Icing on the cake
Anybody know what TKS stands for? Somebody once told me but it does not immediately spring to mind - I think it is the name of the company that first came up with the technology for this system which is pretty good at de-ice and is not just anti-ice.
I completely agree that ice is to be avoided if at all possible and that having a "get out" plan is essential if one gets too frozen up. Certification for flight into known ice simply implies a certain degree of systems redundancy has been achieved by the airframe manufacturer which is acceptable to the jurisdiction conferring the certification. It does not mean that all icing is now no problem.
My experience of significant rapid airframe icing has mainly been crossing cold fronts where there has been significant precipitation. Warm and occluded fronts tend to be more gentle in terms of the turbulence, precipitation intensity and rate of ice accretion.
Whichever the scenario the intense icing has been pretty short-lived (20-30 mins) depending on the breadth of the front and the TKS has taken care of it effectively.
Inability of the TKS to cope would demand a rapid descent (maintaining airspeed in order to avoid a tail stall) to below the freezing level but as a previous contributor has pointed out the freezing level is often at or not much above the MSA in the winter.
Wx radar or datalinked weather would help to avoid the most intense precip in the cold front crossing scenario - I can think of several occasions when I would dearly have liked to have it on board.
Maybe if I ask santa nicely...
SB