Narrative:

After having the plane pulled from the hangar I quickly boarded and started engines. I taxied quickly to the end of the runway and while taxiing called for my clearance. There was an extended delay receiving the clearance which left me holding short of the runway for more than 15 minutes. During that time the heavy snow fall began to accumulate on the aircraft. To be honest I did not think about the warm plane melting the snow and then allowing it to refreeze as the airframe cooled. Once I received my clearance I taxied into position and began my take off roll. Airspeed built normally and I lifted off at approximately the half way point on the runway. I noticed my climb rate was much lower than normally expected at my weight (<150 FPM) and quickly glanced at my wings. They still had a heavy covering of snow and ice that had not been blown off as I had expected. Much too low to turn I continued my climb straight out to approximately 200-300 AGL. I then began a shallow turn back to the runway. In the turn despite being at vy and full power I was unable to climb at all. Needless to say my stress level was very high and I felt I did not have time to talk and fly the plane so I simply set the transponder to 7700 hoping that if the worst happened I would at least have medical sent out sooner rather than later. Despite the very low visibility I was able to make right traffic over the terminal and land back on the runway I had just departed. I called once safely on the ground to ensure flight service and ATC that I was safely on the ground. I must have been saying my prayers right as it wasn't my skill or judgment that kept me alive.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: PA31 pilot describes a takeoff from a high altitude airport in a snowstorm with snow on the wings. The expectation was that the snow would shed during the takeoff roll. It did not and a very low speed low altitude return to the field is successfully accomplished.

Narrative: After having the plane pulled from the hangar I quickly boarded and started engines. I taxied quickly to the end of the runway and while taxiing called for my clearance. There was an extended delay receiving the clearance which left me holding short of the runway for more than 15 minutes. During that time the heavy snow fall began to accumulate on the aircraft. To be honest I did not think about the warm plane melting the snow and then allowing it to refreeze as the airframe cooled. Once I received my clearance I taxied into position and began my take off roll. Airspeed built normally and I lifted off at approximately the half way point on the runway. I noticed my climb rate was much lower than normally expected at my weight (<150 FPM) and quickly glanced at my wings. They still had a heavy covering of snow and ice that had not been blown off as I had expected. Much too low to turn I continued my climb straight out to approximately 200-300 AGL. I then began a shallow turn back to the runway. In the turn despite being at Vy and full power I was unable to climb at all. Needless to say my stress level was very high and I felt I did not have time to talk and fly the plane so I simply set the transponder to 7700 hoping that if the worst happened I would at least have medical sent out sooner rather than later. Despite the very low visibility I was able to make right traffic over the terminal and land back on the runway I had just departed. I called once safely on the ground to ensure Flight Service and ATC that I was safely on the ground. I must have been saying my prayers right as it wasn't my skill or judgment that kept me alive.

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.