Every winter, the aviation press drones on about icing and icing accidents. Yet every pilot who flies IFR – even semi-seriously – knows that general aviation doesn’t shutdown for the winter, despite the gloom in the forecasts. So what gives?

Obviously, it won’t do to simply say “don’t fly in icing.” It’s simply not realistic and few of us who use our airplanes during the winter would follow that advice anyway. It’s better to adopt a policy of avoiding icing where possible, getting out of it quickly when you do encounter it and learning to recognize icing scenarios that aren’t flyable in anything but a transport category airplane certified for flight…