Prepare Yourself for the Upcoming Icing Season Icing encounters can be lethal, even for turbine-powered aircraft. Remember the American Eagle pilots who lost control of their ATR-72 after flying into icing over Indiana in 1994? How about the November 2004 crash on takeoff of the Challenger 600 in Montrose, CO, or the February 2005 accident involving a Cessna Citation 560 on approach to Colorado’s Pueblo Memorial Airport? Business aircraft operators based in the northern United States, as well as fliers located in warmer climates who may occasionally fly into colder, ice prone areas, need to be prepared for the icing season.
This should involve familiarizing pilots with in-flight and ground anti-ice/deicing procedures. “Awareness is really the key,” said Doug Carr, NBAA vice president, safety & regulation. “Just because you are in a turbine aircraft doesn’t make you invincible. Icing is still a very real threat. And icing has an even larger detrimental effect on advanced aircraft with supercritical wings.”
Carr noted that the unpredictable effects icing has on aircraft performance make it hard to replicate in a simulator, so operators should prepare carefully when flying in potential icing conditions. Also, he urged operators not to let the expense of having an airplane deiced affect the decision to properly prepare for flights in cold weather. “The cost of deicing service – which can range from $1000 to $3000 for a large aircraft – should not be a consideration.” Roger Baker, a consultant with Fairfax, VA – based Safety Focus Group, LLC, noted that the International Standard for Business Aircraft Operations (IS-BAO), developed by the International Business Aviation Council, has a requirement that business aviation flight attendants receive the same icing training as corporate pilots. Therefore, all crewmembers should keep an eye out for icing.
“Operators should practice the EMShelicopter principle of “three to go, one to no,” said Baker. “By using good crew resource management, the pilot, nurse and paramedic – all three – need to be positive on the ‘go or continue’ decision. If one crewmember is uncomfortable or negative, then the entire crew should fail-safe to the most conservative decision.”
Free government resources on icing prevention are available to operators. FAA guidance material on deicing (FSAT 04-05) and in-flight icing (AC 91-74) can be found at www.faa.gov. In addition, the agency is expected to publish soon a runway overrun safety alert for operators (SAFO), which will offer additional guidance on how to deal with contaminated runways.
Finally, while the FAA’s recent landing distance notice will not take effect as planned, the agency has announced a plan to enter formal rulemaking to address landing distance calculations and the need for an additional 15-percent landing distance buffer. NASA offers two, free online deicing courses (which are also downloadable) on its web site at http://aircrafticing.grc.nasa.gov/courses.htm. “A Pilot’s Guide to Ground Icing” is for professional pilots who make their own operational deicing and anti-icing decisions. “A Pilots Guide to In-Flight Icing” is for general aviation pilots who fly aircraft certified for flight in icing.
By October (’07) NASA also plans to post on its web site an updated ground-operations icing module. The latest revision is expected to focus more on business and general aviation than previous versions of the document.
| Operator’s Checklist: Prepare for Icing Here’s a checklist to make sure you are fully prepared for icing: Ensure that your aircraft’s lift generating surfaces are completely free of contamination before flight by conducting a tactile (hands-on) check of the critical surfaces when feasible. Operators should try to avoid smooth or polished frost on lift generating surfaces.
Review and refresh your cold-weather operating procedures to ensure your flight personnel are prepared to deal with these conditions.
Provide all flightcrews with current cold-weather operations procedures as part of your company’s flight operations manual. It is imperative that crews be familiar with the airplane flight manual limitations and procedures necessary to deal with icing conditions prior to flight, as well as in flight.
If possible, protect your parked aircraft from sleet and freezing rain by moving it into a hangar.
Take full advantage of the opportunities available at airports for deicing. Do not refuse deicing services simply because of cost.
Finally, empower your aircraft crews to delay or cancel a flight if weather conditions do not support a safe operation. |
Reprinted with the kind permission from the National Business Aviation Association’s newsletter, Business Aviation Insider.
For further information on NBAA products, services, publications, or membership, please contact: Connie Penne, Vice President, Membership Marketing -
National Business Aviation Association, Inc.
1200 18th Street, NW Suite 400
Washington DC 20036-2527
202-478-7765
cpenne@nbaa.org
For more information on: the Roselawn ATR-72 accident see NTSB Report DCA95MA001.
the Montrose CL-600 accident see NTSB Report DEN05MA029.
the Pueblo CE-560 accident see NTSB Report DCA05MA037.
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