Transcription
Today, we're going to be talking about icing. And, uh, one of the things I bring up every semester is, uh, you know, some folks are like, "Well, why, you know, why is a VFR pilot or a student pilot, why do I need to know about icing?" And, uh, the reality is, is you can actually get it. So that's the reason why it's in, uh, in these lectures. But in addition to that, of course, some of your fellow students aren't necessarily just privates. They could be, uh, you know, they have could have their instrument rating or commercial pilot. And of course, they're going to need to know some of this information that's contained in this lecture, uh, to keep you safe.
Because the whole idea here is, we learn it here and we mitigate all our problems, hopefully in the future, to try and avoid them. Or at least, if we get into a problem, we know what to do about it, right? So, uh, that's the whole goal of, you know, as I teach this course is to try and keep everybody safe. Learn by, you know, I mention stories every once in a while, stupid mistakes I've done in the past. But, you know, the reality is, is that's how everybody learns. Let me make the mistake, or at least you can learn at least from a couple of my mistakes. I didn't make a lot, but, you know, with the ones I did, I like to share because, you know, I think you guys will benefit from it in the long run. So, and of course, I'm still here, so it was a successful mistake. So anyway, uh, keep going so I don't dig myself a bigger hole, right? And we'll go ahead and start off with this slide. Um, I think it's, uh, I enjoy this slide quite a bit. So it's a, it's a big deal, you know, when you fly a plane. And the whole idea, you know, when you prepare to fly, uh, is you need to be, you know, get you have to get yourself ready through I'm Safe, you know, that checklist to make sure that you're prepared to be able to do the flight. Uh, the aircraft, you do the pre-flight, you do a run-up, and you know, you go through the whole process to prepare yourself for flying, right?
And because the reality is, you can see from this picture, which most likely was somebody in the air mail system back in the day. And because back then they didn't, you know, I mean, think about it, we've had fog lately, right? And if you're flying way back then, and as you're cruising along, uh, you might not see the tree because of course, they didn't have instrument ratings, uh, back then. So it didn't come till later, uh, where they where they created the ability to fly in instruments. And of course, with an adjustable speed timer, or adjustable speed, an adjustable altimeter, not speed, um, uh, allows us to make sure that we're far enough up off the ground, uh, to make sure we can avoid obstacles. So, and anyway, being prepared is very important, especially as a pilot.
So we're going to go ahead and go over some of the, uh, important information, uh, that you need to know about icing. So, you know, the dangers that are associated with it, the different types of of airframe icing, which you'll find interesting, and, and of course, uh, intake. Uh, so when we talk about the engines, both jets and and pistons, uh, icing mitigation as far as like boots and and bleed air and all kind of stuff, we'll talk about that. And then of course, the environments that are conducive to icing. So when you're doing your pre-flight briefing, you know, or looking at your weather, you can figure out, well, you know, I know where the icing, icing layer is because I remember my standard lapse rate at 2 degrees Celsius per thousand feet. And, um, I can figure out where 0 degrees is just by doing that simple calculation. And then get an idea of where that icing might be, so can avoid it at all, at all costs, if especially if I have an aircraft that doesn't have any de-icing equipment on it.
So we'll go ahead and start off with just by looking at this aircraft. And you can see that there are a number of things that icing does to the aircraft itself, all right? So just by looking at the picture alone, you can see, uh, it says lift decreases. Well, for a number of different reasons, lift decreases. But the the main one is, as ice starts to build up on the airframe or the airfoil, it, uh, it will have an effect on how well the air flows over that airfoil and of course, produces a lift because of the turbulent nature of the air traveling over the top, uh, because there's something there that shouldn't be there, right? Weight increases, uh, especially when we see clear icing because it builds up on the airframe. So you'd kind of think, well, it can't be that much, but there's a lot of surface area on an airplane. Uh, if, if you want to have a demonstration of how much surface area is on an aircraft, go ahead and wash one and you realize, gosh, there's a lot of, there's a lot of, you know, I mean, this is a lot of work because, you know, even a small plane, you know, has a lot of surface area. So that all still starts to build up with ice. And of course, weight's going to be a big issue. Um, then of course, drag that's associated with it, whether it's induced, uh, or not, you'll start to get, uh, more and more ice buildup, which creates more drag, uh, for a number of different reasons. So, uh, we'll go ahead and walk through these things to help you understand them a little bit better and, uh, hopefully make great decisions in the future, right?
Uh, normally I would have a video at this point. It's a, it's called a real pilot story. I put it in the modules instead because it works a little bit better online. If I do it this way, and then we'll have a discussion afterwards, or, or well, you'll have a discussion afterwards, and you'll start to talk about what you see and hear and, and, uh, in the video, uh, about an icing encounter that, uh, if I'm correct, I think it's a VFR pilot, a commercial VFR pilot, which is interesting. So, uh, for some reason, he chose to do what he does, but either way, it's very, uh, it's kind of an eye opener. Um, but it's not too far off because it happens. The reason why this, this video, and, you know, I put it up there, is because this isn't like the first person to do this. This happens like more than you want to know, uh, which is unfortunate. Some don't end up with accidents, um, but, you know, they could bend metal or land in a place they didn't intend on landing, that kind of stuff. So, um, things that can happen to the aircraft.
So I got this cool picture of a of a 737. And as we start to look around, you can obviously see the snow that's on top of it. So it's kind of rolling into the de-icing area so I can get all this stuff removed, uh, which is usually fairly quick with the de-icers. Um, but you can also have problems associated with icing, uh, as we look around. If you look closely at the at the airplane, you'll notice that there there are probes in the front by the cockpit. Then down below, you have the antennas that are sticking out of the bottom. If you're really sharp, you can see the one that's on the top. And if those start to to build up with ice, uh, that can cause a problem, uh, in terms of like harmonics and stuff like that. Things start to vibrate and you could potentially break one of those antennas, which of course means whatever that antenna is for is not going to work so well, right? And then you have, if it's possible, it could be slapping on the side of the frame, and it's just all sorts of stuff. Uh, generally speaking, though, I mean, those antennas are built for icing, uh, or try to avoid, just by their design, an icing condition. But, you know, hey, stuff can happen. Um, so you can see loss of communications and all that kind of stuff.
Other things you have to think about, and this is the reason why I put it on this picture so you can see it, is as you're taxing along and, and in this case, you look at the 737, he's taxiing on a kind of a solid surface or compacted snow. And you could see some of the stuff that's built up on the, uh, the gear. So that could be an issue, especially in slush, where it's kind of, it's not snow, it's not water, it's kind of a mix between the two. And, uh, some of that stuff gets like thrown up into the wheel wells, or, you know, the wheels get retracted into. And, uh, it's not necessarily that they have a heating system. Some do, um, to be able to melt some of that stuff. And, uh, and it could cause an issue when it comes time to actually drop in your gear, if any of that gets stuck in there. Um, it can also start to build up as slush or anything else gets into the braking system. And you take off or track the gear, you're climbing out. Of course, we all know if it's snowing on the ground, it's, you know, obviously cold up higher, right? So all that water that whatever is in there is going to freeze. So that's, you know, other things you need to think about.
