Jim Kickland – Cessna 210L TKS Testimonial

Jim Kickland lives in Iowa and primarily flies to Missouri and Wisconsin. He has also flown to California, the Bahamas, Florida, Arizona and across the Rocky Mountains. Jim previously owned a 1974 Cessna 210L equipped with inadvertent TKS Ice Protection, which he flew for over 7 years.

How did you get started in aviation?

I just wanted to fly and got my license to transport my family.

Why did you choose TKS?

We got into trouble with icing in our Cessna 182. My wife said “I don’t care what we’re getting, but we’re getting a de-ice airplane.” I don’t know how I heard about it, but it looked like a neat system with the fluid dripping back over the wings. I read some articles and then decided that was the direction I wanted to go. I love the system. It was incredible.

Any truly memorable experiences in icing?

I was going up to Ohio once with a friend of mine for a seminar. There was no forecast for known icing. We picked up ice right when we got off the ground and thought we could get above the clouds. We didn’t. I flipped the TKS on. We thought the tops were at 6,000. But they were still there. So we climbed up to 8,000. Still there. At 10,000 we were still in the weather, accreting ice. We tried different altitudes and the TKS kept the wings perfect. We finally exited the clouds and it was fine. If you fly IFR and want to get places, TKS is something you should consider.

Learn More About TKS for the Cessna 210