Did I do something stupid (icing)?

I didn’t really fear for ice (pre IR anyway, and before really looking up online), until once in a couple seconds the plane couldn’t maintain altitude.
It was summer, with freezing level way above MSA, no not too hard to recover. However, in your case I would feel if I get to that point there’s no espape (if you can’t maintain altitude and start descending, the ice is not going to met)
Freezing fog is not something I’d casually adventure myself in. Probably only in the case of an emergency, actually.

What was the visibility (RVR) and the visibility minima at your destination? As you know, on a precision approach it is the RVR which is determinant, not the ceiling.

What was the temperature above 2000 feet?
Did you have a good alternate? What was the weather at the alternate?

The real danger of FZFG in that situation is what it would do to your windshield. What would you have done if ice formed on the windshield and you could not get rid of it somehow? What was the temperature above?

Did you turn the defroster to max heat to try avoid ice to form?

Hi there,

First of all, welcome to this place. Coincidentally, I just published a guide on how to “use” LFST as a visitor. Maybe I even saw your aircraft in the GA hangar. I see you are also an ATCO at LFST. Interesting.

Re your topic: are you sure you flew through the fog for a full 2000 feet? From my experience, these layers tend to be much less thick. To answer your question: without knowing all the details, I think you did OK with the outs you had and the risk of picking up significant amounts of ice on the airframe wasn’t given. But yes, do consider the problem of a thin coat of ice on the windshield next time.

boscomantico wrote:

But yes, do consider the problem of an iced-up windscreen next time.

And propeller. And everything else. I remember an operation into Berlin Tempelhof (must be some years ago…) in a Cessna 421 at night. Similar conditions to the ones described. The first approach resulted in a go-around, the approach lights were just not visible at the minimum, but it looked as there was hope. So we did another one and could land. We dropped our few boxes of cargo and left in a hurry because the airport closed a 10PM and we only had a few minutes left. No walkaround, just start the engines and go. After takeoff, it took several attempts to raise and lock the gear. Back home we saw why: Every part of the gear was covered in at least one centimetre of clear ice that we picked up during those two approaches and departure in freezing fog. To a point that it must have blocked parts of the mechanism, therefore the difficulties upon retraction. It all went very quickl. This aircraft had electrical windshield de-ice and propeller anti-ice, therefore we were not aware of the amount of ice accumulated. I never forget that experience and will certainly not fly into a layer of freezing fog with anything that can not handle it.

I do not think it is particularly advisable to plan flight into FZFG without any aircraft de-icing.

What is important is to consider all factors, make sure you have appropriate outs if things start going south.

Here are the factors I would consider:

1. Risk: effect of icing on aircraft performance during tha approach. As long as you are descending on an approach the effect of icing may be mitigated by carrying a little extra airspeed and also restricting use of flaps to avoid tailplane stall. (But on the other hand you should not put yourself in such a situation in the first place.)
2. Risk: effect of icing on aircraft performance for go-around. In case of a go-around will you have enough power/lift to climb back to safety, and are there higher temperatures above that will allow you to shed the ice? What about the effect of ice on the propeller and possible vibrations induced by ice during the go-around when you need full power (RPM)?
3. Risk: effect of icing on visibility. If you lose outside visibility will you be able to carry out a go-around, and will you be able to shed the ice in order to complete a landing at your alternate? Mitigated by use of defroster but the defroster may not be enough to keep the ice away.
4. Risk: pitot icing. Countered by use of pitot heat
5. Risk: cannot complete landing at destination. How good is the alternate?

Its sounds from your description that the TAF gave FZFG but the actual was low stratus, base 200’ viz 2000m+. Therefore it would not have been very shallow, hence the 2000’ icing layer. In the event of a go-around you could have had at least 5 mins in icing, and that is only on the assumption that the cloud was only 2000’ thick and that your rate of climb was not affected by icing. Being at night you were very limited on alternates or other options therefore you were betting everything on not having to do a GA and not getting so much ice that ROC was badly affected.

Given that your best alternate was only 1 hr away by rental car this was clearly an unnecessary risk. However as you were alone it was your choice.

Thanks for sharing your experience!

I would not do a flight at night in freezing fog with a non-deiced SEP.

Risk is something personal and you proved it can be done successfully in these conditions. It will work 99 out of 100 times.
The issue is that there were multiple risk factors piled up (night/single pilot/SEP/weather) and the escape (descent into positive temperatures) was missing.