Um, so there's quite a bit when it, I, you know, sometimes you don't think about it. Most, most of the time, most people think of, you know, just the airfoil itself, but you really have to start looking at everything else, especially when it comes to like the braking surfaces. You know, let's say if this person had to, you know, slam on their brakes, what would happen to the airframe or the the aircraft, right? Most likely, it's going to slide. It's going to slide somewhere, and you don't have a lot of, you know, control when that kind of stuff happens with that kind of mass. Um, they do have anti-locks, but, you know, what if, right? So just be careful.
Um, there's, so there's, uh, three different types of icing that we're going to be talking about. And the main ones you need to be concerned about. The first one is structural, what the type of icing you're you're most likely used to thinking about when it comes to icing, right? So here's an obvious picture of icing, uh, in this particular case, it's a King Air. You can see the boot system. I'll show you a little bit later in a little mini video, it shows you how the boots, boot system works, which is cool. Um, but, uh, one of the things I want to to point out with this picture, which is really interesting, um, as we start to get into the different types of icing, is you'll notice that, uh, where the boot is, that black part, right, that has been shed of for the most part, of most of the ice, right? But if you notice just behind it, that protected part, you notice a ridge, right, where there's there's still still icing behind where that protected area is, all right? Just keep that picture in mind, and when we start talking about clear icing and stuff, it'll, it'll, it'll be an eye opener, right?
So structural icing, induction icing, we'll talk a little bit about this. A picture of a carburetor, uh, with a butterfly valve, so we'll get into that a little bit more. Um, and it also includes jets and stuff too. Um, and then instrument icing, which is a big deal. Of course, this is kind of an old-timey photo, showing a pitot tube. There's a radar dome in the background. Um, but generally speaking, in this case, it's kind of nice, the pitot heat seems to be working, uh, because there's no snow on the pitot tube itself. But we'll talk about that.
So the first thing we were to kind of kind of dig into, the structural icing, um, it's just simply, you know, the accumulation of ice, right? But you need to have two things, and remember, it's in blue, so you're definitely going to see this one again. Uh, the two conditions have to be met, and it's first, you have to fly through visible moisture, and the second is you have to be able to, or, or the, um, the surface of the airframe itself has to be at 0 degrees or lower. So, in other words, if water for some reason hits the airframe, right, if the water is in a liquid state, it's not frozen yet, but as soon as it hits your airframe, just like, uh, frost, right, it'll instantly freeze. So that's one of the issues, uh, uh, with icing. So as long as you fly through visible moisture, and visible moisture be rain, snow, sleet, whatever, right? Anything that's visible, right? Not just a lot of humidity or water vapor, it actually has visible moisture. And the temperature of the airframe, um, when it comes to, uh, being able to visualize how icing starts to build up, like you can see it on this boot on the front of this aircraft, but to get a better visual on how ice starts to build up, this is, uh, in the NASA icing research tunnel. And this is mimicking a swept wing, uh, aircraft. Typically, they would have a, use bleed air or air, hot air from the engines in order to melt off the ice. In this case, they're just going to let the ice build up. And, uh, we're going to watch this for like 29 minutes, and we're going to watch this build up. But I'm not really telling the truth, it's actually time lapse. It only takes a couple, you know, a minute or so, but you'll be able to see the ice build up on the airfoil and watch the shapes, uh, as they start to build up, and you'll start to understand why lift is affected and why drag increases so tremendously when you start to build up ice. It can be as thin as like a card, like a playing card, as far as ice is concerned, and still disrupt the airflow going over the airfoil, right?
But watch this. The airflow, of course, this is showing as a horizontal, right? Or I'm sorry, a vertical. Think of it as horizontal, of course, and the air is flowing over the left-hand side, which if you were looking at an airplane on the ground, it would be the air flowing over the top, all right? So go ahead and watch this and, uh, watch how fast this thing builds up and then the shapes. It's pretty crazy how much ice can start to build up. And you'll actually see this depending on the type of aircraft that you're flying. Let's say later on, in my example, is flying CRJs. And with CRJs, the horizontal on the top doesn't have any de-icing associated with it. So you'd actually see that on the top. So you finish the flight, you do your walk around, you look up and you're like, "Oh my God, this thing still flew." You don't even feel it. And of course, in that particular case, you know, because I, of course, immediately called a cheap pilot, you know, the guy actually, they had a training, and I said, "Oh my God, seriously, like I got all this ice." And there was an explanation of why the design of the aircraft, that airfoil was made to accept that kind of ice and still work effectively. So, uh, real interesting learning, uh, experience for me, but an eye opener for hopefully most of you, that this stuff can get pretty nasty if you stay in it long enough, and you want to make sure that you get out of it if you start to accumulate it all right.
Um, the next one, of course, this is probably, uh, the, the most common thing you'll have to deal with when you're flying, especially when you're flying, you know, Cessnas and Pipers and, and some of the lower performing aircraft, where you just have them sitting out on the airfield. You go somewhere overnight, it, it could even happen. It happened, uh, I think it was Kansas. I, we had stopped, went in to eat dinner, came back out, and we had frost on the already on the wings. It was crazy. Um, but anyway, frost is a big issue when it comes to, uh, aircraft. And it's super important that you make sure that you get all the frost off because that can have a huge impact on your ability to generate lift, all right? So, uh, there's been numerous accidents where, you know, people like, "Oh yeah, it's just, it's no big deal, it's just frost." You know, they used to teach you that you could just polish it and it's okay. And, you know, or let's just go ahead and see, you know, if the plane will take off. Just don't even take a chance. So you can put your, your the aircraft in a heated hangar, uh, if it's at night, or it's in the morning, just, you know, wait for the sun to come up, let it melt off. You know, there's other things that you can do. If you have de-icing fluid of some kind, go ahead and put that on the air, on the airfoil also to make sure you get it off and get it off of all of the surfaces, uh, to be safe.
Oh, frost in and of itself, what, you know, I, I know we've talked about it before, we talked about dew and then the, you know, the phases of water. In this particular case, of course, because there's water vapor in the air, and when that water vapor hits the, uh, the airframe, is served with the airfoil in this particular case, it immediately goes from a water vapor into ice and creates frost. So it can accumulate pretty darn quickly. And, uh, in this case, you can see it's starting to melt off. You look in the upper left-hand corner, uh, because the sun's coming up. So, uh, ground icing. This is a picture that I took out of the, you know, when we're just kind of hanging out in Denver, waiting for our turn to get the de-icing, uh, done. So this is done for any kind of contamination on the aircraft at all. Uh, you would go ahead and get it de-iced. So, uh, in this particular case, they use, uh, a number of different chemicals in order to clean off the airframe or make it clean. Uh, there's Type One, which kind of removes a lot of the stuff, it's heated, uh, and it kind of warms up the aircraft. And then there's Type Four, which could, if it's snowing or continuing to rain or snow or whatever, uh, in freezing conditions, they'll spray this other stuff on there, uh, to protect the the airframe, uh, from refreezing. And, uh, it's good for a certain length of time. And then when you take off, all of it kind of sloughs off onto the runway as you as you take off, which works out pretty good.
