Over the past couple of days I have seen some really interesting discussions where icing came up a lot. I have also seen that there is a fair bit of confusion on this particular topic. My personal view is I am surprised how little is understood and actually how little is taught outside of the ATPL syllabus on subject matter that applies to basically any pilot who flies out of sight of the ground. I personally thought it fine in my younger days with a newly acquired IMC rating to go cloud chasing and I was actually once advised by an instructor when I was still wet behind the ears that it would be better to be sat in cloud at 9000ft if you were going on a trip of any distance. I dont know if things have changed significantly in recent years but I personally didnt touch upon the subject until I did my IR and even then I would now say nowhere near as much as would serve to give enough information about exit strategies and icing planning etc. I was advised by an ATPL friend to do a specific course which is available on both ground icing and in flight icing and I couldnt believe that such an in depth and informative course was actually free of charge. I personally got great benefit from this course and will add the link at the end in case any fellow pilot wishes to explore the subject further. Of course I realise that a lot of pilots out there fully understand all there is to know about the subject so this isnt aimed at you but even if only one person looks at it and gets benefit from it, then the skies are a safer place today then they were yesterday.
Aircraft Icing Training - Courses
