Hi! Mulling over owning an SR20 as I love this plane! Mission will be Atlanta to Blue Ridge Ga and Atlanta to Tampa. My concern is not being able to use my instrument rating to go in the clouds during winter if it’s constantly freezing up there. Any weather gurus know how often I should expect to be downed vs. a FIKI cirrus?
Best,
Scott
Hi Scott, and welcome.
Highly recommend going to the member’s side and using the search function, and you’ll get tons and tons of valuable discussion on the topic.
Hi, Scott. Welcome to COPA! Many of us fly older non-FIKI planes and fly all over the country year round. Clouds aren’t always freezing, even in the winter, and there are many weather windows to avoid potentially freezing clouds. You just have to be flexible and plan your flight.
Personally, I have a non-FIKI TKS ice protection and I like it as a get out of jail card. Also, consider stepping up to the SR22 because it greatly expands your capability envelop.
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I’m a little further north than you, in NC, without FIKI, and I find that MOST days in the winter I’m able to fly south. The problem is that when you are not able to (because of low clouds and sub freezing temps aloft), that condition can stay for a day or two or three. But it may only happen a relatively few times in a given winter.
In contrast to the summertime, when if you can’t fly because of storms, usually waiting a few hours or a day max is enough to allow you to go.
Flying much further north than NC in the winter on any kind of reliable schedule is much more difficult.
If you are okay with delaying or cancelling a few flights a year, I personally think you’d be just fine with a non FIKI plane for those routes.
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Scott, there’s a lot in your question. I’d recommend joining COPA as there is a lot of history you can search on the topic and you’ll get access to seasoned experts in the region who can chime in.
Several things in your favor. You are flying over flatter land so can go lower and avoid freezing levels. There are great icing predicting services available to help with decisions. And driving as a plan B is doable though a little long from Atlanta to Tampa.
Wasn’t your scary icing encounter freezing rain, clear of clouds?
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I fly out of SC and just went through the FIKI vs Clean Wing debate when buying my Gen6. I basically came to the conclusion that I had a slight preference for the clean wing plane, supported by the 3 years of flying a clean wing Gen1 around the SE. However I couldn’t find a clean wing G6 (rare) that fit my spec and bought a FIKI bird.
And then my first XC post-purchase, from Greenville SC to Austin TX the FIKI system allowed me to penetrate an area of clouds with OATs below freezing vs having to deviate substantially around them.
However I still stand by the decision that FIKI is a “nice to have” but not a “must have” down here in the SE…
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