So, frost in and of itself, frost or snow, snow will just be worse, can reduce your lift by 30 to 40%, which is really significant when you're trying to get performance out of your aircraft, especially if you have a full load, or you're, you know, your aircraft, you know, your Cessna has four people and some stuff, could be a big issue. So, uh, it increases your stall speed. So of course, you're now traveling faster when your stall happens, which might kind of surprise you, uh, if you're not anticipating it. And then, uh, this is the biggie, you won't be able to become airborne. So, some of my classes will look at different accidents. And when you look at these different accidents, you figure out, well, why, there are accidents just like this where, uh, they had ignored some of those signs and tried to take off, and they're wondering like, you know, "I took off, I was halfway down, I started climbing," which they're in ground effect. And then of course, when they climb out of ground effect, they find out how inefficient their airfoil is. And unfortunately, they have to settle back down. And usually by that time, there's no more runway left. So keep that in mind. Um, and then of course, we've already talked about the ice and the gears, flaps, and all that kind of stuff. So anywhere that if it has a nook and cranny, it's probably, it's probably going to get ice. I've seen it. Every so you got to just be careful. Um, and then runway contamination and taxing contamination is really, really important.
All right, traction and braking is is super big. So remember, if you're coming in quick, don't, don't slam on the brakes, right? Go ahead and slow down first before you start to, you know, and allow that, you know, the aircraft in the air to settle down on the main gear before you start stepping on the brakes. Give you a little bit more authority, which works out great. But, uh, keep that in mind, especially if you go to like Big Bear or something like that. And, uh, because that's a fun place to fly into, especially in the winter, if you're going to go skiing. So all right.
Three types, three different types of icing you have to be concerned with. The first one is clear. We'll go on over in detail here in a second. This is a great study slide, by the way. So this is clear. It goes over the entire airfoil for the most part. We'll show you how that does that in a second. But it's usually large droplets that come from from cumulus clouds. Rime icing is in this case, it looks kind of dirty, uh, on the front of this nose cone, but it's, you'll see there's a little bit more white in it because of the air. And then there's mixed icing, which was like that, that airfoil I showed you building up ice, that was mixed icing where it creates these funky-looking horns and weird designs and stuff like that.
So first one is clear. Clear ice is really important. Important for you to remember that it comes from cumulus clouds. So, in other words, generally speaking, you have instability. So when you start to have some of these these larger cumulus clouds starting to build, they're not thunderstorms yet, of course. So you're flying through these things, they're bumpy, but unfortunately, you can have what's called supercooled water droplets. And so this is kind of weird, but supercooled water droplets. So you have water vapor that eventually condenses, right, as it's going up. So it has all this energy, it's still continuing to go up in the cumulus cloud, and it still builds. The water ends up being below freezing. So the actual droplet is below freezing, but it hasn't frozen yet, right? So what happens? Well, when that water hits your airframe, it instantly freezes. That's the scary part because it's still a liquid when it hits your airfoil or your your airplane. It will now not only hit, it'll start to freeze as it starts to move back, uh, across your airfoil. So just like that picture of that King Air, the very beginning, uh, this is even worse because it's clear ice instead of what you saw earlier, which was kind of rime and mixed. Um, this one is really nasty, and it can affect any type of aircraft, regardless of whether or not it's a big jet or a small plane, because once you get it onto the air, one, it's heavy, right? You notice there's no air inside the ice, it's clear, and because of that, it's very dense. So you start getting this all over your aircraft, and your aircraft now weighs a lot. And I mean, really significant. And you have to compensate for that, of course, when you're flying an aircraft. When you have an additional weight, how do you compensate for that? Well, you have to change your angle of attack. And of course, if you're not going fast enough, you actually might get to that stall speed faster than you anticipated. So clear ice is a bad thing. So for anybody, and you try to get out of that as soon as possible.
So it freezes as a solid sheet. And of course, the protected surfaces, just like in that King Air, can get rid of the leading edge, but it will still leave all the rest of that clear ice on the rest of the airframe, which is the scary part. So it's very difficult to get rid of. And, uh, there's been an emergency that I remember in Denver where it was an airline that had got, it was like a Trip 7 or something, and went through a big cumulus cloud that was not a thunderstorm yet. And of course, because obviously their radar wasn't red, and they flew through it, picked up a bunch of clear ice, and had to turn around and come back, come back and land because it was that significant. So if it can, if it can nail the big guys, it's obviously going to nail the the small guys too.
So rime ice, of course, is a little bit different because you can see that it is white. Uh, the white, of course, is air that's mixed in with the, uh, the water as it freezes, which you can see it, which is kind of cool looking. It has that little, you can see kind of a flat area at the beginning of that leading edge of the airfoil. And that's the, uh, kind of the rotor point where, you know, air hits the the front of the airfoil and has to make a decision. It's like, "Gosh, do I go over the top, or do I go underneath?" You know? So that's the little air bubble that is generated as you just fly the aircraft. And so it creates these kind of cool-looking designs. And that's the reason why we start to get horns. They kind of, you know, curve out, leaving a lower part in the middle. Uh, it is lighter, of course, it's easier to get rid of for the most part, because it does accumulate from the front. And since it's not like clear ice, so it doesn't kind of bleed back or melt back on on the rest of the airframe, you know, it's, it's usually this is the most common that you'll probably deal with for the most part. And you can get rid of it pretty quick. But as you can tell, it obviously does a big deal on drag because it's like not the smoothest thing in the world, right?
Then there's mixed, which is a combination of the two. It's really important to know that there's, there could be a combination, just like there is rain, there's snow, and there's sleet, right, which is a combination of the two. Same thing with icing. And, uh, in this particular case, just like that buildup of the that NASA airfoil they showed, I showed, uh, because of the varied size of the droplets, you get different shapes and, and stuff on the front of the airframe. So, uh, it does become very rough with, uh, a lot of big horns and stuff like that. And, uh, try to stay out of that as much as possible.
