Flying in rain

[WillFly4Food]

Oh, one more thing:

I fly through rain, green on xm weather, yellow is a no go unless it is small or barely yellow. Snow is fun too, but you have to be careful it doesn't stick.

...avoid the yellow snow.

 

[MauleSkinner]

Off the original topic a little, I thought snow was considered an icing condition, so you couldn’t fly through snow without a FIKI aircraft. Can’t cite a reference though. True?

Not that I anticipate ever being faced with that down here....

Icing conditions are when liquid water (rain, cloud) are available to freeze on your airplane in cold temperatures. Snow is already frozen, so it generally won’t stick.

 

[Maxnr]

There are some hazy high humidity days over the LA basin and over parts of Florida where the weather is totally VFR but you are seeing 5 miles at most. You keep thinking you will fly into a white wall of IMC but this little 5 mile of visibility bubble just follows along with you

When I threw my two cents into the discussion, I thought it was confined to rain. I stuck to the topic. Now about haze. I flew utility and transport helicopters for the energy industry. 25 years. Mobile to Corpus. I instructed new hires. Most summer days, when there was a high sitting on us, one could pick out a feature on the surface at eight miles. (average) Some days were better, some worse. The multimode radar in the nose was essential at times. Company minimums for VFR are 300 & 2.
Continuing on haze. One day I took a PA-28 from Georgia to Maine. From my log, I did it in 10 hours and logged 7 inst. I remember trying to climb above the haze, gave up and came back down to 7,000. Vis was OK. I had 3 plus. When ATC called opposite direction traffic, I could spot them. However, I had no visible horizon, so it was IMC. I had to rock up on a wing to see the ground. From 7K, it was a small patch directly below. I was happy at 7 making good time. I recall that the haze had a yellowish tinge and sunglasses were essential.

 

[IK04]

Those people in Washingtoregon call it "Liquid Sunshine."

 

[Maxnr]

One item in rain flying that hasn't been covered here yet is to watch your OAT. I'd like to recall a flight way back when I was an active duty MedEvac pilot working out of Georgia. Equipment was the UH-1H Huey.
Our crew was dispatched around 2300 hrs on an urgent med evac. At the the time, there was no Air Methods or Life flight. Military crews filled the gap under a program called MAST.
Patient on board and on an IFR clearance at Oh-dark-early we were in light rain. An OAT check said zero C. I turned on pitot heat and engine anti ice. Also W.S. defrost. All we had. The next 45 minutes got a little louder. It sounded like we were in blowing sand. It was sleet. Broke into the clear, dropped off the patient and post flighted the bird at about 0400. AOK.
Got a cup of coffee in the office and it was time to begin the new duty day. The Commander fetched me about 0800 and I followed him out on the ramp to my AC. He said "Look." The paint on the nose and LE of the sync elevator was sand blasted bare. As was the leading edge of every thing else.
A year or two prior, A Navy doctor friend had his "J" Bonanza repainted and ATC let him fly into something big and convective with no word of warning. He tried to sue. My Huey looked just like Cal's BE-35.
I was in the glider scene in Texas. A guy from the TSA glider field hopped over to where I was (120 NM give or take) in his Libelle. He told of a student pilot that managed to get sucked up into a developing CB. He did in fact land OK after about 45 min. Its not known what altitude he achieved. His lips and fingernails were blue. His face was cut by ice particles that had entered the nose vent and blown into the cockpit through the gasper in the panel. All leading edges were "sandblasted", The top wing skin was stress wrinkled. He was invited to quit the club on the spot.

 

[Jason Jennings]

I hear that dish soap mixed with a little wax in the TKS system keeps a high shine on a Cirrus.

Definitely NOT recommended!!!

 

[Bill]

The OP said showers, with a clearly stated questions around visibility and ceilings:

But often there is associated rain showers that can be flown through with out fear of entering the thunderstorm itself. Is it correct that I can just fly through rain showers as long as visibility and ceilings are VFR?​

There is a difference, and the ability to fly legally and safely through showers -- while getting the plane clean at the same time.

OP -- A good rule of thumb is to ask yourself is if you can see all the way through the precip, thereby avoiding embedded thunderstorms or visibility issues, and what is your "out" strategy.

When entering strong shafts of rain like this one should be ready to encounter a strong downdraft and sink rate. Just sayin'.

 

[N1120A]

There are some hazy high humidity days over the LA basin and over parts of Florida where the weather is totally VFR but you are seeing 5 miles at most. You keep thinking you will fly into a white wall of IMC but this little 5 mile of visibility bubble just follows along with you

The haze thing is so real. Our Romanian buddy and I were flying the Tiger to KBUR and it was about 8-10 miles visibility the whole way, but that was it. It was like "when will we get the airport...oh...there it is." Then ask about the jerking around tower gave is.

Oh, one more thing:



...avoid the yellow snow.

And the steaming divot

 

[denverpilot]

Off the original topic a little, I thought snow was considered an icing condition, so you couldn’t fly through snow without a FIKI aircraft. Can’t cite a reference though. True?

Not that I anticipate ever being faced with that down here....

To add to the other comments about snow, I’ve flown in some that was essentially slush. Warm temps trapped underneath the cloud bottoms with snow falling from well above into the warmer air. It’ll just “splat” in those conditions. Nearly like rain.

But the fully frozen stuff, as others have mentioned, usually just flows around the airplane without sticking to anything.

It also can create a LOT of static buildup on an airframe with no, or poorly working, static wicks, and make all the radios sound like ass.

Wasn’t my airplane and for various other reasons (the list was long!, I never flew with the guy again, but was in a 337 that had that problem in a snowstorm once;, and it nearly made the radios unusable. It was so obnoxious.

Rather insidious too if you didn’t know what it was. In areas of weaker ATC comm radio coverage the static on the airframe could almost wipe them out on receive.

That airplane was poorly maintained in other ways and after two flights where the gear didn’t want to come down and the owner saying he’d been putting up with that for years, I was done getting into it.

 

[Zeldman]

So.....does anyone sing while flying in the rain.??

 

[WillFly4Food]

Was flying a 182 in snowy weather once, and snow started coming in from the air vents. It was like hey - what’s this stuff flying around in here. For a few seconds it seemed like there was more snow inside than out.

 

[denverpilot]

Was flying a 182 in snowy weather once, and snow started coming in from the air vents. It was like hey - what’s this stuff flying around in here. For a few seconds it seemed like there was more snow inside than out.

LOL. Even more fun when rain starts making its way around the S curve to supposedly stop that. Haha.

All of a sudden I’m taking my second shower of the day... where is that coming from?! LOL