There are around 1600 CRJ 100/200 and Challenger aircraft in service today (don't count the 700/900 series as they have slats) and until VERY recently, everybody flew them with no problems through all types of weather.
That said, all decently trained pilots of these aircraft are made well aware that the lack of leading edge devices combined with a supercritical airfoil means that the airfoil will brook very little contamination without serious consequenses
. It is actually a maintenance function to polish the leading edges of these aircraft at designated intervals as flying with them unpolished will affect the performance, so obviously even a little bit of ice buildup before takeoff will cause grief if not dealt with. In flight, however, there is negligible effect as the anti-ice system works well, and there is seldom need for extended flight in significant ice in jet aircraft anyways.
At the time that both of these series of aircraft were designed, Canadair was basically called foolish. Who would buy a wide-body business jet when sleek lears and citations were the norm? 500-600 airframes later we see it to have been a good idea. The CRJ was an even wilder design idea. Nobody bought the idea that a jet could be fiscally viable with only 50 seats. The 1000th of the 50 seater will soon come off the line. My point here is that the cost of adding the complexity of slats to these aircraft was not prudent at the time that these were being designed. It is a bit of a pain to have to respect the limitations of the airfoil, but that is about it. Full stalls (to the pusher) as we do in production test flights are definitely a no-no and the almost complete lack of pre stall buffet is not an exaggeration. Not to be done except under very controlled conditions! By the time the 700 was designed, almost 1000 of the 50 seaters had been ordered and it made sense to go the extra distance and add slats. Yes circling approaches are a lot easier in the 700 with its slats and lower speeds, but they are certainly not dangerous in a 200 if proper procedures are followed.
By the way, Odd One, Thanks for the neat link!
Some absolutely fantastic nerd material there, which I will definitely spend some time perusing!
(EM dons his anorak and puts fresh cello tape on the glasses.............)