aircraft Icing

from JROTC.ORG

Aircraft Icing

• Carburetor Ice - Some piston-engine planes have carburetors. The carburetor is where fuel is mixed with air, and it gets very cold due to the evaporation of the fuel. On a humid day, the moisture in the air can turn to ice as it passes through the carburetor if the engine is run at low speed. Pilots who experience carburetor ice turn on carburetor heat to melt the ice.

• Glaze and rime ice are names given to the ice that forms on an airplane's windshield, its propeller and other aerodynamic surfaces as an airplane flies through supercooled rain droplets.

• Frost is another ice factor that affects aircraft. Frost can disturb the airflow enough to reduce the lift efficiency of aerodynamic surfaces.

Ice buildup on wing leading edge

• Frost, glaze ice and rime-icing conditions pose the greatest danger to flight primarily because they change the shape of the airfoil and decrease the airplane's lift factor.