January 24, 2005William Shatner's NightmareNo, not a man on the wing. The Rocky's Ann Imse discusses the NTSB's frustration with trying to get the FAA to adopt new rules for airplane icing. Apparently, the Cessna Caravan is a particular problem, with something like 2% of all Caravans sold since 1984 involved in ice-related crashes. This is an enormous percentage for a particular cause of accidents. Ice has been a problem forever, with St. Exupery, Langewiesche, and Robert Buck all writing about it. As a VFR pilot I rarely encountered it, except to make sure it was cleared off before I took off. Even then, a very light frost on a sunny but cold day wasn't a problem, which leads me to think it really is a problem with the Caravan's wing. Ironically, local pilots who should be in a position to know didn't. Alaskan Caravan pilots didn't seem aware of the plane's problems, so despite all the merits of local knowledge, sometimes there really is merit to a centralized database. Posted by joshuasharf at January 24, 2005 05:56 AM | TrackBack |
|