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It complicates things. Yes, the Merid- ian is FIKI-equipped, but if you lose any one aspect of the FIKI system, the airplane will not be ready for an icing scenario. Ice can turn a seem- ingly easy flight into a disaster if you are not prepared. I tell my clients, “Never hang out in ice.” Why? When you are in ice, you never know the amount of accumulation you might develop. Things can rapidly go from good to terrible.
In an icing discussion, there’s more to mention. Concerning flaps in ice, less is better. I made a good choice by not deploying flaps while in ice. And by keeping the airspeed up. There’s probably a “minimum icing speed” listed for your airplane, and this num- ber is one you should have memorized. If you are in ice, your wing will stall at a lesser angle of attack than normal because of the disrupted airflow. And your stall warning vane will not work at all, even if you have stall warning heat on. With ice, make sure you fly at a higher airspeed and do not make abrupt flight control inputs.
What’s the most important “take- away” I hope you get from my Iceland icing discussion? It is this: What hap- pened to me at the 65 degrees of north latitude will have a strong potential to happen to you at the 27th thru 49th latitude soon. The wintery weather is moving towards us. Now is prob- ably the right time to start flying with the icing systems on to ensure your system will be ready when you sum- mon the electrons. Plan, prepare and mentally commit that you will not let an icing potential catch you off guard. Commit now that you’ll avoid moder- ate icing, that you’ll never fly in freez- ing precipitation, and that you’ll turn on pitot heat on every flight.
Dan Moore
AOPA
Joe Casey is an FAA-DPE and an ATP, CFI, CFII (A/H), MEI, CFIG, CFIH, as well as a retired U.S. Army UH60 standardization instruc-tor/ examiner. An active instructor in the PA46 and King Air markets, he has accumulated 14,300-plus hours of flight time, with more than 5,200 dual-given as a flight instructor. Contact Joe at joe@flycasey.com or 903.721.9549.
November 2021 / TWIN & TURBINE • 19