Winter Operating Tips

[swordfish]

"There's no such thing as just a little ice." The Old (spray me) Fogducker

A popular myth, propagated by the Icing Course academics whose tunnel vision of the perfect world has never been North of the 60th parallel.

I've flown with a "little ice" hundreds of times.

Just as you have, OFD...

[The Old Fogducker]

"Getting away with it," and recommending it as a 2010 accepted way of doing business to someone new to the north are two different things Swordfish.

I'd like to think I'd learned something from those wind tunnel "academics" that I didn't know when I first started flying when it was a "recommended practice" to start a takeoff roll with just the first couple of feet of the leading edge cleaned off because the rest will likely blow away. Things change.

Almost 40 years ago now, that recommendation came from several pilots, each with about a thousand hours, which at the time I thought was enough experience to consider them to be knowlege vessels which held the sum total of aviation wisdom on the face of the earth.

Initiate flight with all the ice you want Swordfish.

We carry deice fluid now, and the standard of care requires its use ... not just getting away with things.....at least in my current semi-retired operation anyway.

The Old Fogducker

[FlaplessDork]

Other Canadian operators of Fairchild SA227 aircraft were contacted to determine how the risk of frozen brakes is managed. This informal survey indicated that brake freeze-up risk management strategies employed in the industry are mostly undocumented and are inconsistently applied from one operator to another. The frozen-brake risk management strategies employed by operators were as follows:

• placing a cautionary note in the SOP regarding the risk of frozen brakes on landing and the subsequent potential control difficulty;
  doing a risk assessment if snow depth is greater than two inches;
  releasing the parking brake as soon as the chocks are in place to allow the brakes to cool without freezing;
  spraying de-icing fluid on the brakes after shutdown to prevent freezing and again before engine start;
  checking the brakes for freezing before boarding the aircraft;
  before engine start, prying frozen brakes apart using a screwdriver;
  thawing frozen brakes with a portable heater before taxiing rather than trying to free the brakes by using increased engine power;
  spraying de-icing fluid on a frozen brake;
  using minimal braking to keep the brakes from heating up and melting the snow;
  trying to avoid taxiing through deep snow;
  avoiding using the brakes when taxiing through deep snow;
  after taxiing through snow or slush, delaying landing gear retraction after take-off to allow airflow to remove brake contaminants;
  before landing, operating the brakes two to three times after gear extension to break any ice bonding in brake assemblies; and,
  making firm landings to ensure good tire contact on runway and wheel spin-up.

Some of the strategies employed by operators contradict strategies recommended by the brake manufacturer. In particular, the brake manufacturer expressed concerns about the use of de-icing fluid on brakes, as some de-icing chemicals can cause significant deterioration of carbon brakes, and de-icing fluid in brake assemblies can reduce the coefficient of friction, reducing brake effectiveness. The manufacturer recommended the following strategies to reduce the risk of brake freeze-up:

• heat up the brakes by using them during taxi to dry out any moisture present;
  after shutdown, leave the parking brake on to eliminate spaces for moisture to accumulate; and,
  operate the brakes before landing to break any ice bonds in the brake assemblies

TSB Report Number A04C0016