Known icing - how realistic is it?

On 7-Aug-2003, Mike wrote:

Anyone who flys a lightplane into known icing is just plain nuts. If
you had seen what I have, no one would disagree.


Flying light airplanes in the Pacific Northwest over the part 34 years,
often IFR, I have had more than my share of icing experiences. In virtually
all cases, with slow buildup of rime or mixed ice, suitable deice equipment
would have turned anxious moments of elevated risk into pretty much
non-events. Deice would have also allowed me to make a number of flights
that I scrubbed because the risk of unavoidable icing was just too great.

I don't think that having deice would significantly alter my strategy, which
is to get out of the icing as quickly as possible, but it would sure give me
greater peace of mind, and many more options,while doing so. Unfortunately,
I am not in a position to be able to afford an airplane with any sort of
deice capability.

-Elliott Drucker