Ice, Ice everywhere. As we say in pilot land the only good ice is the stuff in your drink. Today, there was ice everywhere that we didn't want it to be. Freezing rain is probably the worst weather phenomenon we have to deal with. It often prevents us from flying. During our approach into Toronto on this day, we accumulated a significant amount of ice in flight. Our de-ice system managed to shed most of it (wings, tail and propellers), but for the places that are not protected by the system the ice stays. Have a look at the windshield wiper. There's about half an inch of ice still on it. This should probably be removed before we take off again. So, lets take a tour of Toronto's Central De-ice Facility, or the CDF, in pilot lingo.
Before we go, has anyone ever seen icicles form upwards like this? How did this happen? Let's see if any of you smarty pants can figure it out.
Last week, Central and Eastern Canada were hit with a winter storm. It was snowing all day and Mother Nature threw in a batch of freezing rain to top it off!! We had to hold on a taxiway for a while to allow the team of snow ploughs to clear the runway in use. A team of 11 or 12 plows drive the length of the runway and clear it in one sweep. Each plow tows a huge sweeper too. After one pass, the runway is in pretty good shape. If it is snowing really hard it is tough to keep up though. The runways are 2 miles long so once they get to one end they have to turn around and clear it again. This all has to be done with aircraft landing and taking off every 45 seconds. This is why there are huge delays on bad weather days. I have a few other reasons your very important flight gets delayed.............
How about being #27 in line for de-icing? The ground controller told us to expect a 1-2 hour wait for the CDF. We waited 1 hour and 50 minutes. That wait time is longer than most of my flights. So, the 24 minute trip from Toronto to London, Ontario is now running at least two hours behind. On top of this, the passengers waiting to fly from London to Toronto, in order to catch a flight (domestic or international), will now be at least 2 hours late and the other airlines will not wait for them.
If you have any luck, your connecting flight will be delayed too and all is well, but this is not often the case. To defend all airlines, it is seldom that they are at fault for a delay. We have no control over the weather (although many people believe we have some control, ie. "When will the fog lift?" OR - While booking in advance, I've heard passengers ask if the weather would be ok on the day of departure.) When it is very poor, the airline system does not work very efficiently. It ends up being a snowball effect - pardon the pun. Since Toronto is a major airline hub, delays there can cause almost every airport in the country to have large delays as they wait for late connecting passengers and aircraft. If an aircraft leaves Toronto 2 hours late for Vancouver and is travelling at a speed of 450mph, and another plane leaves....Just kidding...Not a math lesson here. So seriously, if an aircraft leaves 2 hours late from Toronto on it's way to Vancouver, it will be two hours late arriving, making the next flight for that aircraft late and so on. It isn't just a matter of switching a planes destination in order to catch up. Each aircraft will has a route structure planned for that day and if it isn't where it is supposed to be and on time the whole system starts to deteriorate. My 2 hour delay ended up making me too late to catch a flight as a passenger to Timmins, ON for the night. Since I missed that flight, there wouldn't be a pilot (me) to fly OUT of Timmins in the morning........delaying more people in the long run. I ended up being stuck in Toronto and had to "rough it" at the Hilton, rolled up in a thick duvet on a king-sized bed. We even had to sleep in and start work at 0730. I know, it was tough!
After our long wait, it was finally time to enter the CDF. So...we entered and then waited a bit longer. I exchanged a few friendly waves with some of the other guys (pilots) waiting. Every airline is so far behind today it is almost funny that we are trying to catch up. A Westjet Boeing 737, an Air Canada Embraer 190 and a fellow Jazz Dash 8, all next in line for a spray.
This United Airlines Boeing 767 was in front of us. Most de-ice bays can spray two aircraft at a time but this plane takes up a whole bay. An aircraft this size gets to have 5 spray trucks!! One for each main wing and two for each tailplane and one for the rudder. Even with all this equipment it still ends up taking well over 30 mins to de-ice an aircraft this size.
This is a look at some of the other de-ice bays while fully operational, spraying aircaft of all sizes and all different airlines.
When it is our turn to enter, a large sign illuminates our movement instructions. Arrows to go forward, then SLOW and finally STOP. We set the park brake and we are ready for action. The "ice man" then calls us on the radio and confirms that the brakes are set and our aircraft is configured for de-ice. For us, that entails having the flaps up and the engines at idle with the propellers in feather (producing no thrust). He then calls back and lets us know spraying is about to begin.
The truck pulls up close to the aircraft and a guy sitting in a cab at the end of a moving boom sprays off the plane with different types of fluid, dependent on the weather. The fluid is an alcohol based fluid which is heated for each application. There are 4 different types to choose from. Today we are receiving Type 1, which happens to be orange, followed by Type IV, which is green. Type 1 will get all of the snow or ice off and Type 4 will prevent any type of snow or freezing rain from adhering to the aircraft for up to 30 minutes (holdover time) after the application. We have to be airborne by then. If we exceed our holdover time we'll have to go back for another application of fluid. Type IV is very gel-like. We have to increase our takeoff speed by 20 miles an hour to ensure most of it has blown off before we become airborne. As most people know, airplanes do not fly well with foreign matter (ice, snow, Type IV gel) adhering to the wings.
Here is a look at another Dash 8 receiving the same treatment as us. It takes about 10-15 minutes to do 2 applications of fluid. After the de-ice/anti-ice is complete, the ice man calls again and tells us which parts of the aircraft were sprayed, with which types of fluid and when our holdover time started. He then lets us know all the trucks are clear (out of the way) and instructs us to call ground control for further taxi instructions. The ground controller gives us taxi instructions to the active runway (the one being used). Most airports have their CDF's fairly central to the runways so the planes can take off soon after leaving the CDF.
This is a Dash 8 cockpit. I was actually playing pilot for a while here. I have the wind direction and speed written down every thousand feet during the climb to determine at which altitude the most favourable winds will be, thereby optimizing headwind or tailwinds. After I was done that, I had nothing else to do but watch the sun set for the next hour. Sigh. I sure wish I had a Double Double.............where is that flight attendant call button?.......Bing-Bong!
Have a look at gates 101-112 in Terminal 1. This is where you can find me.......sometimes. If you do find me and I look lost, I probably am. I don't work out of Toronto very often....although next month I'll be there all the time.
Just a few other facts. In Toronto, we usually allow for a fuel burn of about 200 lbs for the taxi-out to the runway. On a day like today with a de-ice delay of 2 hours, we will burn almost 1000 lbs of fuel just sitting and waiting. Imagine what a 4-engine jet burns with a wait like that. Thousands and thousand of litres!! Most aircraft will shut some engines down to save fuel if a long wait is anticipated. Fuel planning can be tricky too. If they don't burn as much as planned they may be too heavy for take off and have to wait in order to burn more fuel before taking off. This may make them go over their holdover time putting them back where they started. Not enough fuel and they'd have to return to the gate to get more fuel and then wait to de-ice again. Confused? Me too! Glycol can run between $6-$9/gallon. A Boeing 737 can take 200 litres of glycol for one application, while a Boeing 747 can use 2000 litres per application. That equals big $$$$$$$ To save money and help the environment, airports have very hi-tech glycol recovery and treatment sytems so the fluid can be recycled. Cool, hey?
Labels: aircraft, De-icing, Toronto
