How Can You Protect Your Aircraft from De-icing?

There are methods you can put in place to prevent the need for aircraft deicing. The first step is simply by doing your research and anticipating if the weather conditions could cause ice to contaminate your vessel. Once you’ve anticipated that, you can prevent this by hangaring your aircraft. Hangaring the aircraft can protect it from frost and precipitation. Before leaving the aircraft in the hangar space, you would have to ensure that there are no traces of water left on its surface, as that could still cause it to be subject to frost even inside the hangar. Therefore, it’s best to remove any traces of water before you hangar the aircraft. Other ways in which you can prevent frost from forming is by putting wing tarps or covers onto the aircraft. While it may not be 100% foolproof against frost, this method, plus the hangaring and water removal procedure, can save you time and money that you’d rather not spend deicing. 

There are several different components of aircraft deicing equipment that are significant when it comes to deicing an aircraft, those of which include the flow control valve, deicing boots, heat blanket, and assembly pitot tube. The flow valve is important because it acts as a solenoid operative valve that enables air from the pump to flow into the deice system. The valve opens once the device is energized by the de-icing switch, thus allowing for the device to work and heat the ice off from the edges. Deicing boots are bulky pieces of rubber that are fastened onto the leading edges of an aircraft, typically the vertical stabilizer and the wing. They work by inflating any time there is an accumulation of ice buildup. Once they’re inflated, snow or ice begin to crack on the surface. Eventually it flies off entirely, leaving no residue of snow. A heat blanket, true to its name, is a type of material that aircraft maintenance workers can use to cover the surface of an aircraft. The blanket works by trapping heat onto the surface and thus preventing any snow or ice from accumulating. Lastly, the pitot tube is significant because the freezing of these tubes can cause your airspeed indicator to fail. The airspeed indicator receives data on ram pressure but if the pitot tube is frozen over, that can alter the numbers. You may be flying slower than the airspeed indicator perceives. In this case, it is the pilot’s responsibility to descend to altitudes that are free of icing conditions and land, after which aircraft personnel can focus on deicing the pitot tube. 

Overall the best and least costly procedure is to anticipate frosty weather, hangar your aircraft into a safe space (while also removing any trace of water on the surface) and apply heating blankets and deicing boots. For any other questions or inquiries on deicing the pitot tube or on aircraft deicing equipment, call RFQ Experts. As the leading independent distributor of aircraft deicing systems parts, our team is knowledgeable on the methods you can use for deicing your vessel.