Originally Posted by
Hawker Driver
Glad you are OK.
I suppose, if we are talking about the interior moisture freezing on the windows, then turning the cabin heat on much sooner usually mitigates this. But, it takes just such an occurrence for you to know this. The exact same thing happened to me many years ago.
Some Cessna turbo 210's and Piper Malibu's have a narrow electrically heated pane over the left side of their windows to afford the pilot a narrow yet clear field of view.
Thanks for the info. If I fly again next winter, I definitely want to take one of those planes instead...
Actually, it was not on the inside of the windows, it was on the outside. I think that I should have had the cabin heat on much sooner, the only reason I didn't was because at that point I was really afraid about something else bad happening (IE, robbing the engine of more heat and it possibly shutting down). In retrospect it probably wasn't that much of a concern, but it was tough to make decisions without my instructor. I also believe that I should have just diverted when I saw the precip. Once I saw that my windshield was freezing though, I decided not to because my diversion airport was uncontrolled and I was worried about not having a tower to talk to.
I really felt embarrassed more than anything else. I felt bad inconveniencing the radio guys who i requested flight following with because there were a lot of other aircraft on the COM.