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If you plan to fly on a cold morning and there is frost on the plane, what needs to be done?
Do you have to remove the frost from the windows? wings? tail? fuselage?
How should you remove a thick layer of frost?
Can you rub the frost until it's smooth and take off?
You should definitely not attempt flight if there is frost on the windows that would affect visibility, or on any of the wings or flight control surfaces. Frost accumulation on such surfaces can reduce the lift generated by your wings, possibly causing a crash on takeoff.
According to the NTSB, frost the size of a grain of salt, distributed as sparsely as one per square centimeter over a wing's upper surface, can destroy enough lift to prevent a plane from taking off.
The cheapest solution is to try to re-position the plane on the ramp so that the sunlight has a chance to melt it away.
You can also temporarily move the plane into a heated hangar until it melts, or ask the FBO to do so for you. If the forecast is predicting a chance of such conditions the night before, you can usually call the FBO on the night before and ask them to move your plane into their hangar just for the night, in advance of your morning flight.
If you're really anxious to go, you can ask the FBO to apply a heated deicing solution to your plane, but be prepared to pay for it (it's priced by the gallon and the amount needed will depend on the size and amount of frost of your plane). Not all FBOs will have deicing capabilities, particularly if the region does not commonly experience such conditions.
I don't know if you're in the US, but if so then by regulation you must remove it from all critical areas before flight, per 14 CFR 91.527:
§91.527 Operating in icing conditions.
(a) No pilot may take off an airplane that has frost, ice, or snow adhering to any propeller, windshield, stabilizing or control surface; to a powerplant installation; or to an airspeed, altimeter, rate of climb, or flight attitude instrument system or wing, except that takeoffs may be made with frost under the wing in the area of the fuel tanks if authorized by the FAA.
In practice, that really means removing it all, and I guess that other countries have similar rquirements. The NTSB has a detailed guide on ground icing where they say that it must be removed "by any means necessary" before flight. For light aircraft, the usual recommendation is to hangar the aircraft and let the frost melt off. But you need to ensure any moisture is completely removed before flying, otherwise it may re-freeze.
Larger transport aircraft (or any aircraft, in principle) are usually de-iced, which is a common sight at airports in winter. The FAA has an extremely detailed document if you're curious.
Polishing the frost until smooth used to be a legally permitted way of handling the problem. The regs have changed, because a very small amount of frost, polished or not, can seriously affect your aircraft's performance. It must be removed! POLISHING THE FROST IS NO LONGER PERMITTED.
However, if the frost is not on control surfaces, say on the top of the fuselage, it is ok to fly with it on. (Unless of course you are flying a Piaggio or some other plane where the shape of the fuselage creates lift...)
Of all the challenges in aviation, ice is probably the scariest, no matter the size of the airplane. It can ruin your day REAL fast if you don't deal with it properly. Bigger aircraft usually have better systems / support personnel to deal with it, but it still needs to be dealt with on smaller aircraft. If you're still on the ground, remove it completely. From every surface. Use deice fluid to get rid of it (or a heated hangar), and if the accumulation is such that it keeps returning quickly, anti-ice solution can work. But this level of icing should definitely factor into your No-Go decision.