I like to use, uh, some accidents to kind of drive some some of this information home. In this case, I'll use this one where it shows a Caravan. And a Caravan is a unique aircraft, uh, where it has a lot of kind of parts sticking out of it, right? So you have, you know, struts, and you have the gear that sticks down as you're looking at it, you know, you have antennas sticking out of it. I mean, there's all sorts of stuff, right? And it's just like a big fixed gear system, you know? Uh, but the problem is, is even though it does have de-icing, in this particular case, it has a reasonable de-icing package on it, you, you still need to make sure that you get rid of the ice before you fly. And in this particular case, the, uh, the carrier, which which is Georgian Express, landed, taxied up, offloaded whoever they had before, got, you know, reloaded passengers, and then turned around without de-icing and just started taxing back out. And based upon the witnesses that were there that watched it take off, they said that there was obvious contamination on the airframe before they took off. And that ex, that that example I used earlier, where you're staying in ground effect when you start to try and take off, it will lift off, but it won't stay in the air. So that's what happened here. The Caravan lifted off, stayed in ground effect, started to climb, and unfortunately, because of the contamination, it settled back down and crashed into a lake that was at the end of the runway, and it sunk, and everybody passed away, unfortunately. So very important for you to get rid of any contamination that you have, especially on an aircraft like this, that can build it up, uh, so quickly.
So the big question at this point is, now we've talked about kind of, you know, the bad stuff, right? Well, how can we get rid of this crap so we don't have to deal with it? So let's look at some of the ways that you can get rid of icing. And I will use, uh, a Caravan as an example. This was, uh, my old Caravan that I used when I had a charter company. And in this case, it had a full de-icing package, uh, which I kind of point out with the little arrows, with pneumatic boots, which are the ones that blow up. I'll show you a video later, uh, and it has heated props, and I'll show you how that system works a little bit later too, in order to keep as much of that off of the aircraft as possible, right?
Uh, let's see. Other things you have to think about. Oh, just on on a side, when you start to build up, uh, ice on an aircraft, so let's say you're flying along, and in your Cessna, and you look out and you're like, "Ah, I'm starting to pick up ice." So what are the things that you can do, uh, if you don't have de-icing equipment on it, right? Is to think of, you know, not changing configuration, which I'll remind you later about, and, you know, don't change your flaps, and keep your speed up and stuff. So because you don't know, because once you get ice, you're kind of a test pilot, you know, that ice never forms exactly the same way, and so therefore, they can't always test for that kind of stuff. So you become a test pilot. So better safe than sorry, and keep your speed up when you're flying that aircraft to make sure until you unless you can find a way to get rid of it, like getting above the clouds or getting to, like an altitude that's warmer that it starts to, uh, sublimate off.
Ways that you can detect ice. So if you have a Piper and a Cessna or whatever, you can actually look outside your window and just see it, right? You can either see it on the strut. They, uh, a lot of the IFR equipped aircraft have an ice light. So it'll shine a light on at least the pilot side of the aircraft to to get an idea of of what the airfoil looks like for contamination. And it works up pretty good because you can visualize it well. When you get into jets or anything with a swept wing, of course, you can look out the window all you want, you're not going to see anything, right? Because the wings are like way back there. So in that case, you need to have something like this. So this probe is a high-frequency probe that sticks out of the side of the aircraft. Next time you're walking around a jet, go ahead and take a look and see if you can find one. Uh, it'll be there. And what this thing does is, as it flies through the icing condition, it's not the airfoil part, see that little piece that looks like a little wing, right? It's the probe itself that sticks out. And what happens is, normally it vibrates at a certain frequency, right? And as ice starts to try and accumulate on that probe, right, it knows, or it, it changes that frequency. And that frequency change is translated into an indicator on the dash that gives you a little yellow ice light that that pops on that tells you, "Hey, you know, you're starting to accumulate ice." And then you can flip on all your equipment, uh, to make sure that you can get rid of it.
Uh, the other thing you can do on a jet, of course, is fly faster, because if you fly above about 240 knots, uh, there's enough friction on the airframe itself to not accumulate ice, which works out really well. It's kind of hard to do that in a Cessna. So yeah.
So how do, what are other ways that we can detect it in, uh, you know, in smaller aircraft? Or in this case, you know, it's either a jet or, or let's say you're flying below 240 knots, let's say that system's not working, or you're in a King Air or something like that. I have this little, uh, cheat that works out pretty well, actually. So, so, uh, let's see. It should highlight here in a second. You'll see that little adjusting nut on the windshield wiper. If you have a windshield wiper and it has a little nut on it, icing will accumulate on the smallest particle that's that's in the air in the airflow, right? So that nut is small, you'll start to get ice building up on it, and you'll see it. You're like, "Oh, looks like we're going to get ice, or we're starting to get ice." If you're in another aircraft, let's say you can look at the temperature probe that's sticking out, like a, Bonanzas have a temperature probe right outside the pilot storm window. Some Cessnas have it sticking out of the front, just, Pipers also, uh, have that little probe that's sticking out for the temperature. Anything that sticks out into the air, uh, that's small, you'll be able to see ice building up on it first. So that's my little cheat, uh, to so you can know about it ahead of time. And then you can make, at that point, a decision to call Air Traffic Control to see if you can make a change in altitude or whatever the case might be. But always tell them why you're doing it so they can always kind of have your back, uh, and help you just in case it gets really bad and you're like, "Ah, not sure what to do." They'll be there to help you out, which is nice.
All right, other ways that we can deal with that, uh, is of course, there's alcohol and TKS. So alcohol is kind of the old-school way that they used to do it, and you'll still see it on some of the aircraft. Let's say if you start to move up to more high-performance stuff, some twins, um, they might have an old alcohol system. Barons had it a lot, Seneca stuff, you know, when you start to get into twins, and it's, it's a fairly simple, uh, uh, system. So you have, of course, a tank that holds all the stuff, right? And then the pump that pushes it towards the propeller. So it comes out of the tube into these, like that slinger ring. Um, and as the propeller is turning around, fluid goes into the ring, and then it gets sprayed, as you can see the little like hose that that points towards, uh, the the actual blade itself. You'll see if you look at it, you'll see a rubber boot, but it's not electric, of course. It'll have little grooves on it, uh, which how you can tell it's a little bit different. And what that groove is, of course, is to try and channel the alcohol or this, or TKS, talk about that in a second, um, and spread it out towards not only the root but the rest of the propeller, uh, as you're flying an aircraft. When you turn on an alcohol system, it's kind of cool because you create this like sheen, you know, it just kind of comes out of the propeller, and then it, of course, it hits the propeller, and then it hits whatever is behind it, like the nacelle of the airframe itself, which is kind of neat. Um, but the unfortunate part about it, of course, it's a fluid tank, right? And it's only going to last as long as the tank has fluid in it. So one, you got to pre-flight, make sure you have enough, you know, fluid in your tank. And, uh, of course, it depends on how bad the icing is and how long you keep that system on, you know, whether or not you're going to going to run out. So you have to keep that in mind.
