Flight tomorrow morning, potential for ice?

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sanforce

Pre-takeoff checklist
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sanforce
Hey guys, I have a training flight scheduled for 8 am tomorrow morning. The forecast is reading clear VFR conditions and then the rest of the week is supposed to get snowy again. I know it's going to be cold and if there is a chance of icing my instructor wont let us fly, which is a good thing. Safety first, of course!

What kind of prep work can I do to show my instructor that there will/won't be icing conditions. It would be much better, in my opinion, if I come into the preflight lesson with some knowledge and homework done on the current situation.

Additionally, I am about to start the AOPA Weather Wise "Precipitation & Icing" online course. I'm sure a wealth of information will be presented in it, but I still would like input and discussion from the experienced pilots that visit this forum.
 
Thanks for the help last night Scott. It turned out to be a great, if rather cold, morning flight. It got pretty choppy for a bit there, which was kind of a surprise for me. We ended up due north of KDEN, so visual precipitation was never an issue.
 
sanforce:
besides and in addition to using Scotts expertise, do you know how to use the DUATS system and the aviation web-based data either a link from the national weather service to the aviation WX or go on to ADDS site. Of course you can (and should) call the briefer and ask for an outlook briefing for your area.
 
I can't use DUATS yet because I still haven't gotten a medical. As for ADDS, I understand pireps and the basics of adds (winds, cloud bases/ceilings.) I just wasn't really sure about how to predict an icing environment. It seems like visual precipitation is the most important thing to watch for during VFR.

That's about the extent of my weather knowledge. I guess it is time for that chapter in my Jep text book.

Dutchess, do you know of any other weather/icing guides?
 
ADDS has so much more than winds, clouds: Start working with the FA's/Prog Charts/METARS-TAFS/AIRMETS-SIGMETS. Just go onto the site and start playing with the information there to learn about what you can get from it....and yes, the chapter on WX should be the FIRST one you read about in your training, IMHO.

BTW: During my primary training, every time we flew my CFI had me print out the FA's/WINDS-TEMPS ALOFT Text /METARS and TAFS for the home and local fields and X-C Routes. We reviewed them together, it's a habit I still do now.
 
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sanforce said:
Thanks for the help last night Scott. It turned out to be a great, if rather cold, morning flight. It got pretty choppy for a bit there, which was kind of a surprise for me. We ended up due north of KDEN, so visual precipitation was never an issue.
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Because I care about fellow pilots, and please don't take this wrong, this should not have been a total surprise....especially in the terrain over which you fly, clear and cold mornings usually create potential for LLWS as mixing in the lower atmosphere has not yet begun or is just beginning to even out temp layers (LLWS-change in vertical or horizontal wind velocity or direction within a narrow column or space). Just my $.02.
 
You have winds, you have mountains. Put the two together, you can get bumps. Add clouds to the mix, and you may get more bumps. Remember a lot of times the clearest days are the ones that have the most bumps. :)

I've never flown in Boulder, but I'd expect turbulence to be a fairly common event. I presume your instructor is giving you some good mountain flying instruction (or at least will). That's something I'm looking forward to taking when I can get out there. So far I've only flown in/over New Mexico and Arizona, landing in very southern Utah as far as states out there go.

As to icing conditions: Ice doesn't appear out of thin air, it requires the presense of moisture (Scott knows more about the actual phenomenon than I do, I just know when I've picked up ice and when I haven't). While it's possible to accumulate frost in VMC, that is pretty rare. I've only once gotten frost to accumulate in VMC, and that was isoalted to my windshield on a snowy day. So, there was actually visible moisture. My guess is the windshield was just at the right temperature to melt the snow and refreeze it immediately. If you actually end up getting ice in VMC, it's probably because you were flying through freezing rain, which is an exceedingly bad idea.

In more complicated terms, ice is not equal to ice, as there are different types, different severities, and different conditions that may or may not cause it to stick to your aircraft. However what it comes down to for someone in a non-FIKI aircraft is you just avoid it entirely. The general rule is that means you avoid IMC in the winter.
 
I was flying right after sunrise on the tenth. I had, before this point, always thought bumps only arise on warm days. We took off right after sun up, and flew pretty low to stay out of KDENs class bravo airspace. 6500ft while finding 18V if I remember right.

DutchessFlier said:
BTW: During my primary training, every time we flew my CFI had me print out the FA's/WINDS-TEMPS ALOFT Text /METARS and TAFS for the home and local fields and X-C Routes. We reviewed them together, it's a habit I still do now.
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We do go over weather and winds aloft before every flight. However, he was pretty suprised as well because it got really choppy for a few minutes. I pesonally don't mind a bit of chop, but I would like to understand what was happening.

So, from what I understand, this was probably just due to the sun coming up. This led to warm air rising to balance temps out. It was back to smooh flight after a few minutes, which meant the temps leveled out.

Scott, I glanced at your site and it looks great. I'll definately look into the courses that you have to offer.

Thanks for the help everyone
 
Scott, you, of course, give more technical explanations. :)
 
sanforce said:
Yes, but it's not always the best answer. Especially when I'm hung over at 8 in the morning!
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You'll fit in just fine at Wings, Gaston's, etc. just fine.
 
Thanks Scott...this continues to be an excellent thread. I will continue to stress how majorly important it is for us all to understand WX and how it affects our flying and how we need to know about the various phenomena that are everpresent.

Always learning!
 
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