Contending with Airframe Icing 2002-01-1518

Pilots need to be aware, under certain icing conditions, of the limitations of ice protection on their particular aircraft. FAA certification for flight into known icing does not ensure complete safety of flight in all icing encounters regardless of skills or aircraft capability. Too many accidents where icing was a contributing factor attest to these facts. Most of the time flight crews will not encounter an extremely severe condition. However, icing conditions are so widely variable that by chance they will encounter a condition in which they are unprepared. Many years of flight research in icing by the authors have provided the opportunity to experience and measure a wide range of icing conditions in which the performance losses and flying qualities of the aircraft were determined. These results are described in this paper.

Also, a number of accidents associated with icing have been reviewed providing insight into the catastrophic results from particular ice contamination that can form on different types of aircraft. How these situations say may be recognized and possible action taken before the aircraft becomes uncontrollable are included in this paper.

Although ice protection has not significantly improved over the years, better meteorological information is now available for both pre-flight and in-flight planning. The‘weather channel’concept can be made available in the cockpit to aid in determining enroute and destination conditions.