I, fly / have flown, the Great Lakes ice machine my entire life... Ice and
frost are a way of life here and you learn to make good decisions or you
become an item in the newspaper...

Given your circumstances - night - innocent passengers - high altitude -
rising terrain - VISIBLE ice/frost on the wings check the far/aim on
this - you made exactly the right decision... And if you keep making the
same decision in the same circumstances you will be around to lecture the
next generation of pilots on the topic...

Forget the guys saying you coulda/shoulda have tried it cuz you coulda
returned to the airport if things weren't working out - that attitude is
likely to buy them a smoking hole in the ground...

General aviation averages 5 crashes a day, and a death almost every day...
(1820 crashes / 360 deaths - yr. 2002) and 98% of those crashes are
directly traceable to bad decisions - flying into bad wx - flying with a
known engine problem - running out of fuel - attempting takeoff with frost
on wings - etc...

Denny

"smackey" wrote in message