air frame icing

I've been thinking about and reading up on airframe icing recently. Every pilot that I have talked to has agreed that situations where airframe icing may be encountered should be avoided. A typical comment from one of my pilot friends on the subject of icing might be:

"airframe icing scares the wits out of me!"

I was wondering the best way to share some information about airframe icing with you and I found this short two minute animation showing the effect of airframe icing. Wings create lift, and icing disrupts the flow of air over the wings. In this animation you will see:

• ice build up on the wings disrupting the airflow over the wings
• ice build up on the propellers (watch the props slow down)
• ice build up on the wind shield
• and ice build up on other surfaces (tail, fuselage, etc)

You will want to see the information that the person who uploaded the video to youtube (trustyetverify) made here. The animation does not show one likely outcome, stall and crash. But you will get the picture. Pay careful attention to the changes in air flow during the animation. In the first few seconds you will see "normal" air flow before ice build up interferes with the air flow.

Before, or perhaps after you watch the video, if you want read a little more about airframe icing, here is a short article on the subject. Included in this article are two embedded videos, a 25 second animation on airframe icing and a 7 minute video from NASA on tail icing.