C182 pilot encounterd icing conditions on IFR flight to off. Reporter was able to climb out of icing...

Narrative:

I was on the second leg of a return trip to off. Total flight time for the day was about 8 hours. An airmet for icing was issued that covered the extreme portion of southeast nebraska. Off was just on the edge of the graphical representation of the airmet. I am a meteorologist and I determined that icing conditions 'probably' would not be present for my decent into off. I filed an IFR flight plan to off. Most of the flight was in VFR conditions but started to go intermittently IMC after passing dsm. The OAT gauge was reading 35F to 40F so I figured icing would not be an issue. About 30 miles outside of off; I was directed to descend from 6000 ft MSL to 3000 ft MSL. The cloud tops were about 4500 ft MSL. I observed moderate mixed icing starting to build after about 5-10 minutes after my descent comenced. I can't remember exactly how long I remained in the clouds but I eventually decided I would need to climb to get out of the icing conditions. There was definitely a degradation in performance of the aircraft as a result of the icing. I initially stayed in the IMC conditions because the OAT was reading around 35 degrees. I climbed above the clouds and some of the ice was able to sublimate from the windshield and leading edge surfaces. I determined that I would be able to conduct an ILS approach by staying above the clouds as long as possible and taking a steep approach to catch the glideslope. I did this to minimize my time in icing/IMC conditions. I believe this situation was brought about because of 'get there itis.' my original intention had been to make this flight earlier but a dead battery prevented that flight. I also knew that this day offered a 'window' to complete the flight. I looked at the meteorological conditions and erred on the side of recklessness as opposed to caution. I also put too much faith into the OAT gauge on the aircraft which gave me a false sense of security about the icing conditions.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: C182 pilot encounterd icing conditions on IFR flight to OFF. Reporter was able to climb out of icing conditions and delayed descent for landing until the last moment; landing successfully.

Narrative: I was on the second leg of a return trip to OFF. Total flight time for the day was about 8 hours. An AIRMET for icing was issued that covered the extreme portion of southeast Nebraska. OFF was just on the edge of the graphical representation of the AIRMET. I am a meteorologist and I determined that icing conditions 'probably' would not be present for my decent into OFF. I filed an IFR flight plan to OFF. Most of the flight was in VFR conditions but started to go intermittently IMC after passing DSM. The OAT gauge was reading 35F to 40F so I figured icing would not be an issue. About 30 miles outside of OFF; I was directed to descend from 6000 FT MSL to 3000 FT MSL. The cloud tops were about 4500 FT MSL. I observed moderate mixed icing starting to build after about 5-10 minutes after my descent comenced. I can't remember exactly how long I remained in the clouds but I eventually decided I would need to climb to get out of the icing conditions. There was definitely a degradation in performance of the aircraft as a result of the icing. I initially stayed in the IMC conditions because the OAT was reading around 35 degrees. I climbed above the clouds and some of the ice was able to sublimate from the windshield and leading edge surfaces. I determined that I would be able to conduct an ILS approach by staying above the clouds as long as possible and taking a steep approach to catch the glideslope. I did this to minimize my time in icing/IMC conditions. I believe this situation was brought about because of 'get there itis.' My original intention had been to make this flight earlier but a dead battery prevented that flight. I also knew that this day offered a 'window' to complete the flight. I looked at the meteorological conditions and erred on the side of recklessness as opposed to caution. I also put too much faith into the OAT gauge on the aircraft which gave me a false sense of security about the icing 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.

Attributes
ACN	864327
Time
Date	200912
Local Time Of Day	1201-1800
Place
Locale Reference	OFF.Airport
State Reference	NE
Environment
Flight Conditions	IMC
Light	Daylight
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	Skylane 182/RG Turbo Skylane/RG
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 91
Flight Phase	Cruise Descent Initial Approach
Route In Use	Vectors
Flight Plan	IFR
Person 1
Function	Pilot Flying
Qualification	Flight Crew Commercial Flight Crew Instrument Flight Crew Flight Instructor
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 60 Flight Crew Total 700 Flight Crew Type 20
Events
Anomaly	Inflight Event / Encounter Weather / Turbulence

C182 pilot encounterd icing conditions on IFR flight to off. Reporter was able to climb out of icing conditions and delayed descent for landing until the last moment; landing successfully.