
In line seeding the aircraft would be flown until the ice build up caused the wing to approach the stall (when 5 degrees of bank would cause pre-stall buffet),then the aircraft would be put in the descent at about 140 Kts Ias until the ice broke off in sheets, then back up to seeding altitude and do it all again. This system worked well and taught a lot about controlling an aircraft close to the stall.
The value of the unsophisticated, simple, outside air temperature gauge made the operation a success. In an emergency it can be used to replace an altimeter indication.
Tmb