Spring Ice

Pausing in position I look out the rain smeared view of the forward windscreen. The visibility off the departure end of the runway appears grim this morning, the city skyline barely visible through the mist. The tower breaks the silence of the cockpit;



- "Air189,. Pilot reports indicate moderate ice from the surface to seven thousand feet on departure, Departure is 119.5 airborne, cleared for takeoff runway 12"



-"Departure 119.5 airborne, cleared takeoff runway 12, check remarks, good morning, Air189"



As the noise increases within the cockpit as the engines begin to spool up, I rest my hand beneath the power levers in preparation for the takeoff



- "Props governing" I call, while I wonder how much ice the clouds ahead have in store for us.



- "Set take-off power" responds the captain



- "Take-off power set, in the green, 80 knots, 100 knots rotate, positive rate", comes the well rehearsed list of calls of a normal take-off



- He replies with a simple- "gear up"



With the landing gear safely stowed in their respective wheel wells I turn my attention to the slowly increasing altimeter, waiting for 400 feet.



-"Top of Second"

-"Flaps up, set climb power, after Take-off Checks" is the laconic reply out of the left seat



-"Departure Good Morning, Air 189 is off of Runway 12 at the City, through 3200' for 7000".

- "Air 189, Morning, left turn direct VIPVA climb and maintain Flight Level 190"

- "Left turn direct VIPVA, maintain Flight Level 190, Air 189"



The ground had long since disappeared into the murk below, and looking out the side window of the cockpit as I complete the after take-off checks, I can only see the dim interior of the overcast layer that is currently sitting over the southern half of the province. A look at the graphical area forecast before departure this morning showed an upper warm front moving in from the south, bringing with it an extensive area of cloud, snow and freezing drizzle. Pilot reports of flights that had already traversed this route earlier in the morning indicated that we would likely find moderate ice in the climb to 19'000 feet. With a near full load of 9 passengers sitting in the back, the aircraft seemed hesitant to climb already, the vertical speed reading akin to what one would expect in the small single engined Cessnas in which I did my training. Climbing north past the unseen northern edge of the city below, an accumulation of ice was beginning to make itself visible on the leading edge of the wing. I turned to look at the windshield wipers, which tend to accumulate ice before any other portion of the aircraft visible from the cockpit, to find a half an inch of ice clinging to their sturdy black frame.

Inflating the de-ice boots dislodged most of the ice from the wing, the airflow prying it from the leading edge and carrying it back over the wing. Glancing at the altimeter as we climb through 8000', I begin to think that unless we find the cloud tops soon, we will stand little chance of climbing the aircraft, and the ice we have acquired, to 19'000.



- "Edmonton Centre, Air 189 is requesting 15'000 for final"

- " Air 189, Edmonton Centre, Maintain 15'000"

- "Maintain 15'000, Air 189"



Climbing through 9'000 feet, the thick veil of grey cloud which has enveloped us since departure begins to lighten. Looking upwards I can begin to see the faint outline of the sun above, I sigh, hopefully the tops are not far off.

We continue the now familiar routine of inflating the boots, watching the ice crack and shed off, followed finally by waiting for more ice to collect to begin the process over again.

Climbing through the last few thousand feet to the tops the ice begins to collect more quickly, like a last chance effort on the part of Mother Nature to prevent us from climbing above the clouds. Moments later, we finally break through the tops into the sun lit world above.

Leveling at 15'000 I pause to think about the conditions we have flown through up to this point in the flight. The ice accumulations we have seen thus far in the flight exceed anything I have seen in my year and a half experience flying IFR in the typically dry air of the western prairies. The ice that is currently sitting out on the unprotected areas of the wings is likely more ice than I have encountered throughout all of the past winter's flights combined.

At the hotel after landing and securing the airplane, I am looking over the transcripts from the Cockpit Voice Recorder and Flight Data Recorder of Colgan Flight 3407 which crashed while on approach into Buffalo New York earlier this year. At the beginning of the approach the First Officer expressed concern over the icing they were experiencing, and her inexperience with dealing with icing conditions in general. While there were many other falling dominos which contributed to the Colgan accident in Buffalo, I could not help but wonder what part ice had played in the larger picture, and given my experience on the northbound flight this morning, what I may have done differently or the same compared to the ill fated crew if I were placed in their shoes. Having the benefit of hindsight and the ability to take ones time to think through the chain of events in which the crew of Colgan 3407 found themselves, it is easy to say that if put in their place, we would have made different decisions, possibly averting disaster. Unfortunately views such as these will only serve to allow the events which led to this accident to perpetuate. If anything useful is to be gained from the decisions and actions of this crew, we all must realize that as pilots that we are no less fallible, no less prone to error than the ill fated crew of Colgan 3407, and that their mistakes of today, if not looked at carefully, could well be our mistakes of tomorrow.