Is there any way to avoid ice other than staying on the ground?

You made the right decision. Never ignore your gut feeling.

There is a ton of icing information available on the web these days...the
ADDS page is very helpful in taking those airmets that cover several states
and adding specificity. A rule to remember is that when ice is predicted in
a volume of airspace there is a 75 percent chance that the prediction will
be correct....but there is only a 15 percent chance that ice will occur on a
given route. Whether those two figures will combine to deliver ice cubes
along your route is problematical. The ADDS Java tool page lets you look at
a cross-section of your route vis a vis icing threat, and of course there
are specific icing potential pages where you can look at the threat at
different altitudes.

Bob Gardner

"Paul Tomblin" wrote in message
...
I cancelled a flight yesterday because on top of strong gusty winds there
was an Airmet Zulu for light to moderate mixed and rime ice, and on top of
that the destination was reporting layers at about 2,000 and 4,000 feet, a
freezing level of about 3,000 feet, with occassional ceilings of 800 feet
and rain. It seemed to me that I could probably fly between or above the
layers en-route, but I was worried about the possibility of having to
descend through two layers of wet (and possibly icy) clouds and maybe have
to do an approach to minimums in very gusty winds.

I know I did the right thing based on my low level of experience, but any
ice tips from the experts, especially up here in the Great Lakes area.

--
Paul Tomblin http://xcski.com/blogs/pt/
An Emacs reference mug is what I want. It would hold ten gallons of
coffee.
-- Steve VanDevender