The very first Flight I did as PIC after gaining my MECIR back in 1988 (Total flying time then was around 600hrs) was a charter for the Flying School, flying the same aircraft in which I had done all the MECIR training, a Seneca 1
The flight was in mid July, from YPAD to YMTG with 4pax and the forecast was not very encouraging.
30 to 45 kt winds from abeam between 3000` and 8000,` rain, possible embedded TS activity and icing in cloud. Amongst various other things but I`m sure you get the picture!
I had passed the flight test only about a week previously, which was a retest as I had actually failed the first flight test ( got out of tolerance on a NDB approach) because it was flown in weather conditions virtually identical to those I faced on the day of the charter.
Suffice it to say I was slightly apprehensive, but decided that I would not have been given the job if I could not handle it, and so off we went.
The `Readers Digest Abridged and Condensed` verion of the story;
I was IMC for about 85% of the leg YPAD to YMTG and with a certain amount of interest watched rime ice form on the wings and windscreen! I became visual on descent into YMTG well above LSALT but with a windscreen completely iced over!
It thankfully cleared within a few minutes but the occasional sound of what I assumed (correctly) was rime ice coming off the propellors and hitting the fuselage was somewhat disconcerting!
The remainder of the flight was somewhat of an anti-climax really. The waether cleared somewhat during the day and I was visual for most of the late afternoon/evening flight back.
A few years later I found myself in a Bongo Van in PNG, up at 17,000,` IMC crossing the Owen Stanleys from Wewak to Port Morbid, and after a while noticed that my shirt and shorts were sprinkled in what appeared to be a white powder which disappeared after a few minutes, but that is another story!
