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Message
"Moderate and in some situations, light icing buildup can be an emergency
situation. I have fought the battles with ATC here in New England many times
over altitude changes needed to get me out of icing. Most times they come
through and allow me to climb (yes, my first reaction to ice is to climb). On
one occasion, in moderate icing, I had to use the 'E' word, cleared things right
up. No paperwork involved."
Bruce, thats the
whole story. I have an Ice checklist. I am going to add Declare Emergency if
Appropriate to the list.
I suspect there have
been circumstances where controllers have wondered why the pilot has not done
so. It is not the controllers call.
I have never heard
of a case where the FAA has violated a pilot for flying into ice when the pilot
declared an emergency and there was no accident. And if you do have an
accident due to icing the chances are a violation will not be necessary. Thus,
according
to Pascals theory declaring the emergency is the pilots best
option.
It's a matter of
judgement. We do not want to make controllers scatter traffic because some
scary pants FLIB declared an emergency when a little rime accumulated on an OAT
probe but neither should we fear the FAA nor try to be heros in the face of the
unknown. If you are really uncomfortable, do what you have to do to be safe.
AVEMCO and the rest of us will appreciate it.
Bob
Barker
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