Aircraft Systems and Flight: Anti-Icing and De-icing system

 

Hello to my readers!

 

              In this week’s blog I will be talking about the Anti-Icing and De-Icing system of the aircraft and what are the preventative measure that can be taken when there is a fault in the system.

 

In last week’s discussion we talked about the operating environment and aircraft performance, one of the environmental factors where airplanes operate is freezing temperatures. According to the Pilot’s Handbook Aeronautical Knowledge chapter 7 (FAA 2016), Anti Icing is designed to prevent the formation of ice and De-Icing is designed to remove ice once it has been formed. For smaller types of airplanes, the wing leading edge of the aircraft is equipped with De-Icer boots and for large commercial airplanes, they utilize bleed air that is distributed to the wings leading edge to prevent ice to form. Having a Wing Anti-Ice (WAI) system is very convenient because pilots can just turn it on and it has a timer or a sensor that automatically activates the system. But having this system is more complicated due to having a complex electrical system that is tied up to the pneumatic system, so what if this system fails during flight? Icing build up in the wing is very dangerous because it will disturb the smooth airflow passing through the wing, and it prevents it from generating lift and more than likely the aircraft could stall. To counter act this there are manual switches that can be turned on and have the system generate a continuous hot air blowing through the leading edges of the aircraft. A lot of times mechanics have to bypass the Thermal Anti-Ice (TAI) Valves on the ground when there is a fault in the system just for the aircraft to fly with Anti-Ice, but this is usually a temporary fix.

 


In conclusion to my blog post for this week, Anti-Ice and De-Ice systems are very crucial to airplanes operating in high altitudes and also in freezing temperatures. Most of the time specially during the winter season, this system, if faulty is a cause for the aircraft to be grounded until it has been resolved by the mechanics for the aircraft to fly safely.

 

Thank you for reading my blog for this week, until next time!

 

-Ralph

 

 

References;

 

Federal Aviation Administration (2016). Pilot’s Handbook of Aeronautical Knowledge (PHAK).

Retrieved From;

https://www.faa.gov/regulations_policies/handbooks_manuals/aviation/phak/

 

Aircraft Systems Tech (2017) Aeronautics guide. Retrieved from;

https://www.aircraftsystemstech.com/2017/05/wing-and-horizontal-and-vertical.html

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