Icing

[Hover]

Does anyone have any good icing stories, like climbing through a thin layer that turned up being not too thin? When you start noticing performance deteriorating its obviously time to turn around, but has anybody out there taken it that far?

[busman]

I don't know about "good" icing stories.
Here in the North sea, by the very nature of the environment we can get icing. It
depends on your aircraft type and it's icing clearance on how you deal with it. (many
types have no icing clearance at all!) It's rare to experience bad icing as we tend to stay
out of those conditions. Occasionally descending from a flight level ,or when trying to
climb out "on top" you misjudge the freezing level and find you are accumulating ice
faster than you would like and if you're really unlucky (or foolish) get all the classic
signs; increased vibration (changing the rotor rpm to change the centre of pressure
sometimes helps), maybe higher TOT, less power etc. The good news for us is that if
we descend to sea level there is normally a warmer level above the sea where ice drops
off. Not guaranteed though!! Frontal Wx in winter, i.e. rapid cold fronts, can mean that
you accumulate ice down to the surface. Time to turn back/ go home and land!!
The one thing to avoid is freezing rain. Helicopters stop flying not long after they
encounter it!!.Stay in Bed.