I finally got a chance to fly back to LHTL in Hungary yesterday. The wind was howling 20kt gusts on the ground with intermittent rain showers mixed in on occasion with some snow flurries. Originally I had planned on a Z plan departure and would pick up the IFR at a not too distant intersection from the airport. The rain would let up and the ceilings would lift 2000’ and then in a half hour it would for back down to 1000’ sct occasionally broken. So I bit the bullet and refiled IFR. Hated to do this because of EDMS policy to extract every cent from someone who uses their airport. So in retaliation I to make sure they dont extract every cent I have and if they do at least they do something for it. In this case they had to call ATC and give me my Squawk code, altitude, and which SID I should fly.
I figure for that 5 Euros I would not have to deal with trying to stay VFR while in a challenging flight especially potential icing then trying to establish a comm link with Munich.
So off I went Climbing through various layers first to FL035 then cleared to FL070 then onto FL100. Every time I passed through a layer Id pick up ice. But I had charged the TKS on preflight. So between DeIce and Anti ice and off I used the system. At FL090 I broke out into the clear. But as I was heading ESE I noticed build ups ahead. It seems that over Austria there always seems to be a wall of clouds. Ive noticed this on many occasions. In any case no sooner had the TKS gotten rid of the ice I entered the clouds again ice and again De ice on then anti ice. Finally the Gramet suggested clear skies above so asked for FL120. There I was on top for a while. The temp was -14C at 10K and -16 t 12K. Leaving Austria became clear for a short while. Then another wall of clouds probably up to 14k or higher but since I was so close to my destination I didnt want to go up but rather down. I had a great tailwind between 40-50kts. More Ice and more TKS and it was time to descend. About 3NM from my destination I broke out at 6000’. Nice landing only a 15kt crosswind.
By the time I got unpacked the weather hit and started to rain and became abit more windy. All together I used 2.1 gals of TKS fluid. The trip normally takes 2 hrs and did it in 1:35
Nice to be able to go.
