Getting Rid Of Airframe Ice

Whether you left the plane out in a storm or picked it up airborne, ice on the airframe can be a challenge to remove.

Thursday, March 14, 2024 at 08:00 AM ET

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The King Air pictured at right was able to land with this much ice likely because of its anti-icing capability. But those systems cover the wings, tail surfaces and propellers, among other large components, and don’t remove ice accumulated on the fuselage. Even if the wings and tail were perfectly clean, the added weight and drag will make for lousy handling and increased risk of an approach/landing mishap.

Key Takeaways:

Aircraft must strictly adhere to the "clean aircraft concept," ensuring all critical surfaces are completely free of ice, frost, or snow before takeoff due to their significant negative impact on performance and safety.
Ground de-icing options include physical removal, utilizing heated hangars or sunlight, and applying specialized de-icing/anti-icing fluids (Types 1-4), each with specific properties, holdover times, and application considerations.
In-flight icing is managed by dedicated anti-ice/de-ice systems (e.g., pneumatic boots, bleed-air systems); modern safety guidance emphasizes early activation of de-icing boots, as the "ice bridging" concern has been largely debunked.

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Despite our most valiant efforts, sometimes ice accumulates on our aircraft. This might seem like a showstopper, at least until things thaw out, but options for getting rid of it do exist, depending on the airport and aircraft’s capability.

An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, as the saying goes. We covered the prevention part in February’s article, Anti-Ice Systems, And How To Use Them. This month we’ll discuss the cure—what happens when the ice is already stuck to the plane.