Uh, the other one is a TKS system. Works on the same principle as alcohol, except it can both get rid of ice that's already on the airframe, in addition to mitigating ice in the first place. So, in other words, if that system is used, uh, it will actually coat the aircraft to not allow ice to form, uh, kind of like if you were de-icing on the ground, that chemical they put on there. TKS system has been around, if you look at the little note down the lower left-hand side, since 1942, they've had this chemical, which is pretty wild. So in this particular aircraft, it's kind of a generic aircraft, they've, uh, created that shows places where you could keep the fluid, and then of course, there's the panels themselves, these really big, they're they're kind of cool-looking titanium, uh, they're not heated, of course, because if you look really closely at them, they have little pinholes all over them, and that's where the TKS fluid will weep out of it and take off the ice, and then of course, keep the ice from forming in the first place. It also has, as you can tell, at the very front by the spinner, it has a slinger ring. So you not only will cover the, in this case, if this was a an approved de-icing, full de-icing package, um, you have the leading edge, the propeller, and of course, the tail. It is protected, but it's only protected, remember, as long as you have fluid. So make sure you have fluid.
All right, so that's a TKS. So if you want to know what the TKS stands for, please read that note again because I will embarrass myself trying to say that name that's on that slide. So, uh, if you want to know how boots work, this is a great video where it actually shows them shedding ice on a boot. So these boots work very simple, or, or simply, where you have a pump, and the pump initially, when you flip it on, uh, it fills in this, in this case, it will fill the inner half of the airfoil, and then it goes through another cycle that does the outer half. So it fills it up, makes it big, and then it, when it finishes the cycle, there's a valve that switches, and then it starts to pull the air back out of the, uh, the boot itself to make it flush against the surface of the airfoil. So here a look at it, kind of so you can see it inflate and.
Is it's pretty cool, simple design. And, uh, no, you don't really notice it when it happens. Um, what you do notice though, is let's say you get a large accumulation of, uh, ice on it, and then you pop the boots, you'll notice the difference. So you're like, "Oh, it's, you know, it's, you just get rid of it, and all of a sudden the plane starts flying better, less vibrations and stuff." It's less, it kind of starts flying like a truck when you get too much ice on an air, airframe, you know, it just, it doesn't maneuver very well. It's, you know, it's responding, you know, crappy. So, but yeah.
Um, other things that you can, uh, or in this case, we have jet, a jet, and how they de-ice it's a little bit different. Instead of using boots, though some of the earlier jets used boots, most of them, uh, now use, uh, what's called bleed air from the engines in order, in other words, to take some of that warm air from the engine and route it to the front, uh, and allow that warm air to warm up or heat the leading edges of the airfoil to keep the ice from forming in the first place. So it's a simple device. Uh, the the air comes from the compressor section of a jet. So, in other words, when the air first comes into a jet, it gets compressed before it goes into the canister and gets lit and, you know, creates thrust and stuff. But as it starts to compress, it starts to increase in heat, and there's a certain point that you want to be able to remove some of that air and route it to the front. But you don't want it, you know, you don't want to pull the air off when it's like super hot because you don't want to melt anything, right? Um, so they pull it off at a, a certain point of whatever that engine is, uh, and then it goes up towards the front. You can see the little valve just past the engines as you follow that red, you know, the as.
It goes from the engines towards the leading edge, uh, that you can turn the system on or off. And then, of course, it's one way, so it pulls or it draws the air from the engines, pushes it out towards the system out on the wings, and then, of course, it just gets dumped overboard. Uh, it doesn't go like back to the engines or anything, it just gets pushed out, right? It's really simple. Um, it does have, you can see that there are probes or switches, uh, that are attached to it to make sure that, uh, if it gets too hot, it turns itself off, uh, for safety. And can anybody imagine what's in the wings that you'd want to keep from getting too hot? We don't want to heat up the fuel, want to keep it nice and cool, right? So, uh, there is, of course, the lead, you know, the heated part is in front of a bulkhead, so it does protect the fuel system, so it's not really that close, but, uh, you know, makes the point, right? So that is the, the reason why they do have these probes, uh, and they make sure that they'll actually just turn the system off. So as you're flying along, you can pull up what's called a page that will show the whole de-icing system, and there's, you know, if that probe turns on, you'll see like one wing just disappear, like all the de-icing equipment just like, poof, like, oh, that's not good. So let's go faster. Anyway, so that's a, a pretty simple device, so it works out pretty good.
Uh, let's see what else we have. Uh, I have a picture of, uh, one of the citations. I used to fly, was just a fun plane to fly. This is a 501, so, uh, with the 5501, it's kind of neat because it had inflatable boots, like we just saw the video. Uh, it also has something a little bit different, which really isn't talked about, so they're electrically heated leading edges, which you don't see very often, um, because it's just, they're, they're not necessarily the most efficient things, except on this particular model because everything's kind of, it's a smaller jet, so everything's kind of close, uh, so it works out in this particular case pretty well. Uh, it also heats up the cowling. So you look at the engine, the inlet to that, uh, going into the engine, you can see that's also kind of chrome looking, uh, that heats up. And you'll notice that on all jets, uh, they have the same thing. They have bleed air going to the cowlings, so you can actually have that separate from the wings when you flip on a switch, just to do the cowlings, uh, to make sure that you don't have ice and other crap going into the engine, which is kind of important, right?
Um, interesting thing about this particular model, it also has a defroster, uh, in order to get the ice off of the windshield of the Cessna Citation. You'll notice that little kind of square rectangular shaped thing that's on the windshield, that's actually where heated air comes from the engine and gets pushed out over the top of the windshield to keep, uh, if there's ice accumulated, to melt it and, of course, keep the windshield warm. Uh, a lot of jets, uh, Cessna 421s, there are other aircraft that actually have like a defroster like you have your car in the back, they have it on the windshield. Uh, some cars also had it. Uh, I had a car one time that had, you know, a defroster in the window itself and it built into the glass, uh, which are really effective. Uh, some other different types of airplanes, like Cessna 210, certain Barons, uh, will have a big plate and that plate gets attached. So if you're going to fly in icing conditions, you attach this plate and it gives you just enough room so as you're flying into the airport to be able to, it's a little window, be able to see through there so you can land the aircraft and taxi in. So, uh, kind of weird looking, but, uh, you know, that's what they did back in the day. Uh, pretty simple stuff.
Uh, let's see. So at this point, I have, I would normally do a poll, but I didn't put, I didn't load the poll, so I'm just gonna ask you guys to see how, see if you guys can remember. Um, so what are the three types of icing that you can get on your airframe? Good job. So clear, rime, and mixed, uh, perfect. That, that is the answer. Uh, let's see what's the next one. Uh, the next question would be, is what type of icing do you get from cumulus clouds? I don't think any of you guys are going to get stuck with clear ice. I've only gotten it once, it wasn't fun. Question: Oh, what two things do you need in order for ice to form on your aircraft? Flight through visible moisture and the airframe, or the airfoil, or whatever part is that is at zero or below.
