Life Lessons of an Iced-Up Mooney

A flight from Illinois on an average winter day becomes a reminder to not become complacent or let yourself be intimidated by ATC.

John Folk

Monday, July 10, 2023 at 04:59 PM ET

Verified

[Credit: Joel Kimmel]

Key Takeaways:

A pilot flying a Mooney encountered immediate and severe airframe icing at 17,000 feet after attempting to climb above rising cloud tops in eastern Ohio.
Despite initial ATC hesitation, the pilot asserted an immediate descent to lower altitudes to escape the icing, ultimately shedding the ice and landing safely.
Key lessons included the importance of never panicking, asserting pilot authority for safety, and the need for better pre-flight weather analysis, especially regarding icing at cloud tops.
The pilot subsequently upgraded the aircraft with a TKS anti-icing system to prevent future similar incidents.

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It was your typical winter day in the Chicago area, cold with the ceiling around 500 feet agl. My wife and daughters were driving to New Jersey to visit family, so this was an awesome excuse for me to fly my Mooney Ovation2 GX—the first one out of the factory with the Garmin G1000 in late 2004—to the east coast and introduce our Brazilian foreign exchange student to his first flight in a small airplane.

This Article First Appeared in FLYING Magazine

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