Heli de-ice in flight?

NC_BE300

NC_BE300

Well-Known Member
Just curious how that works for some heli's......

Watching "Dangerous Catch" and the Coast Guard chopper doing a rescue mission is weighing the options about a divert because of bad weather and the build up of icing on the chopper.

Liquid de-icer's? Heat? (Turbine heli's)

I'm only familar with fixed wing ops here....so just wondering what the other side is, of course knowing that icing is serious for any aircraft. And especially for the airfoil shape blades.
 
I was just watching that to, pretty interesting program.

Im not to familiar with helicopter systems, but i would imagine they have heated windows and heated blades. At least that's the way it is on most turboprops, heated boots.
 
Turbine's right.

I worked on UH-60's. They have heated main rotor and tail rotor blades. on the 'Hawk, engine inlets used bleed air piped to the inlets.

There's plenty of other moving parts that aren't heated, though, and since most of them move in circles, sit stationary out in the breeze, etc, ice can be especially precarious with helos.
 
Interesting.

Does most of the bleed air travel up the main shaft as one large pipe?
(Sorry im probably butchering the terms, but i have 0 experience on a helicopter)

I think of some of those associations like on the CRJ....pumping the hot bleed air from the engines to the inlets & wings. Was wondering since the distance to travel on a copter being alittle less...does it make the system alittle more effective and so on?

Kinda broad statements/questions i know....but just curious.
 
NC_BE300 said:
Interesting.

Does most of the bleed air travel up the main shaft as one large pipe?
(Sorry im probably butchering the terms, but i have 0 experience on a helicopter)

I think of some of those associations like on the CRJ....pumping the hot bleed air from the engines to the inlets & wings. Was wondering since the distance to travel on a copter being alittle less...does it make the system alittle more effective and so on?

Kinda broad statements/questions i know....but just curious.
Click to expand...

What USMCMech said..

I didn't mean to imply that the rotors have bleed air piped to them, just the inlets. The main and tail blades, and in the case of the UH-60, the droop stops on the gymballed rotors are all heated with electric mats. They use a rotating slipring system to power the distributors.
 
Cool.

Have you found these systems to be effective?

Something like the case of the respective helicopters "certified for flight in icing conditions"? And continued flight?

Or are these systems more geared towards a "use while you get out" kind of setup?
 
V22 uses boots on the leading edge of wing for de ice.
Anti ice includes heated blades and domes as well as some bleed air for the engine.

Interestingly enough, well for me anyway, I just saw Terminator 4 today and in the scene where Connor is in the Osprey and goes up to the cockpit they have the icing page pulled up on the center screen. All red of course because the icing system doesnt work, as in not operational.
 
NC_BE300 said:
Cool.

Have you found these systems to be effective?

Something like the case of the respective helicopters "certified for flight in icing conditions"? And continued flight?

Or are these systems more geared towards a "use while you get out" kind of setup?
Click to expand...

I've seen a 'Hawk do it first hand. V204 across the Cascade Mountains in the winter up in WA.

When we landed back at our home field, there were large, heavy chunks of ice built up on non-heated, non-moving surfaces.
 
NC_BE300 said:
Have you found these systems to be effective?

Something like the case of the respective helicopters "certified for flight in icing conditions"? And continued flight?

Or are these systems more geared towards a "use while you get out" kind of setup?
Click to expand...

ANY anti/deice system in ANY airplane should be treated as a "use while you get out" system.

Helos are rather slow moving, so they can be stuck in the icing conditions longer (not unlike the Caravan) and therfore need to be more careful. The blades are turning pretty fast, so they shed ice fairly well. The problem areas are the fuselage and the rotor heads where considerable weight can be picked up fast.
 
Many have "icing rate" detection systems that give the pilot a feel for how quickly ice is accreating on the airframe, aka how long they have in current conditions.
 
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