I find it rather sad that we can be impressed by a newscaster who actually
delivers an accurate news report.

But hey - I also like Star Trek.


Peter R. wrote in
:

I fly out of Syracuse, NY (US) and the winter these past three weeks
has been pretty tough for aviation. Daily snowfall, low clouds, gusty
winds, and very, very cold.

Last night our local evening news ran a story about this year's winter,
which included a shot of an American Eagle ERJ aircraft being de-iced.

To my surprise, the newscaster segued into a quick discussion of
airframe icing using phrases like "super-cooled water droplets,"
"disrupts airflow over the wing," "adds weight," "creates drag," and
"leads to a stall" and "loss of lift." OK, so the last one was
redundant given the previous one, but this is the local news here.

While he is describing the process of airframe icing, the station cuts
to an amazingly accurate, but relatively simple animation of a wing's
cross section flying through a cloud, encountering super-cooled water
droplets, and developing rime ice on the leading edge.

For a local news story, they got it right. I was impressed.