Andy,

Agreed, TKS is the way to go but the TKS system still needs a little refinement. Its still the best thing on the market.

Rick,

I agree. One must pay attention to the deck angle on climbing out. I maintain 120knots when I hit ice as in to prevent any chance of the fluid not making it to the underside of the wing. As much as I like the Mooney installation, I will have to say that the latest one from Cirrus is probably their best yet. Much larger panels.

The ultimate combination would be TKS with some sort of leading edge initial heating to help shed the ice in the first place and then allow to take over TKS will not, and I repeat, will not remove ice that has already formed in less than 30 minutes of flight time nor will it prevent additional ice from forming. Don't ask me how I know. Now I make sure to prime the system on the ground and keep it on until on top. I don't fly with it if I cannot top the clouds during cruise portion of the flight so actually icing is more of a problem in spring/fall time than winter. So with my Eagle/Ovation 3, that meant about 14,000. Hence the new Bravo hopefully to be delivered this weekend. Should open up altitudes with tops up to about 20K. I don't really see myself flying unpressurised over 22K, that's were the death zone really begins.

Once in the problem area, exemplary conduct by both the crew and controllers. Great post.

Best,

Dave

Great post! My palms were sweating just listening to that. Superb coordination between the controller and pilot! And never stop flying the plane....

Yeah, that put a lump in my throat as well.

fixed it for ya. This is one of those instances where 2 guys up front make a HUGE difference. Could you imagine handling that one single pilot

I thought the caravan controller did not show much if any compassion for that poor lady. He should put her on her own frequent with a controller that understood how a low hour pilot in trouble may not handle it well !! I give him an F and the pilot way over her head should fly many more hours with a high hour pilot!

Rick you could also stick your hand out that side widow and use your wife's credit card to scrape a small hole to see through. Be careful you don't drop your wife's credit card????

Late one winter night I'm flying with this same seasoned pilot and when we get to the airport the plane is covered in a heavy frost. I look as this guy and say "well I guess we're stuck". He says "get in we'll fly the frost off".

He was right again. My solution these days is to carry my winter deicing kit, which includes a garden sprayer, 3 gallons of Pink antifreeze and some gloves. Search on BeechTalk for photos and a complete list.

I am a relatively low time Mu2 pilot with maybe 200 hours in the Mu2. Been through Initial and Recurrent training and have another Recurrent pending in 30 days.

Big proponent of doing it EXACTLY like they tell you to in this airplane. Do exactly like the book says. Its just that kind of airplane.

Before entering a runway for takeoff we use the "I-Five-Bleeds-High" mnemonic flow and backup with FAA required checklist.
I = Ignition to AUTO
5 = Elevator trim 5 units
4 = Aileron trim
3 = Rudder trim 3 units
2 = Two-wenty degrees flaps
1 = 100% RPM
Bleeds = Bleed air considered for takeoff performance
High = hand moving vertically up the stack to transponder, radar, radios, lights and heats which are overhead - Review checklist and pull onto the runway (takes 10 seconds to do this pre-lineup thing)
The flow of this mnemonic is very easy with the panel layout.

Visible Moisture Engine Anti-Ice to ON
Actual icing conditions Ignition goes to CONTINUOUS.

With Ignition Continuous and Engine anti-ice on before ice buildup the flameouts don't happen. Problem comes if ice builds up and then you turn on the heats and send the ice-water through the engine without Ign On.

Nothing specific to the Mu2 here. Palm 90 comes to mind.

As an Ambassador of the Mu2 I hope you don't mind me expressing my procedure with respect to this particular issue.

Tj

Tj,

I would add to that a minimum of 180kts while in icing conditions in the Mits. Any lower than that it was our company policy to exit icing conditions and if encountering severe icing once the speed decayed below 150kts to declare an emergency.

Thats the second dual flame out event on a Mits in Icing, the first was on approach into TUL in 1983, it became an AD to safety wire the inlet heat which prior to that didn't have any such requirement.

The company flew 36 Mu-2's on the FRB check runs & USPS mail runs across TX, OK, AR, KS, NM and LA. We consistently were the flights used to test the weather and ride for airliners in an out of DFW, HOU, SAN, TUL, LIT and OKC ( Tornado Alley) so much so the callsign was changed from "Central Stage" to "Rough Rider" which I believe is still in use.

Nigel

Yes to the 180kts indicated in icing.
But I didn't want the "regular people" to think we were just bragging for no reason.

It is Beechtalk afterall.

However the historic Beech / Mits relationship is real.

Tj

Tj,

As you know Beech provided support for the MU-2 and Mu-300/ Diamond II / Beech Jet from 1985 to 1998, i hope the membership will allow us some latitude. We still have a few MU-2 spares in our stores with RAPID tags and Beech pricing! MHI took back over and the prices have come down to a fair amount.

Still scratching my head at Beech pricing as MHI can source new parts for a 30 yr old out of production airplane, yet the last time we had order to forward door hinges for the 89 Baron 58; Beech wanted an arm and a leg ( Thank heavens for Mike & CSOB Sources!) for an airplane that is still rolling off the production line.

Nigel

The MU is an amazing bird. My dream airplane which I hope is my next
Your words are inspiring. Training, where did you do yours??

I can imagine one's butt sucking up the seat cushion when faced with a 4000 FPM descent in IMC over the mountains.