How fast does the skin of the airplane cool to surrounding temperatures?

I'm not recommending using the takeoff as a snow removal technique, but fresh snow will blow off once a little wind gets on it. I do us this technique often with my cars and it works great. :-)

My experience (with watching snow blow off cars) is that it blows off
only from the very top surface, so takes quite a while to blow off
completely. Much more than a takeoff run - maybe a trip to my aunt's.

Jose
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Jose wrote:
I'm not recommending using the takeoff as a snow removal technique,
but fresh snow will blow off once a little wind gets on it. I do us
this technique often with my cars and it works great. :-)


My experience (with watching snow blow off cars) is that it blows off
only from the very top surface, so takes quite a while to blow off
completely. Much more than a takeoff run - maybe a trip to my aunt's.

Yes, it depends a lot on the type of snow, temperature and shape of the
car. Wet snow will not blow off to any significant degree. Dry snow on
a cold surface will blow off almost completely. Cars don't have good
airflow around them with a lot of stagnation points that trap snow.
Airplane wings don't have such issues and the airflow is fairly uniform
over them.

If I have dry snow on the wings, I generally taxi a ways to see how much
blows off. Then I clean off the remains by hand. Some days there is
nothing left to sweep off and some days it is all left. :-(


Matt