Pilot Life: Picking Up Ice in IMC!

My instructor and I got back together today to fly and shoot some approaches so I can stay sharp for new checkride date. Although things didn't go all according to plan today because of what mother nature had in store! We ended up flying for less than an hour, got one approach, and encountered icing conditions! As far as real-world experiences goes, this is as real as it gets!

N5174E encountering ice for the first time!

My instructor met me at my uncle's hangar while I was doing the pre-flight. Afterwards, we hopped in and got going. After run-ups, we got airborne off Runway 16 and proceeded to climb out via the obstacle departure procedure. I went under the hood, picked up IFR clearance from Cascade Approach and we were cleared to the Corvallis Airport for the ILS 17 approach. We eventually got into IMC. As we got established on the localizer for the final approach, my instructor took control of the plane momentarily and had me check out the leading edges of the wings with the trace amounts of ice we picked up while flying through the clouds. It wasn't too big a deal as we had plenty of VFR altitude below us as our "out" to get rid of the ice and the icing itself was very little and the plane's flying characteristics weren't adversely affected in any way; it didn't mean we were going to stick around though!

The original plan was to shoot a couple approaches, but with icing a real possibility and the known freezing levels a little lower than what we've previously seen, we shot the one approach and went back to Albany VFR (and below the icing areas!). Again, this is as real-world as it gets and it was quite the first-time experience for me! We canceled IFR with ATC as we got below the clouds and I continued the with ILS 17 approach until the decision altitude and went missed. We then turned towards Albany and stayed below the clouds before I came out of the foggles. I brought us over midfield of the airport and entered the left downwind for Runway 16 and made an uneventful landing.

My instructor and I debriefed at the fuel pumps before going our separate ways. After I topped off the fuel tanks, I taxied the plane back to the hangar where I put it away before calling it a day. While the encounter with the trace amounts of ice today was initially disconcerting, we weren't in it for long and it was quite the experience to see it for the first time. At least flight training in Oregon with an Instrument-rated instructor willing to go up with me has afforded me such opportunities for real-world IFR/IMC experiences (which I am grateful for!)!