I agree wholeheartedly with the advice you have been given by others, but I
want to add something: Part 135 pilots are prohibited from taking off an
aircraft "...that has frost, ice, or snow adhering to any rotor blade,
propeller, windshield, wing, stabilizing or control surface...." although
provision is made for polishing frost to make it smooth. If paying
passengers deserve this level of care, surely your non-paying friends also
deserve it.

Bob Gardner

"smackey" wrote in message
m...
I'm looking for some advice whether I was too onservative he

I recenly flew a VFR flight from Billings, MT to Bozeman, MT. About
40 miles east of Bozeman I decided that I needed to delare IFR and
filed for an Ifr clearance into BZN in order to descend through a 2500
ft cloud layer. I got the clearance into BZN, and landed without
incident.

Later that evening I went to the plane (C172/180) to return to BIL
and found a very thin layer of ice (about 5 or 6 pages of paper thick)
on all the leading edges of my plane. It was dark, about 10pm, and I
elected to stay the night. The night was patchy clouds, but mostly
clear. I had to clear a 9000 foot ridge from a 4500 foot airport,
which the plane was easily capable of doing in normal circumstances.

The ice, and slight frost, on the airplane caused me stay. As I have
never really tried to fly with a slight layer of frost or ice, I
stayed; but I wonder if I was too cautious. It would have been very
convenient for me and my passengers to go. Here's my question: just
how much ice/frost is too much? Would the ice/frost probably have
sublimated on climb out?