Uh, induction icing, so, uh, big deal. Uh, in this particular case, I'm showing a jet just to give you an idea that that it can happen in a jet. Most of the time it doesn't, but it can happen. Uh, this picture shows a couple different things. So you see kind of ice built up on that, that kind of piece that looks like an airfoil, it's called a stator. And then behind that is that turbine part that that spins around, that's part of the compressor section that kind of heats, you know, compresses and heats up the air as it travels through the jet, or at least the front part of the jet. Uh, but the stator doesn't move, so it just sits there and in this particular case, it's building up ice on it. So you want to get rid of that, you want to avoid that as much as possible. They also have a probe. Uh, so next time you're sitting in front, waiting for your, waiting to board your aircraft, and you're looking at the engine, see if you can find that little probe. It's going to be somewhere in the inlet, uh, of the engine, and that's actually, it's called the T2 T2 probe or icing probe, uh, to measure the differences between, uh, the air at the front of the engine versus, there's actually one on the back also. Uh, but induction icing, since I've just been talking about jets, won't get into too much detail there because it's really not as big of an issue, but it is an issue when it comes to, uh, piston aircraft. Uh, and we'll talk about carburetor ice in a second. But other things that you have to think about, I mentioned screens. So when you think of screens, think of air inlets, right? So they might not be protective areas of the plane itself, but it's something that you have to really pay attention to because you might need to knock off some of the ice if you built some up. And then the air scoops. So some of the planes don't have what's called a NACA scoop. And NACA scoop is something that's, so you can imagine it was created by NASA, and they actually create, it's kind of neat, they create these air scoops to, it's, it's almost like a black box, it always survives the accident, it, so it doesn't get icy. The way these scoops are built, so they use them for a variety of different things, like getting rid of pressure inside fuel tanks and all sorts of stuff. Uh, but, uh, you still need to pay attention to them because not all of them are going to be NACA valves or or NACA scoops, and therefore you need to make sure that you pre-flight, all check all that stuff.
All right, so when, when it comes to a carburetor, uh, this is really interesting. So as the air travels through the carburetor, you can see the, the arrow is pointing in the direction the air is going. So the air comes in through the intake, starts to go through, gets mixed, uh, with the fuel that gets entrained, you know, the Bernoulli effect, right? It creates that little vacuum that pulls the, the fuel out of it. As it starts to go through, uh, the constricted part, of course, it increases in speed, right, and decreases in, in pressure. And as it starts to come out the other side of the constriction, everything switches, right? And in this case, it drops the temperature as it starts to expand. And because of that, you start to get build-up, uh, around the inside of the carburetor and on that butterfly valve, uh, as the moisture, uh, as the moisture starts to pass through the carburetor. So it's a big deal when it comes to a, a piston aircraft. If you start to get carburetor icing, because if you don't do anything about it, you know, you could, the engine, you could stall out the engine. So that's an issue. Uh, luckily, when all of us get training, if we get trained in an aircraft like this, it has something that you can do to avoid carburetor icing. Does anybody know what that is called? Turn on the carburetor heat. Excellent. But anyway, it takes the air that's surrounding the exhaust system through a heat exchanger, and it takes that warm air and it pushes it through the carburetor, uh, to help melt, melt the ice that's within the carburetor, and it does it, of course, with warmer air. And if you can imagine, uh, you know, for the most part, aircraft perform better when it's colder because the air is more dense, and you get more performance, or you get more lift, you get more thrust, uh, from the air itself. In this particular case, it's going through a carburetor, so even though cold would be good going through a carburetor, unfortunately, uh, the drawback to it, of course, is when you put heat through the carburetor, you get less performance. So when you initially pull the carburetor heat to run the warm air through the carburetor, you will get a reduction, uh, in your performance. And this is something you checked during your pre-flight to make sure you get an RPM drop when you turn on the carburetor heat. Uh, and, but the advantage, of course, is it will melt the ice, and then, of course, you'll get your, your performance back.
Interesting thing, I found is that depending on what system you use, please make sure that you look and and read your pilot operating handbook to make sure you understand how your system works. Some have you use it all the time, or or for for landing, some don't, uh, because it's really important because the bottom line is, let's say for some reason, uh, you have the carburetor heat on, uh, and you have to do a go-around. Of course, you want as much performance as you can get out of the aircraft. And so you have to, of course, remove the carburetor heat when you do the go-around. Usually, it's, you know, pushing them all up at the same time, but you have to remember, sometimes people forget that they have the carburetor heat on and they're trying to do a go-around, and the plane's not performing as well as they anticipated, right? Uh, one other thought with carburetor icing, of course, it can happen in warmer temperatures, so well above freezing, uh, sometimes up to like 70 degrees. You think, oh my God, how's that possible? But when you start getting air whipping through that carburetor at such high speeds, uh, it can cool things down fairly quickly. Just think of air blowing over your skin, it cools it off. Same thing happens inside a carburetor. And if there's enough moisture in the air, because as it, as the air gets warmer, right, it can hold more moisture. And so because of that, you can actually get carburetor ice in warmer temperatures. So keep that in mind, uh, if it's like an extra, it's like a humid day, that kind of stuff.
All right, uh, let's see. Instrument icing, of course, this is, uh, a big deal. If you're flying along and you start to pick up ice, you want to make sure that you keep certain things clear, like the pitot tube, which there's usually a switch for that to turn that the heater on. And of course, your static port. Uh, this is a picture of an old school, like old-timey static port. The new ones, of course, are flushed. See a picture of that in a sec, uh, on the airframe. Uh, but what both of these do, of course, is be able to work with your airspeed indicator to tell you, of course, how fast your aircraft is flying. So, uh, in this case, it reduces, of course, if you have, start to pick up ice, uh, it can not only reduce the performance of these instruments, but it can also block them if you forget to turn the, the, the de-icing equipment on. And, uh, I don't think it's the video that's in the modules, but there's, there's one of the videos that I sometimes post where they, one of the things they don't mention is that, whether or not the, the pitot tube was turned, the de-icing equipment was turned on. Uh, in this case, it was, the example was a Cessna. So if you watch the video, if it's that same one, just pay attention to, did they flip on the de-icing equipment also? Anyway, so this is how, uh, you make sure that you keep these things clear, so you get the proper, uh, uh, indications on your airspeed indicator.
