Icing: Formation, Detection, and Escape
Key facts on structural icing formation, sounding analysis, and escape planning for non-deiced IFR flight.
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Questions Covered in This Set
11 cards to master
What two ingredients are required for structural icing?
Visible moisture (cloud, precipitation, freezing drizzle) plus an airframe surface at or below 0 °C.
In what temperature band does most airframe icing occur?
Between 0 °C and −20 °C, with the highest-LWC, nastiest accumulation typically from −2 °C to −10 °C in cumuliform clouds.
Why is cloud below about −20 °C usually less of an icing threat?
It's typically glaciated (ice crystals), which don't adhere to a cold airframe — but convective tops can still carry supercooled water much colder, so it can't be counted on.
How does droplet size determine ice type?
Small droplets freeze on impact at the leading edge producing rime; large droplets run back before freezing producing clear ice behind protected surfaces.
What makes Supercooled Large Droplets (SLD) so dangerous?
Freezing drizzle/rain forms ridges aft of boots or heated leading edges, ailerons can snatch, and even known-icing certified aircraft are prohibited from continued flight.
Name the visual clues of an SLD encounter.
Droplets striking and running back on a side window, ice on the sides of the fuselage, or accretion on unprotected areas aft of the wing boots.
On a Skew-T, how do you identify cloud layers?
Where the temperature and dewpoint traces are within about 2 °C of each other ('lines together'); above the freezing level these pinches mean icing.
What is a 'warm nose' on a sounding and why does it matter?
An above-0 °C inversion aloft over a subfreezing surface layer — the freezing rain/SLD signature and a hard no-go for a non-deiced airplane.
What do dry slots (large T/Td spread) represent for the icing pilot?
Escape altitudes — cloud-free or dry air where ice will sublime and accretion stops.
What is the instrument pilot's core icing question about any layer?
Where is the ice, how thick is the layer, and which direction gets me out of it in under five minutes?
Why can a saturated layer from surface to 14,000 ft with unknown tops be a no-go?
There is no on-top escape and the only exit is down into a subfreezing layer beneath a low freezing level — no viable ice-free option.
