AOPA Pilot Magazine - November 2020 - 104

NEWS & NOTES

AOPA AIR SAFETY INSTITUTE

NEW FROM ASI

Ice on the deck

Why you need to take this weather phenomenon seriously

REALITY CHECK: COSTLIEST
INSURANCE CLAIMS
Education, focus, and discipline help
lower insurance rates if applied consistently in our flying. How? If we are
informed about the types of mishaps that are driving up rates and
make a concerted effort to avoid
them, we can save the insurance
carriers money-which, in turn, saves
us money. Watch Reality Check:
What Are the Costliest Insurance
Claims? to see how you can be part
of the solution and help reduce the
cost of aviation insurance.
airsafetyinstitute.org/
realitycheck/costliest_claims

BY ALICIA HERRON

Sponsored by AssuredPartners
Aerospace

THERE I WAS: DISTRACTING
ENGINE FAILURE
As an AOPA aviation technical specialist, Jon Gandy brings a wealth
of knowledge, and he shares a story
in which he experienced a partial engine failure in a Piper PA-31
Navajo, which caused an inadvertent
gear-up landing.
airsafetyinstitute.org/thereiwas

104 | AOPA PILOT November 2020

surface of the airplane-not just on the
wings, propeller, and windshield, but
also on the antennas, vents, intakes,
and cowlings. Ice builds in flight where
no heat or deicing boots can reach it,
and it can cause antennas to vibrate so
severely that they break. In moderate
to severe conditions, a light aircraft can
become so iced up that continued flight
is impossible.
The threat of icing isn't limited to
regions typically associated with colder
weather. Even in historically snow-free
areas, the freezing level can drop dramatically in winter. If you don't already, add
checking the freezing level to your preflight
planning to help avoid icing conditions.
Here are some tips to help deal with
icing:
* Any amount of structural icing is hazardous.
* Conduct thorough preflight planning and
include backup plans.

* Ensure the aircraft is completely free of
frost, snow, and ice before departure.
* Get out of icing conditions immediately,
as soon as you suspect or see ice forming
on the aircraft.
* Depending on the cloud type, icing can
be worse in the top of the clouds, so only
climb if you're certain you can climb over
the top.
* Give and use pireps to help improve
weather decision making.
Take ice seriously. Even a small amount
can dramatically change the way your
airplane flies, and if not dealt with immediately, can become a major and potentially
unrecoverable problem.
Learn more about icing with this safety
spotlight:
airsafetyinstitute.org/spotlight/
precipandicing
EMAIL alicia.herron@aopa.org

DAVID TULIS

ANY AMOUNT OF ICE on a light GA airplane is a big deal, and as we inch toward
winter, now is a good time to examine
the hazards of icing and some tips to deal
with them.
Ice or frost accumulations increase
drag and rob an aircraft of critical lift.
When you add power to compensate for
the additional drag and lift the aircraft's
nose to maintain altitude, the angle of
attack increases, allowing the underside
of the wings and fuselage to accumulate
additional ice. Accumulations no thicker
or rougher than coarse sandpaper on the
leading edge and upper surface of a wing
can reduce lift by as much as 30 percent
and increase drag by as much as 40 percent. Because of this, the airplane may stall
at lower angles of attack and at a much
higher 1-G airspeed than normal.
Loss of lift isn't the only problem. Ice
accumulates on every exposed frontal

http://www.airsafetyinstitute.org/realitycheck/costliest_claims http://www.airsafetyinstitute.org/realitycheck/costliest_claims http://www.airsafetyinstitute.org/thereiwas http://www.airsafetyinstitute.org/spotlight/precipandicing http://www.airsafetyinstitute.org/spotlight/precipandicing

AOPA Pilot Magazine - November 2020

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