Rime ice giving your Cessna 210 a quarter-inch coating was the inbound surprise to Mission Field in Livingston, Montana. As one accustomed to life without ice protection, you were careful in the planning and had an alternate, but you simply didn’t expect to pick up that much extra drag on approach. Still, cloud levels were as forecast, with just a 3000-foot layer to dive through on descent. This helped in the end, along with arriving 15 knots faster, clean, with extra power, then going gear-down later on final, just to be sure. Luckily, conditions at KLVM were expected to improve in a couple days for departure back east to Alexandria, Minnesota. Yeah, the forecast…
Fly the Numbers
Launch day dawns to a ceiling of 800 feet, freezing temperature, with a 4000- foot layer to climb through. It should work out ice-free as the nearest AIRMET Zulu begins 60 miles east and reaches 100 miles slightly north of your route, covering altitudes between 6000 and 10,000 feet. Naturally, icing conditions could be more or less widespread than that, but you’ll stick to the plan for now given tops around 7500 feet and gradually clearing skies. An easy escape plan from icy IMC would be to the south.
