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Light Icing


A.O.G
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Good on you AOG. ! :up:

 

For being MAN enough to admit your actions (or faults?) in public.

For staying around and talking to all the posters, both good and bad.

 

We can all learn something here. It's not about beating up an honest man (that's you, AOG), it's about a lot of little things most of us may have done over the years, maybe not too illegal, maybe not too smart, but we got away with them...somehow?

 

My icing introduction happened very early, Tumbler Ridge in 1979, flying along fat dumb and happy in a 206, and whack, the entire windshield is covered. Only 1/2 way out to the destination, so did the 180 looking out the side...and finished the entire flight back to camp, including landing...looking out the side.

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there are many of us that have flown into ice, and none of us want to do it again (i hope). AOG, you are one of us and will stay one of us as long as you keep trying to never do it again. a pat on the back for having the courage to bring this to light :up: :up:

 

ya, you took a bit of a beating but i'm guessing it wasn't so much from those that know not to throw too many stones :P

 

story: pre-winter company meeting at Helijet. kind of a safety talk about icing that will arrive soon ect. the guy giving the talk says,

 

"before we start i would like you to welcome mr. xxxxxx from transport canada who will be joining us here today. ok, who wants to be first to talk about their experiences flying into ice?"

 

you could have heard a pin drop. then i slowly raised my hand and said, "oh no sir, i have never flown into ice!" that was followed by all the rest who were vehemently denying ever having flown into ice. you get the idea.

 

if you think it's hard to say no to a customer in a seismic camp, try telling it to 12 passengers who are holding a schedule that says your a/c is supposed to lift off now!

 

answer is still no....... :)

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My intro to icing was also in Tumbler ridge on a seismic job. -4 c and snowing whilst moving bags when al of a sudden it's raining. :shock: That four minutes back to camp was a little stressfull. Ice on the window, oat gage and the toes of the skid plus the increasing torque where all apparent. Landed without incident at camp and promptly fell on my butt while stepping out on the flight step.

 

Gotta love the first time eh!

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I might be wrong, but I took A.O.G.'s original post as him playing a bit of "Devil's Advocate". I believe he knew the types of replies he was going to receive and wasn't overly surprised by most of them. It may not have been meant in that regard, but I took his comment as a "conversation starter", that has ended in many a "heated" conversation in many coffee rooms over the eons. Either that or he never attended a Ground School anywhere or never read an avaition article on the subject......and I doubt that very much. :D

 

I may have misjudged you A.O.G., but I suspect you have a "twinkle" in your eye right about now and/or maybe had that "twinkle" when you first posted. If I'm totally incorrect on all this, then my apologies for being patronizing sir. I thought I'd "play your game" anyway with my post to you and if I was right, you would know that it wasn't personal, but meant totally for public consumption. ;)

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AOG

 

I am going to back you up on this one because i think what you meant was the wx was bad. But to be as efficeint as possible and appease the customer when the vis was a legal half mile you went out to swing bags with a shorter line to stay below the lower ceiling.

 

This was done in a safe manner because you noticed you were picking up some airframe icing - which might be due to the fact that the window defroster was warming up the screen a little, but you landed regularly and shut down to confirm there was no icing on any of the rotor systems. And that the icing on the airframe was not a safety factor in any way!

 

You were not hauling passengers cause this is heli assist in the flat lands over farmers fields, where at any time you could have landed if a problem occured and called your engineer from staging to pick you up in the truck and drive you the 2 miles back to staging!

 

You maintained a vigilant watch of your OAT, present wx, aircraft gages, min vis, local hazards and relavent flight interests to ensure safety was not compromised!

And when it was you shut her down and called it a day!

 

 

 

I have done what you did many a time, but I will describe my adventures as above! Clarity is the key. Safety is paramount. If you have any hesitation or doubt listen to the little hairs on the back of your neck!

 

 

All production flying, be it bags, drills, logging, sking, or even off shore has its share of production vs wx decisions! They are all made on an individual basis at the time, with the information at hand! No two are alike! Now two situations are the same.

 

I ask myself 3 questions before I do anything with the helicopter I am flying! Am I going to kill anybody? Am I going to hurt anybody? Am I going to wreck anything? If the answer is no to all three I keep trucking...

 

 

So keep trucking and play safe!

 

It's only a personal ego thing if you have to walk back to staging - believe me! :huh:

 

And remember if you don't really want to fly in the present conditions, a quick wx check for 10 to 20 seconds (just long enough to build a little ice) so when you land you can drag the party manager over and show him your wears!!!

 

 

Think smart!

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