Glaze Ice

I did an Oxford instrument ground school long ago.
One of the weather topics was glaze ice. This was described as extremely
dangerous, in that supercooled rain could impact and flow to a glassy
ice layer over the wing in seconds, which tended to pull the aircraft
down pronto.

In the last three days, I actually witnessed an event. It was a ground
forecast of "freezing rain". It was devastating. As you know, most of
the US distributes power almost entirely on overhead lines.
In the local (SW Oklahoma) counties, there are trees quite close to
power lines. Tree branches sagged to the ground in minutes and the
majority shed limbs into the road and onto power lines before your eyes.

Many power poles could not hold up the half-inch coat of ice on the
lines, in a moderate crosswind and splintered - often a half dozen in a
row. One county (Harmon) estimated about 3 to 4 weeks to repair the 2000
or so power lines that were down on broken poles before electric power
could be restored there.

For people who are used to living in Tornado Alley and don't easily
shock - this was a new one on them! There was a rush on motor
generators. There was no gasoline to be had for a day or more after, til
the generator sets were set up at strategic gas stations to serve huge
lines of customers.
Some small towns are reporting sewage farm pump failures, others say
went drinking water pump stations out.
The local AM radio station used for emergency reporting, went out after
a while - its antenna was glazed, which mismatched the transmitter,
which then fried.

The city set up strategic industrial generator sets - of which the
smartest siting after the water and sewage utilities, was at a 24 hour
diner - where the utility crews could go to rest and eat.

Moral: If you fly into glaze ice, fly down or fly up, but fly OUT quick
as you can!

Brian W

brian whatcott writes:

Moral: If you fly into glaze ice, fly down or fly up, but fly OUT quick
as you can!

True for all types of icing.

Mxsmanic wrote:
brian whatcott writes:

Moral: If you fly into glaze ice, fly down or fly up, but fly OUT quick
as you can!

True for all types of icing.


which reminds me...

ALL take-offs are optional.

Landings are not.



--

Richard Lamb

Fly out of it.. if you fly into it.. turn around.. it was warmer where you
were before..
If it's supercooled rain.. then it is warmer above.. where the rain formed..
try to climb into warmer air.

"brian whatcott" wrote in message
...


Moral: If you fly into glaze ice, fly down or fly up, but fly OUT quick as
you can!

Brian W

How about get a decent weather forecast before you go flying and don't
even think about trying to fly in this kind of weather?

In article d3fdfb1b-7f7f-40ae-9735-85b9cb159680
@k18g2000prf.googlegroups.com, says...

How about get a decent weather forecast before you go flying and don't
even think about trying to fly in this kind of weather?


Correct but we still remain humans who make mistakes.


02/01/2010 Maria Cornelis (76 year of age, 30 years a pilot) took off
from EBUL (Ursel Airport) in Belgium in her own C172 OO-TRB. She was
accompagned by the president of the local flying club, to which she also
belonged. Maria was looked at as expermented and carefull frequent
flyer.

TAF EBOS (Ostend Airport is some 30 NM away) was

METAR EBOS 021550Z 22009KT 8000 FEW020 SCT032 01/M01 Q1017 R08/290095
TEMPO 3000 -SHSNRA BKN012=


8 planes took off that afternoon from EBUL: 5 returned and landed
without problems, 2 landed on another airfield.

OO-TRB crashed around 10 minutes after TO in the woods about 1 km from
EBUL. 2 fatalities.


Tom De Moor

In article ,
says...

In article d3fdfb1b-7f7f-40ae-9735-85b9cb159680
@k18g2000prf.googlegroups.com, says...

How about get a decent weather forecast before you go flying and don't
even think about trying to fly in this kind of weather?


Correct but we still remain humans who make mistakes.


02/01/2010 Maria Cornelis (76 year of age, 30 years a pilot) took off
from EBUL (Ursel Airport) in Belgium in her own C172 OO-TRB. She was
accompagned by the president of the local flying club, to which she also
belonged. Maria was looked at as expermented and carefull frequent
flyer.

TAF EBOS (Ostend Airport is some 30 NM away) was

METAR EBOS 021550Z 22009KT 8000 FEW020 SCT032 01/M01 Q1017 R08/290095
TEMPO 3000 -SHSNRA BKN012=

OK sure - but one should surely reading something more into that temp
and dew point. Too close for me. What do others think?

--
Duncan.

In article ,
says...

METAR EBOS 021550Z 22009KT 8000 FEW020 SCT032 01/M01 Q1017 R08/290095
TEMPO 3000 -SHSNRA BKN012=

OK sure - but one should surely reading something more into that temp
and dew point. Too close for me. What do others think?




SHSNRA

Showers Snow Rain.

In our club are now two camps: 1 person, convinced that dry snow will
not cause freezing ice and all the rest who don't know the differance by
sight between a cloud full of dry snow or freezing rain and who will
chicken out by not flying through.

I am with the rest ;-)

Where is the summer staying?

Tom De Moor

On Sun, 31 Jan 2010 18:38:02 -0800, BT wrote:

Fly out of it.. if you fly into it.. turn around.. it was warmer where you
were before..
If it's supercooled rain.. then it is warmer above.. where the rain formed..
try to climb into warmer air.

Wrong.

Buy a plane that has a de-icer. They are only $500,000
or so.
--
Mark inventor/artist/pilot/guitarist/scientist/philosopher/
scratch golfer/cat wrangler and observer of the mundane.
And much much more including wealthy beyond anything you can imagine.
My website http://www.hosanna1.com/ www.myspace.com/gayincarolina

Mark writes:

Wrong.

Buy a plane that has a de-icer. They are only $500,000
or so.

Deicing equipment protects you while you find your way out of icing
conditions. It does not allow you to fly through icing conditions indefinitely
with impunity.