A BE58 pilot flying in light to moderate rime icing conditions landed with restricted forward visibi...

Attributes
ACN	855250
Time
Date	200910
Local Time Of Day	1201-1800
Place
Locale Reference	COS.Airport
State Reference	CO
Environment
Flight Conditions	IMC
Light	Daylight
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	Baron 58/58TC
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 91
Flight Phase	Final Approach
Route In Use	Other ILS 35L
Flight Plan	IFR
Component
Aircraft Component	Window Ice/Rain System
Person 1
Function	Single Pilot
Qualification	Flight Crew Multiengine Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP) Flight Crew Instrument
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 70 Flight Crew Total 8500 Flight Crew Type 150
Events
Anomaly	Aircraft Equipment Problem Critical Inflight Event / Encounter Weather / Turbulence Inflight Event / Encounter Unstabilized Approach

Narrative:

As I descended from my cruise altitude of 10000 ft; I continued to pick up light to moderate ice. The airplane's de-ice systems kept up with it well; but the windshield hot plate did not work. Also; using the defroster was not enough to melt the ice on the window. I was thinking that with the reported temperature of +2C (ATIS was only five minutes old) that the ice on the window would melt off before landing. The ice did not fully melt; and I only had some gaps in the ice where it was beginning to melt for forward visibility. At approximately 100 ft AGL I was able to determine I was slightly left of the runway; and I corrected and was able to land safely. I debated a go-around to fly a more stabilized approach; but that would have put me back into the icing; so I saw no real advantage to that option. The forecast had never called for any precipitation; and the ceiling was much lower than forecast. In the future I will be much more alert to rapidly changing weather conditions.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A BE58 pilot flying in light to moderate rime icing conditions landed with restricted forward visibility when the windshield anti-icing system failed.

Narrative: As I descended from my cruise altitude of 10000 FT; I continued to pick up light to moderate ice. The airplane's de-ice systems kept up with it well; but the windshield hot plate did not work. Also; using the defroster was not enough to melt the ice on the window. I was thinking that with the reported temperature of +2C (ATIS was only five minutes old) that the ice on the window would melt off before landing. The ice did not fully melt; and I only had some gaps in the ice where it was beginning to melt for forward visibility. At approximately 100 FT AGL I was able to determine I was slightly left of the runway; and I corrected and was able to land safely. I debated a go-around to fly a more stabilized approach; but that would have put me back into the icing; so I saw no real advantage to that option. The forecast had never called for any precipitation; and the ceiling was much lower than forecast. In the future I will be much more alert to rapidly changing weather conditions.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of April 2012 and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.