Lesson Learned: Better to want to be "up there" than wishing you were on the ground...

Last night (in retrospect) would have been a good night to stay in LA.

I called to get a weather report and of everything, the salient point was a forecast freezing level at 6,500'. It was raining along the entire route from SMO to CRQ at about medium intensity and the cloud bases were at about 3,400'. I figured, well... I'll cruise at 5'000' on the way home and can always get lower (the route is coastal and flat and Socal's MVA is 1500'). I have plenty of experience flying my Cirrus SR20 in hard IFR with medium to strong intensity rain and clouds so I figured the flight home was more of the same.

The difference was a pitch black night :)

My first clue should have been (and was) at takeoff, SMO ATIS was reporting OAT at 7C. There is a reason you learn about adiabatic lapse rates (of 2C per thousand ') - because it is a great way to estimate that the freezing level was in fact about 3,500' above SMO elevation or about 3,600' - NOT 5,500 as forecast.

Not to be dissuaded by logic and reason, I took off and started my climb. I was cleared from 3,000' (where the temp was 1C) to 4,000' where the temp was hovering between -2C and -3C. I was in the soup, medium intensity rain, at -3C - in a plane with no anti-icing equip except for pitot heat and windscreen defrost. Um...

"Socal, Cirrus 64CD requests amended altitude to 3,000' for the freezing level".
"Cirrus 4CD, what is your current OAT and flight conditions?"
"-3C. IMC in (now) heavy rain. Negative icing at this time."
"Cirrus 64CD, Socal approach. Expect lower in 6 miles. Advise if you begin to pick up ice as I am holding you at 4 to clear Long Beach departures."
"4CD"

Um, now I am in the clouds, moderate turbulence with SNOW and rain. Pitot heat on, windshield defrost OFF (to let icing build on the windscreen in case I couldn't see it on the wings at night). I also took my flashlight out of my console and start inspecting the leading and trailing edges to make sure the water was still liquid.

"Cirrus 4CD, decend/maintain 3,000"
"3,000 4CD"

Now I am skimming the bases hovering between 0C and +2C. Still pitch black with only my strobes to comfort me. That's when I pick up the new CRQ Atis. They have swapped runways and are landing on runway 6. The approach to 6 is not a nice, soothing ILS after a stressful flight, but a VOR-a approach with 860' MDA. The good news was that visibility was reporting 2.5 miles, 2,900 overcast and few at 1,800' so I had plenty of cloud clearance. The not as good news was that weather was "heavy rain, winds 100 at 16 gusting 21". *sigh*

Long story short, I popped out at about 2,500' on the approach with a few puffers between me and the airport. On final, I was crabbed 30 degrees into the wind on final carrying an extra 10 kts into heavy rain and moderate turbulence because of a concern of wind shear. At the threshold, I kicked the rudder to flare over the lights at about 80 kts and ride a 15 degree right bank to hold the flare on the center line. When I finally touched down, I was on CRQ's downslope runway at about 65 kts in heavy rain with reduced braking ability. I slowed down and rolled off happy to taxi back and shut the f'ing plane off.

What did I learn?

• All that weather stuff is actually pretty important :). Specifically, the lapse rate provides a very useful tool for estimating freezing level at your present position.
  
• I've learned over the past few weeks that hard IFR isn't that big a deal if you are proficient and well prepared
  
• HOWEVER, I had one too many factors at play to take that flight again. Rain, clouds with a reasonably low icing level and turbulence is doable - and with proper vigilance, safe. Throw in a pitch-black night and it was one too many things. The biggest issue with night wasn't the dark - it was my stress level as I wondered if I was building ice and just couldn't see it. There never was a safety issue per se, and I was always near and aware of the surrounding airports. But the "what if I am icing on the outboard portions of the wing and can't see it?" added a lot of stress workload. Of course, actual icing at night would have been a whole other kettle of fish.
  
• The non-precision "alpha" approach to CRQ wasn't a deal, but just one more thing to think about as I had never done that approach to CRQ before. It took the familiarity of my home airport out of play and made me have to think about the approach rather than just follow the proceedures I've flown 10's of times before.
• Interestingly, absent *clear* visual indicators of icing, I paid a lot of attention to my airspeed, power settings and attitude (as well as turning off windscreen heat) to get any possible early indication of a change in lift or drag.

This was clearly among most stressful flights of my pilot career - but I was confident enough in my proficiency and familiarity that I never felt scared (which I now believe is probably what kills people - when the stress gets beyond productive). I now have even more experience and know that I'd be better off sipping a Coke in my hotel room than risking heavy icing at night. Heh - duh.