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Old 19th Dec 2001, 11:12
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Cyclic Hotline
 
Join Date: Oct 1999
Location: Beyond the black stump!
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The answer is NONE.

From the smallest to the largest airplane, they all will succumb to a lack of ice and frost removal prior to flight. You made the right call and you need to let anyone who is suggesting otherwise, that they read these responses before they send somone else off to crash.

Search the NTSB database (search ice or frost) for the hundreds of accidents that have occurred because of inadequate removal, or inadvertent build up of ice or snow prior to flight. Of course none of these record the ones who did it and landed, or never got airborne and got away with it.

We operate in an area of seriously bad weather for 5 months of the year - and ice and snow removal seems to occupy our entire lives!

There is an excellent first hand account of what happens here on PPRuNe.

The FAA wrote the basic rule of icing right into Part 91.
§ 91.527 Operating in icing conditions.

(a) No pilot may take off an airplane that has --

(1) Frost, snow, or ice adhering to any propeller, windshield, or powerplant installation or to an airspeed, altimeter, rate of climb, or flight attitude instrument system;

(2) Snow or ice adhering to the wings or stabilizing or control surfaces; or

(3) Any frost adhering to the wings or stabilizing or control surfaces, unless that frost has been polished to make it smooth.

(b) Except for an airplane that has ice protection provisions that meet the requirements in section 34 of Special Federal Aviation Regulation No. 23, or those for transport category airplane type certification, no pilot may fly --

(1) Under IFR into known or forecast moderate icing conditions; or

(2) Under VFR into known light or moderate icing conditions unless the aircraft has functioning de-icing or anti-icing equipment protecting each propeller, windshield, wing, stabilizing or control surface, and each airspeed, altimeter, rate of climb, or flight attitude instrument system.

(c) Except for an airplane that has ice protection provisions that meet the requirements in section 34 of Special Federal Aviation Regulation No. 23, or those for transport category airplane type certification, no pilot may fly an airplane into known or forecast severe icing conditions.

(d) If current weather reports and briefing information relied upon by the pilot in command indicate that the forecast icing conditions that would otherwise prohibit the flight will not be encountered during the flight because of changed weather conditions since the forecast, the restrictions in paragraphs (b) and (c) of this section based on forecast conditions do not apply.
There is a ton of light reading on the subject, if you are interested.

AC 135-16

AC 120-60

AC 91-51A

AC 91-13C

A couple of years ago, I attended a Cessna Caravan operators safety meeting dealing with cold weather operations. Following a spate of accidents, Cessna prepared a very good video and CD presentation on the effects of ice on airplanes. At this conference was a pilot who descibed first hand the alarming behaviour of the aircraft after it was attempted to take off with ice present.

Easier to know completely what you are up against, than becoming a statistic and the subject of research and analysis!

One final consideration when the engineers (or anyone else is trying to persuade you to go). Look carefully at 91.527 line (a) - No pilot...."

Guess where the buck stops when it all turns to crap!
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