It’s off-roading season again!

This is honestly my main worry throughout the winter. I already hate the cold and try to reserve preference my way out of snowy places (so far I've averaged 2 de-icings per year) but that plus my pre-airline career being mainly in hot places, means I don't have that much winter weather experience relatively speaking, and it keeps me on my toes. Seeing how a handful of planes go sliding off every year, I don't think I'm being overly paranoid either. The only time I've encountered anything remotely similar was after landing in Moscow in February. I guess some water must have gotten into the nose wheel steering cables of the G-III and froze, because when I went to make a 90 from a slippery downhill taxiway, it was completely seized up. At that point the brakes did nothing and we were just slowly sliding down. I popped the reversers as the Russian controller was screaming "Right on C3! Right on C3!" and thankfully that got it stopped. The hot air from the buckets must have started to melt the ice because after cranking on the tiller a couple more times from a stop it finally broke free. That's definitely not something I ever want to experience again. Now with under wing engines I know we're not supposed to use reversers during taxi, but if it's between that and ending up on the news I'll take my chances.
 
luke3 said:
This is honestly my main worry throughout the winter. I already hate the cold and try to reserve preference my way out of snowy places (so far I've averaged 2 de-icings per year) but that plus my pre-airline career being mainly in hot places, means I don't have that much winter weather experience relatively speaking, and it keeps me on my toes. Seeing how a handful of planes go sliding off every year, I don't think I'm being overly paranoid either. The only time I've encountered anything remotely similar was after landing in Moscow in February. I guess some water must have gotten into the nose wheel steering cables of the G-III and froze, because when I went to make a 90 from a slippery downhill taxiway, it was completely seized up. At that point the brakes did nothing and we were just slowly sliding down. I popped the reversers as the Russian controller was screaming "Right on C3! Right on C3!" and thankfully that got it stopped. The hot air from the buckets must have started to melt the ice because after cranking on the tiller a couple more times from a stop it finally broke free. That's definitely not something I ever want to experience again. Now with under wing engines I know we're not supposed to use reversers during taxi, but if it's between that and ending up on the news I'll take my chances.
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Do you want know how I know you're being honest? Your description of the G-III NWS cables is perfect. I might've monkeyed around with a few of those things a long time ago. But I'll also say you might've broken the ice with a bit more left hand elbow grease.
 
pwttogfk said:
Whelp, color me unsurprised. One of my first winters here I’d landed with basically identical NOTAMs, slowed, and was asked to expedite to the end for traffic behind. I unabled it, they sent an airliner around, and I brought donuts up to the tower and discussed how light jets like to go ice skating periodically.
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I remain unrepentant for forcing go-arounds of airplanes behind me in winter weather. Tough cookies: if my airplane isn’t answering the tiller, then it’s not going to be any better for the next guy. And no, we don’t have taxiway whatever, and by the way the braking action here is POOR!
 
knot4u said:
Do you want know how I know you're being honest? Your description of the G-III NWS cables is perfect. I might've monkeyed around with a few of those things a long time ago. But I'll also say you might've broken the ice with a bit more left hand elbow grease.
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Do you really want the captains to crank hard enough to break the ice, and possibly the cable? I’d say he did good.
 
Stone Cold said:
Do you really want the captains to crank hard enough to break the ice, and possibly the cable? I’d say he did good.
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I reread the @luke3 post and I have a question, was the tiller stuck or was it ineffective controlling the NWS? If it was stuck I can't imagine one hand would be enough to break those cables. If memory serves they're 1/8" cables and one could probably lift your car off of the ground without breaking. If the tiller was turned left 90 degrees on a compromised surface and the airplane was still going straight that sounds like a technique problem because if the cables were frozen the tiller wouldn't rotate at all. I've also never heard of this happening and I've probably spent more time around G-IIs and -IIIs than you have.
 
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