Falling Ice from Deice

Milesar

Milesar

Well-Known Member
Ok, so maybe a bit of a silly question, but I've been thinking about this and was wondering if anyone had any input.

Many people run boots after a good amount of ice has built up, enough to get chunks flying back hitting the cabin (thats always nice for the pax). This ice has to make it down somewhere, what if the boots were ran over a major city, does that not send down chunks of ice?

Could understand much of it melting, but it could also be a cold day on the ground too.

yes? no? or am I just making things up/missed a conversation about it somewhere else.
 
I dunno about ice actually hitting the ground. If youve got enough ice accumulation to where the ice may actually cause damage on the ground, the plane is probably the next thing to hit the ground. I don't have a huge amount of experience in icing, but I can tell you that when Ive had to use the deice boots, none of the ice hit the fuselage. It just blew off into the slipstream.

As for when to actually activate the de ice boots, it depends entirely on the airplane. In a Citation 500/550 you're supposed to wait until there is 1/4 inch of ice built up on the leading edge. They say that if the boots are activated too early and too often, the ice may form a "bridge" around the boot rendering the boots useless.

I have had small amounts of Ice form on a Seminole prop. It got flung off and hit the nosecone. It scared the student, but didnt hurt nothin on the ground
 
Bridging is mostly a thing of the past. I blow the boots as often as I feel necessary.
That being said, the ice that I blow off the Van breaks up and even if you were hit by it, God only knows how, it would be like a snow shower.
 
SIUav8er said:
As for when to actually activate the de ice boots, it depends entirely on the airplane. In a Citation 500/550 you're supposed to wait until there is 1/4 inch of ice built up on the leading edge. They say that if the boots are activated too early and too often, the ice may form a "bridge" around the boot rendering the boots useless.
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There's an AD out now that is telling the pilots not to wait to use de-ice. I guess some pilots waited a little too long to use the de-ice which resulted in an accident. I could be wrong but I think it was for the 500/550.
 
BajtheJino said:
Bridging is mostly a thing of the past.
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Careful, it can still happen.

jynxyjoe said:
Flying in icing in a Van? God bless you son. Hope its in Florida/Arizona.
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I flew a van over the great lakes for two winters. I didn't die. I guess god loves me. That plane is fine, you just can't be stupid. You got guys who fly it when it is their first plane with anti ice capabilities and they think it can handle anything. It's not the plane.
 
I'm thinking mostly of the 1900 here, most of the guys I've spoken to like to wait until about a good inch is built up. Bridging is still an issue with many of the older aircraft as the boots do not have as many "ribs" along the leading edge that inflate.

We've all seen the scars, dents, chips on aircraft that have been through some good icing, I would think that those must have sent something earth bound.
 
I've flown a Seneca with heated props that had some sweet battle wounds on the fuselage from ice. I never experienced the sound of ice hitting the fuselage, but based on the scars, it has to be quite invigorating.
 
The other day coming out of CVG we had a sheet of ice covering the plane. Got it squirted off and ran a whole truck dry of type I. Ice man said he doesn't usually see them this bad and we were the worst of the day. After we took off and while putting the gear up we heard a really loud bang from the nose gear and the plane almost felt like the nose jumped up a bit. Pretty sure when the gear started moving it dislodged a big piece of ice... I highly doubt anyone was standing on the runway but it felt big.
 
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