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Hey All!

We have had some cold temperatures lately here in Montana. Getting into freezing temps and throw in some precip and now you have to deal with De-Ice. I would Love to hear anybody's stories about a De-ice encounter you had to deal with, Funny or series lets here it in the comments!

One time going into an airport in PA, we got in late and looking at the weather the next day showed that it wasn't suppose to get that cold overnight so we chose not to hanger the aircraft. Waking up the next morning there was a solid layer of Ice on our rental car, Not a good sign so far. Once we got to the airport we find that our aircraft had a solid layer of ice on the surfaces. According to our research this wasn't going to be an issue because there was suppose to be a De-ice truck and hanger space at this FBO. Well with some bad luck and unfortunate timing, the only space available in the hanger was a non heated hanger, and their De-ice broke that morning! So with not many options left we tried to De-ice the "Old Fashion Way". We pointed the plane towards the rising sun and played the waiting game. Luckily for us the moment the sun hit the surfaces it all melted off with no issue.

Stay warm and safe out there!

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Two stories. First one, we discovered a thin layer of frost on the right wing in PQI in late-October. The left wing just had dew on it because it was in the sun. Easy solution- had the airplane towed to put the right wing in the sun. By the time we finished our preflight, problem solved-- all the frost had melted.

Second story- Woke up at the layover hotel near MDW to around 2"-3" of snow on the rental car. Showed up at the FBO, and sure enough, the wings are covered and the engine inlets have around 1.5" in them. First, I asked if we could de-ice in the chocks-- of course not. That meant i had to get the snow out of the inlets somehow to start engines. I asked the FBO if they had a broom, and I was surprised when they said they did not. So, I got the stepladder we use for loading out of the aft baggage compartment, climbed up and angled myself around to where I could sweep the snow out of the inlets with my arm, and realized it was dry snow. It wasn't even sticking to anything. Next, I swept a good-sized patch off the right flaps with my arm-- completely dry with no ice sticking to the wing. What I really needed was a soft-bristle deck brush like we carried on our boat. Alas, none to be found, so we had to start up and de-ice-- took about 30 minutes, used about 60 gallons of fluid and cost the customer over $1000.00. All for lack of a proper broom! Obviously that wouldn't work with wet snow or ice on the wing. I've recommended that we carry a wide soft-bristle deck brush head in the nose that can snap onto the telescoping pole we use to move luggage around.

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Maybe I'll tell the story later, but I'm still so angry about Signature SLC messing up the hangar they were supposed to put us in and the resulting fiasco that a picture will have to do for now...That's the engine inlet of a Challenger 300- not easy to reach by any means. Not one of my happier days in aviation.

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[QUOTE=(Username Protected);59060] - Man that is crazy you couldn't find a broom anywhere, but what a great relief to see that the snow was able to be brushed off! I had a similar situation taking off out of Whitefish MT one time!

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[QUOTE=(Username Protected);59064] Oh man! (Username Protected) I am sorry to here that, and I would pretty mad as well! I'm sure soon that picture will make a good story though!

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We were up in Houghton Michigan (KCMX) which is located on the frigid UP Keweenaw peninsula and the airport was socked in with freezing fog. You can't see it too well in the picture, but the aircraft was coated with hoar frost, we had ice spiderwebs crawling up the wheels. United Airlines has a hangar it shares with FEDEX. I 'convinced' the United rep with $100 cash to let me pull the jet into their hangar for an hour. Fortunately, they have really nice IR lights that melted the ice quickly; otherwise, we'd have been stuck there forever!

[Username Protected]

(Username Protected), Is that a handheld air start system you got there? did it work?

[Username Protected]

(Username Protected)- that's the owners own hair drier, volunteered from her baggage...After sitting outside for a week in snow, the melt/ refreeze had frozen the fan to the casing (we confirmed it would be hangared the entire time so didn't put covers on- they screwed up). Two hours in a heated hangar combined with the hair drier and a roll of paper towels did the trick...

[Username Protected]

(Username Protected), I'm just giving you a hard time! And...we all know it's your hair drier.

[Username Protected]

Don’t worry, I got the joke…and no way, my hairdryer is way bigger than that one.

[Username Protected]

My daughter always asks, referring to (Username Protected), "Is the fancy looking guy going to be our pilot today?"

[Username Protected]

You've clearly raised her well, (Username Protected)

[Username Protected]

Wishing everyone a very Merry Christmas and tailwinds in ‘23