I landed at Gwinett Briscoe yesterday to visit family. My wife and I left this morning back for Florida and when I got the airport I had to wipe frost off of my airplane. Next to me was a Cirrus that had arrived a couple of hours before me yesterday. Both planes were dry. Today my plane had frost on it that I had to wipe off but the Cirrus pilot was very frustrated because they had to tow his plane inside the hanger to warm it off and get the ice off of the wings.

Why would I have frost and the other guy have ice!? I guess its a metal versus compound kind of thing

Aluminum rules. You can fill a little ding in your airplane with bondo but you don't build the whole damn airplane out of it!

Doug,
In my 2.5 years of SR22 ownership, I found this more than a couple times. I remember one morning when it was 28 degrees in Flagstaff.....there I was....well, never mind.

Well, anyhow....I don't understand the reason but it is a REAL phenomenon.

Is it possible that the aluminum cools off faster, so by the time the moisture arrives overnight it attaches as frost. If the plastic cools off slower perhaps the moisture starts out as dew and then finally cools down to below the freezing level and then freezes as ice?
Just my possible theory.

That would seem to be the best answer Greg. As Arlen pointed out it really makes you scratch your head.

Arlen owned an SR22 and now owns a Debonair. That's all I needed to know. No more wondering if I should own an SR22.

My 2 cents...
Frost is formed by sublimation... from a vapor to a solid without going through the liquid phase. If the surface in question cools rapidly enough to below freezing then frost will form. If the surface in question cools more slowly then the sublimation process doesn't occur and the water vapor condenses on the surface as a liquid. If it then continues to cool below freezing, the condensed liquid freezes. The aluminum skin will loose heat probably 10X more quickly than a composite skin so, composite surfaces are more prone to have ice than the aluminum surfaces in a frost forming environment.

Damn John, why do you have to say what I did, but, in such a more technically correct and elequent way, makes me sound like some old farmer.

Greg,

As we have met, I will vouch for the fact that you are a young farmer!

Jon

Ha! My 2 cents worth were redundant... so, maybe only worth a penny.
I rarely know when to leave well enough alone