AOPA Pilot Magazine - February 2014 - 35

SUPER LEGEND BECOMES 122ND LSA
WITH THE APPROVAL of the Super Legend Cub late last

year, there are now 122 models of Light Sport aircraft
for you to buy. The aircraft, powered by a 115-horsepower Lycoming engine, is actually the 132nd light
sport model to win approval, but 10 models are out of
production. More are on the way, including seaplanes.
American Legend officials celebrate certification (see
"Harley in the Sky," January 2014 AOPA Pilot).
LEFT TO RIGHT: Pat Bowers, company president; Darin

Hart, FAA inspector; Chukudi Crawford, company
quality manager; Mark Krotky; and operations
manager James Evans.

Ice protection in a can?
Testing hydrophobics

VIDEO EXTRA

Learn more in this
online video.

B Y D AV E H I R S C H M A N
ICE IS A DANGER that all pilots must carefully consider
this time of year, and avoid as best we can. And we may
get some surprising help from some new nanotechnology compounds designed to repel water and prevent
ice from forming on treated surfaces. These "hydrophobic" materials can be used to protect everything from
industrial equipment to boots from getting soaked or
saturated. But what about aircraft wings?
I recently purchased a product called Never Wet
($18 at Home Depot) and applied it to the leading edges
of the wings and control surfaces of my Van's Aircraft
RV-4. Never Wet comes in two spray cans. Spray on a
base coat, then wait 30 minutes and spray on the top
coat. It dries in a mostly transparent mat finish that's
noticeably rough to the touch, like fine-grit sandpaper.
You'd think a product designed to repel water would
be glossy, but that's not the case. Also, since it's not perfectly transparent, it's not suitable for aircraft canopies.
A day after applying the compound, I searched out
some stratus clouds that produced trace amounts of ice
on a few portions of the airframe, but nothing conclusive. Then the Mid-Atlantic region got hit with a winter
storm with rapid accumulations of snow and ice.
I pushed the airplane outside a hangar at Frederick
Municipal Airport in Maryland and left it there for several hours while the frozen precipitation fell. When I
returned, the airplane was covered in about three inches
of snow. I had anticipated the snow might slide off the
treated wing leading edges, but that wasn't the case. The
snow was uniformly distributed across the wing.
But was it stuck there? Had the heavy, wet snow
adhered to the treated wing leading edges? I took a deep
breath and blew against the wing, and the snow on the

treated surface flew off. On the untreated portions of
the wing, the snow clung heavily and remained in place.
After a few minutes of huffing and puffing, the treated
portions of the wing were clear and dry, and a blanket
of wet snow stayed draped over the rest of the airframe.
Obviously, this isn't a scientific test. There's a great deal
more that has to be done to
determine whether hydophobic
compounds can inhibit airframe
ice accumulation and enhance
flight safety. But at first blush,
it looks very promising. I use
Rainex on my car windshield-
and I won't hesitate to use
Never Wet or other hydrophobic compounds on my aircraft.
(The FAA hasn't attempted to
regulate the kinds of coatings
we put on aircraft surfaces.)
These hydrophobic compounds aren't meant to replace
robust deice and anti-ice
systems meant for flight in
known-icing conditions. But the nanotechnology compounds could be helpful in allowing pilots to escape
inadvertent icing encounters, and that would be a valuable contribution. And in the spring ,when temperatures
warm up and the threat of low-level icing becomes a
distant memory, hydrophobic compounds are easy to
remove with mineral spirits (and lots of muscle).
EMAIL dave.hirschman@aopa.org

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AOPA Pilot Magazine - February 2014

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