Like most pilots, I learned the hard way. I used the autopilot in icing 3 years ago, noticed my airspeed drop 30 kts, disengaged the autopilot and ... oh boy ... was I up for a ride, I was lucky I was at 10K. Now I'm a training captain for my airline, and I always stress to the new guys "carefull with AP/Ice". We hire those CFIs, 1500ish Hours that were god's gift to aviation in theior previous job. But when they find themselves shooting a 2400ft RVR approach, all iced up they loose confidence, and turn the autopilot on.
Makes for interesting reports, but that's how they learn.
The medias, or guys like
Humble lack the practice and make up their mind with informations they piece up together from various sources. They have a guenine interest and a whill to do good, but the "sources" are often missunderstood, sensationalised, or plane out wrong. This is how a "Proceed with caution" on a flight manual, will become "and it's a big NO-NO".
Keep in mind that Airplanes manuals are not written by engeneers anymore, but by lawyers. For legal reasons, AFMs are now filled with "proceed with caution" ... you would never get to fly the dam thing if u always try to stick with the segments that didn't use the word "caution".
Don't be a fool and fall for the drama "that my friend is a big NO-NO". On my C402 I can see the ice on the wing/wing tanks/intakes, even the tail, judge the thickness and determine how severe my icing is. On the Metroliner, I can see part of the leading edge, can't really judge the thickness. As silly as it sounds, my "ice guage" is the Windshield wiper, which by experience, I'm now able to corelate ice accumulation on the wipers to how my plane flies.
On the Q400, I'm guessing they can't see the wings, they probably have a little light that tells "ice", and that's it. The autopilot will do an excellent job at flying the plane in icing condition ... but it's the pilot responsability to monitor. Pilot flying/pilot monitoring, autopilot flying/autopilot monitoring. As
dawger mentioned it's easy to become complaisant. The AFM, the company SOP have advisory sections ... and it's all they are ADVISORY. Doesn't prevent you to use 15 deg of flaps in icing, doesn't prevent you to use autopilot in icing ... but if you do, you better be dam sure you are watching your plane like a hawk in a state of readiness. On the plane I fly it's gradual change in pitch and airspeed.
I recently eard a lot about "How pilots don't know they fly into icing?". It's not as easy as the medias make it look. So you have your levels of icing basicly: trace, light, moderate ( deice kicks it off), severe (deice cannot remove the ice). In your brief, u have the freezing level, other pilot reports. AIRMETs are cute but they are so wide in areas who cares.
Like this morning, I had to fly the 402B from Salt Lake to Pocatello. Airmet says icing, no Pirep, Freezing level 4,000ft. I'm filed for the MEA at 10,000ft that will bring me in the clouds. I go, 8,000ft in the climb I'm picking ice, 10,000ft I'm picking up a lot of ice, ain't going to work. I ask for 12,000ft, granteed, but I only reach 11K before riding the stall. Pireps come in, Espur at 12K reports moderate icing, Amflight at 14K reports moderate, Lifeflight at 17K reports clear of clouds, ice till 16K. I'm struggeling at 11K, riding the buffet, The boots kind of work but I'm still all packed up. I report severe @ 11K.
What does that mean for the other pilots? The guy taking off in his 737, knows that he will be picking up ice from 8K to 16K on the climb, which in winter season is like "duh!". Does he care about my severe icing report at 11K. No ... severe for my lil 402 is at best moderate for him. Aeroflgith that also flies a 402B, my severe icing report will get his attention, and it did (we fly the same route), but when he flew it 40 minutes behind me
all he encountered was moderate for a lil bit.
If you cared reading that far, my point is information is available but it's far from being in black and white. You have to gather from various sources, interpret and narrow it to what might be usefull for your flight, and it's probably going to change by the time you get there anyway. The best you can do as a pilot, is to pay
attention to details especially in adverse conditions ... it surely is not like the medias and self proclaimed aviation douchbags big red flashing letters that print on your windshield.