Here is an airspeed indicator and the pitot tube. You can see in, uh, on the, kind of the, the middle part of that picture where the air comes into, or that ram pressure. And that ram pressure, as it goes into the front and then into that little bellows that's in the middle, that diaphragm, the faster you go, the bigger it gets, of course, it starts to expand. And then, as you can see, all that other stuff that's attached to it starts to spin and and move some cranks and stuff. And it, then the end result is, is it gives you an airspeed. Well, how does it know how fast you're going? Well, it compares not only the molecules that are going in through the pitot tube, it also compares it to the molecules that are in the environment that surrounds your aircraft. And it gets that information from the static port. So the static port is just a hole, and it just shows whatever the, the pressure is at the altitude that you're flying at, whether you're on the ground or up in Big Bear, right? So whatever the ambient pressure is, or the environmental pressure of wherever you're at, it fills the inside of that instrument. So you can see it down at the very bottom where it says a static line comes in, it's just an opening, and the inside of it, everything moves within it, uh, is is ambient compared to the ram air pressure. So why is this important? Well, this is the reason why when you fly up in, let's say Big Bear, right, and it's up in a higher altitude, this is what allows your airspeed indicator to be accurate regardless of whatever pressure you're flying in. So, so whether you're on, you know, on the ground at John Wayne Airport, or you're up in Big Bear when you go to take off, that airspeed indicator, because of this system, right, it will still show, let's say, if you rotated 55 knots, it will still show 55 knots up in, up in the mountains versus sea level, because all it does is measures the difference between what's coming in and then what's surrounding it. Pretty cool device.
Uh, I don't know. I think I have it a little bit later. I have a, I have a link, so I'll, I'll show you that where it talks about, uh, uh, different, uh, like if you freeze the tip, as an example, of the pitot tube, of course, your airspeed's going to go to zero. Then there's, there's a little drain hole, you see the drain hole that I have highlighted. Uh, if you freeze both the front and the back, what happens if you freeze the static port, and all this kind of stuff? I think a little bit later, I'll, uh, I'll, I'll have a link for you guys, a bold method, uh, to, to go over all that kind of stuff. So not a requirement, but, uh, very interesting.
Uh, other examples. So there, here's two accidents, and these are similar in cause but different in reaction. So has a lot to do with the cruise, in this case. So in this case, it's a 757 is flying along and it starts to build up crystals inside the pitot tube. And of course, ram air pressure is the one that's going in the front. If you have something blocking that, whatever you read on your airspeed indicator, of course, is going to be a faulty number, right? Well, in this particular case, it was only on the co-pilot side, who was the person that was flying the plane at the time. And because of that, he decided to go ahead and compensate. So, in other words, he thought it was the aircraft was going to stall because he saw the airspeed starting to drop off, and he pitched the nose of the aircraft over to, quote unquote, increase the airspeed, right? Well, what he didn't do is he didn't talk to the captain. And the captain, in this particular case, looked at the airspeed indicator and's like, are you nuts? What are you doing? Because there's nothing wrong with the airspeed because in a jet, they're redundant systems. So each person has their own pitot tube. So if one is faulty, you know, the other one's probably not. Uh, and in that particular case, it's just a matter of communicating. It's like, hey, my, my airspeed's getting low, uh, is yours doing the same thing? That's typically the, the conversation you'd have. It's usually fairly casual, casual for the most part, unless there's a problem. Uh, and then you, of course, pull out checklists and stuff like that. But this guy just reacted to it, and unfortunately, it went into an inappropriate dive, which the captain had to take the controls back and then recover from that dive. But because he exceeded VMO, which is the same as VNE and in a smaller plane, uh, he exceeded the load factor of the aircraft and bent some stuff. Uh, of course, it landed fine, it's designed really well to be able to handle a lot of that stuff. But unfortunately, probably trashed the plane. So, uh, and the whole cause of this, uh, incident was just ice crystals that were building up in the co-pilot's pitot tube. So always remember, if you're with somebody else, if you're with in an aircraft that has redundant systems, uh, that you, you know, chat with the other person before you actually start maneuvering the aircraft or doing something different.
All right, uh, the second one, this is probably, you might have heard of this one before. This happened a while ago, but in a 2012, but it's an Airbus, and it crashed in the Atlantic. And what happened in this particular case is a little unique. It was ice crystals, but the reason why the ice crystals were there is different. So in this case, there was a big, uh, sandstorm that happened in Africa. As the sand blew out, which was very fine, it blew out over the ocean. And then, of course, they're flying through the Intertropical Convergence Zone, which is where all those thunderstorms are at the equator. Some, all that, well, not all of it, but a lot of that dust now, it's convectively lifted, right? So it goes up into the thunderstorm because it's just being pulled in. And when it gets up to the altitude, in this case, it was 38,000 feet, uh, it started to impact their pitot tubes. But in this particular case, all three, the pilot, co-pilot, and the backup system, all got crystals within the pitot tubes, and none of the airspeed was reading properly. The unfortunate thing in this case is they didn't kind of, they got stuck on the indications instead of flying the aircraft. So there's a lot of details associated with this particular accident. It's very interesting to learn more about it, but the bottom line is, is because of this, they just kept stalling the aircraft as it kept going down. So and then eventually got to the point, of course, where it hit the ocean, which is really unfortunate. So, uh, of course, no one survived that particular accident, and it was all because of ice crystals. So the ice crystals themselves typically would be melted. Uh, they did redesign the pitot tubes in this aircraft, uh, for, you know, right after this accident happened, they figured out what the problem was. But in this particular case, the ice crystals because of the, the dust that came from that dust storm made them particularly tenacious. In other words, they didn't melt right away, and that's why it caused a problem.
So icing in the weather, just keep rolling on. So I do have a pocket. You know, we were talking about temperatures a little bit earlier. So the pocket of temperatures usually around two degrees to minus 20 is is what you look at as far as where you're going to get icy. So I typically look at anything below 5 degrees. Uh, you know, you could use 10 degrees also if you want, just whatever, uh, you have to be aware of the potential of getting icing. And sometimes you get icing when you don't expect it, and that's kind of the scary part. But most of the time, when you get trained, when you start to fly a little bit more high-performance aircraft, to anticipate that kind of stuff, uh, because you just never know when it's going to happen.
All right, so any of the clouds, of course, that, uh, you could potentially build up ice within them. And here's the interesting part about it is icing doesn't necessarily come in that the same place all the time, and it's just like, ah, so confusing, right? Uh, the reality is, like, you could be flying through visible moisture at a temperature that's zero degrees or colder and not get any icing. You know, you're like, I, you're scratching your head, you're like, well, why am I not getting icing? You just don't. And, but that's what's interesting. So the way they generally speaking, they teach it is that icing comes in pockets. So, and it's kind of typically when you see it, you start to get icing, you get rid of it, and then all of a sudden you don't get icing. Or in this case, if you're flying a jet, you'll get the ice light, you'll take care of it, you turn it off, and then eventually it turns back on again. It's, it's like hit and miss, right? So it does come in pockets. So be aware of that. You never know when it's going to happen. And then, uh, when you're flying, let's say in a, a 172 or maybe something a little bit more high-performance, like a, let's say a Saratoga or a Cessna 182, uh, and you're climbing up through the clouds, remember if there's stratus, right? They're so, they're stable, they're flat for the most part. But as you get colder, as it goes up in altitude, uh, you can most likely get, if you're going to get ice, and you'll get it at the very tops, right before you break out. So if you know you're going to break out, because generally speaking, when you're flying in, in instrument conditions, you know, in the cloud, you'll notice it getting lighter as you get closer towards the top of the clouds. And, uh, so just be aware that you could potentially pick up icing at the tops, and, uh, just keep your speed up. That's probably the, the best tip that I can give you.
