Much has been written lately about the potential cost of not de-icing a business airplane before attempting to fly it, so we posed the question recently in our AINalerts twice-weekly electronic news bulletin, “What about the cost of de-icing? The price seems to vary wildly. What is the most you have paid to have a business jet de-iced? What type of airplane was it, which facility de-iced it, and what were the circumstances?”
Atmospheric icing
January 29, 2007 - 10:56am
According to the NTSB, the Flight Options Beechjet 400A (N455CW) that experienced a dual flameout over the Gulf of Mexico on July 12 last year had a lower-than-normal amount of anti-icing additives in its tanks. Both Pratt & Whitney Canada JT15D turbofans failed as the twinjet was descending through 39,000 feet about 100 miles off Florida’s west coast.
January 29, 2007 - 10:03am
Researchers from the U.S., Canada, Britain and France are participating in a major aircraft icing study taking place this winter primarily in the Montreal area. Canada’s National Research Council is leading the Alliance Icing Research Study with its Convair CV-580 in partnership with NASA’s DHC-6 Twin Otter.
January 24, 2007 - 10:12am
Cessna 208 Caravan, Winnipeg, Canada, Oct. 6, 2005–The Canadian Transportation Safety Board (TSB) found that, although the Morningstar Air Express Caravan took off clean, its performance diminished as ice built on its critical surfaces. Moderate icing was forecast for the area. The Caravan was also about 3 percent overweight and 488 pounds over the 8,550-pound mtow for operating in icing conditions.
January 24, 2007 - 6:40am
The pilot flying a Cessna Caravan that crashed after takeoff on Oct. 6, 2005, in Winnipeg, Manitoba, violated operational requirements, according to the Canadian Transportation Safety Board’s final report. Among the violations were taking off at a weight greater than the legal maximum takeoff weight and exceeding the time allowed between wing contamination inspection and takeoff.
January 23, 2007 - 10:23am
While Quest Aircraft’s brawny high-wing all-metal utility turboprop didn’t achieve FAA certification by the end of last year as the company had hoped, the program continues on the path to approval in the first quarter of this year. By mid-December, the prototype had logged nearly 600 hours of flight testing.
January 23, 2007 - 10:01am
The NTSB determined today that the Feb. 16, 2005 crash of a Circuit City Cessna Citation 560 during the approach to Pueblo Memorial Airport, Colo., was caused because during the approach, as they flew through a cloud containing supercooled liquid droplets, the flight crew didn’t activate the deicing boots at the first sign of ice buildup (as specified in the AFM) and possibly not at all, and didn’t monitor airspeed, which led to a stall.
January 16, 2007 - 10:29am
In its determination of the probable cause of the PenAir Caravan crash, the Safety Board also said that a factor contributing to the accident “was the lack of a preflight inspection requirement to examine at close range the upper surface of the wing for ice contamination when ground icing conditions exist.” Such a requirement is now on the books, the result of an AD issued in March following an FAA investigation into incidents involving Carav
January 10, 2007 - 12:23pm
Deicing boots must be installed on the landing gear struts and cargo pods of several hundred Cessna Caravans approved for flight into icing under an AD published today.
January 10, 2007 - 10:07am
Two recent accidents in icing conditions involving Cessna Caravans have prompted the NTSB to issue more recommendations for the high-wing turboprop single.
