Apparently Iced Up

smackey ) wrote:

Here's my question: just
how much ice/frost is too much? Would the ice/frost probably have
sublimated on climb out?

I am certainly no expert, but in the last year or so of my instrument
rating I have encountered two situations where I have landed at night in
very cold, but apparently moist air and watched the aircraft completely
frost over as I performed a preflight to depart.

In both cases, I concluded I only had two options: Stay the night or pay a
line crew to deice the aircraft for me. Fortunately, both times a line
crew was available with the proper deice equipment. Had they not been, I
would have used my credit card... to get a room.

Joking aside, I have learned that a credit card does work as a makeshift
deicer, assuming there is not much ice to remove. In another example, I
was taxiing at night this winter when I hit a pothole in a runway. The
wheel broke through the ice that covered a puddle and I heard the sound of
splashing water.

I parked the aircraft to pick up a passenger. During the preflight, I
discovered that the water had splashed up and covered my left horizontal
stabilizer and elevator (in a C172). Due to the cold air, the water
turned to ice. The airport's only FBO was closed.

There was no way I was going to take off at night with that ice, so I
yanked out an American Express card and began scraping. It took
approximately 15 minutes, but I was successful in completely removing the
ice.


--
Peter












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