So remember the different types of clouds, okay? Because you get different types of icing. You know, those stratus clouds, most likely you'll get a lot of that rime stuff. And of course, your cumulus clouds will get more clear or mixed, right? Know the difference between the words, right? So nimbostratus is not cumulonimbus, right? So you need to be able to make sure that you know the differences between the two. Nimbus meaning rain, and then you usually have a descriptive or a description of the type of cloud. In this case, it would be a stratus cloud versus a cumulonimbus cloud, of course, it's a different type.
All right, of course, the cumulonimbus clouds or cumulus clouds, you have a lot of instability associated with it. And, uh, and of course, because of that, uh, there's most likely a little bit more heat, uh, in the system that allows it to carry more moisture, larger water droplets, like we've already talked about in clear ice. I just keep that in mind. Uh, there are two different fronts that, uh, these are one of those questions that you get from the DE when you're having that little chat about weather, when you're sitting there sweating it out, make sure you pass your check ride, right? So when they talk about where are the potential places that you can get freezing rain, you can actually get it from both types of fronts, right? This one's more common through the warm front, where you have all that warm air that creates, of course, you know, that large swath of rain that happens. And as it falls from the warm temperatures through the cold air, it starts to get, you know, it starts to lose temperature as it's dropping, right? And this is where you can get those supercooled water droplets also. And you can get it in VFR conditions, which is one of the reasons why we talk about it. So you can be flying along, you can fly in rain, it's no big deal, as long as you have the visibility, you know, rain's not an issue. But if it's a supercooled water droplet that you're flying into, that's a huge issue because you'll pick up ice. So always keep that in mind when you're flying in the rain, uh, as far as what the temperatures are.
All right, so as warmer, uh, as it falls through the cold air, will start to get supercooled, right? And then, of course, here's a picture of what the cold front looks like with the cumulonimbus cloud, and of course, the same thing. So you have a cumulonimbus cloud that, of course, can give you supercooled water droplets. Anyway, you can just drop them right at the bottom, which, of course, you can fly into. But we all know not to fly into thunderstorms, right? You want to keep 20 miles away from those bad boys as much as you can, and definitely not squall lines, right? Squall lines are bad.
Terrain. So I put this one in here specifically because we are completely surrounded by terrain in Southern California. So besides the Banning Pass, which is the only low part you're probably going to go over unless you go out over the ocean, you're going over a ridgeline somewhere. So when you're flying in the winter, of course, make sure that you're aware, this potential is there. So as the air travels up, of course, you get not not only upslope fog, but you get upslope clouds. And if those clouds are below freezing, you can pick up ice. Uh, it's happened to me flying to Big Bear. I was on an instrument, instrument flight, flying some passengers to Big Bear, blew through some clouds over the ridgeline around Lake Arrowhead, and I really started picking up ice, which, which is kind of scary. It was in the Caravan, mainly because you can only drop your speed so fast in the Caravan, and you can't go any slower than 120 knots, which is in the pilot operating handbook. And mainly because you will, the potential of losing lift or getting close to a stall speed is there. And so they get put a cushion in there and they say don't fly any slower than 120 knots. So what do you do when you can't keep your speed up because you've got the power all the way up? You have to descend. So very important for you to know what's below you, just in case something like that happens. So there's all those little things you have to think about when you fly in icing conditions. It ended up being, of course, fine, and I whacked all the ice off with a hammer, a soft hammer, right, little soft rubber mallet, uh, afterwards. So just keep in mind the different types of clouds while you're flying.
Couple things on, uh, some tips for icing conditions. So always, this is the best way to avoid it completely, is make sure that you check the weather. Uh, it's important also for the NOTAMs to be able to make sure, or the pilot reports, if there is known icing. Of course, if there's anything in the pilot reports that say icing or they tell you there's icing, you can't fly even if you're, uh, instrument rated, unless your aircraft is approved for known icing. Not that it just has the stuff on it, it's like you have to look in the pilot operating handbook to make sure it's actually approved to fly in non-icing. It literally has to say that, uh, in the pilot operating handbook. So there's a lot of people that say, oh yeah, it's got all the stuff on it. It's like, no, no, no, there's a reason for it. Uh, always de-ice your aircraft. Uh, I talked about a few different ways to do it, just make sure that you don't have, it's nice and clear and clean before you take off, right?
Uh, let's see. No equipment. Of course, here's the icing report. You see on the right-hand side, that's what the picture is. You can get that on aviationweather.gov or AWC.gov. And then you can see where most of the icing potential is, just by like pulling that up. It's really simple. Uh, and then, of course, keep your speeds up when you're flying up towards the top. I already mentioned that. Should be there. We go.
So, uh, flying VFR, so or find VFR. So when you're flying along, you get icing, it's like, where's the closest VFR? So, uh, as part of your planning, is always have an out. So if you're flying a 172 or a Piper or something like that, and you get into icing, hopefully you did your due diligence to find out where the clear areas is are, where you can escape, just in case.
All right, uh, there's another, this is like the real D zone, the zero to minus 10. And so it will vary, uh, depending on where your training takes place. Just remember, it can be inside or outside of these temperatures, right? But that's the worst case scenario. And I think because it's in blue, you might want to remember that one. Uh, consider landing with flaps up, with power. And if I'm correct, I think it'll be in the video. So kind of, you know, pay attention to the little details when it comes to the discussion afterwards. But it's very important. Uh, the one time I got clear icing, we did not use any flaps. And because it, changing the configuration changes, you remember, you're a test pilot now because you got icing all over your aircraft. And when you start changing the configuration, you have no idea how the aircraft is going to respond. And also, just as an aside, you could lose some ice off of one wing and not from another. Think of that. So that's that, you throw another wrench into it. So, uh, so don't change your configuration, keep everything the same, just get on the ground. It's the most important thing. Uh, don't do anything, power, don't reduce the power until you're like, you know, you're like almost touching down, then you can pull it off. Uh, be aware of any instrument flights or or instrument problems, and any failures that you potentially get, to make sure that you know, you can see those happening and to be able to compensate for it. Uh, of course, if you, you know, get your instrument rating, they, they definitely talk about that kind of stuff. But the whole idea, of course, in the end, of course, is to live to fly another day, which is important. So, uh, and make sure when you go out and you know, you, you pre-flight your aircraft, that you make sure you remove all the contamination because it just might look like this when you go out to fly in the pattern, your new aircraft. So that's it.