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.

--
Peter












----== Posted via Newsfeed.Com - Unlimited-Uncensored-Secure Usenet News==----
http://www.newsfeed.com The #1 Newsgroup Service in the World! 100,000 Newsgroups
---= 19 East/West-Coast Specialized Servers - Total Privacy via Encryption =---