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Final Approach
Lately I've been looking for opportunities to get experience in actual IMC, which are few and far between in winter around the Great Lakes. I just noticed that the forecast sounding between 900mb and about 750mb, for my home field tomorrow at from about 19Z on, looks a lot like the upper parts of many Skew-Ts when there are high cirrus clouds, which are usually glaciated. The T and DP curves parallel each other but are usually a few degrees apart. Now the skew-Ts for nearby airports don't look like this and some show the T and DP curves actually touching, so maybe this is due to something else, such as air that isn't quite saturated to the point of condensation, or even a model artifact... But these temperatures are so cold, in the mid -20s by 5000 MSL or so that it's hard to imagine there's much liquid water in any clouds that will be up there. Yes I know -- the theoretical limit is still colder, -40. But what are the chances of encountering structural icing in clouds this cold?
This is probably going to remain a theoretical "what if" kind of question unless I can be really sure the clouds are completely glaciated. I don't fly a FIKI bird and at these temperatures, I don't really have an "out" unless I can get on top for long enough to sublimate the ice, and then get back down without going through the nasty stuff.
This is probably going to remain a theoretical "what if" kind of question unless I can be really sure the clouds are completely glaciated. I don't fly a FIKI bird and at these temperatures, I don't really have an "out" unless I can get on top for long enough to sublimate the ice, and then get back down without going through the nasty stuff.