Occasionally while working the Line we are confronted with cold winter conditions that may lead to the need for Deicing. As one of the mechanics pointed out last week to me-we have worked here in Oakland for 13 years and only recently have we encountered this pressing need to deice the wings on our a/c. I'm not sure what changed globally or if the hole in the Ozone Layer has created this change in the Bay Area weather patterns but we have icing issues now that we did not have only a few short years ago.
So when we have a captain who decides he has too much ice on the wings we have a need for deicing. This was accomplished by the ramp (at SWA) who would come by with their trailer/stand combo cart thing and spray hot water onto the wings to melt the ice. Recently California has decided that we cannot deice at our airport and so the planes have to wait until the ice melts on its own! This takes a very long time and even longer if it is the end of the day. Anyway that is not what I wanted to talk about right now I just feel it is ridiculous that we cannot even spray hot water onto the wings.
The 737-700 ac seems to have the most incidences with frost in Oakland. I have seen planes come in with the landing gear struts completely covered in two or three inches of ice and ice packed around the wing to body fairing (wing root). That said the most typical icing we get is around the fuel bays on the top and bottom of the wings. This type of icing is called Hoar Ice or Hoar Frost and has to do with having the fuel real cold at altitude then descending and the skin cooling or warming or something and so a very thin layer of ice or frost forms often times right over the fuel bays.
The main thing we need to worry about is that there are captains out there who want you as the mechanic to make a decision as to if his wings are iced or frosted. It is very important to remember that the decision is up to the captain. Do not give any opinion as to frost or ice. With the FAA coming down on everything we do these days it is even more important to let the captain do his job and make his own decisions. We can bring a set of stairs over so the captain can check the wing surface himself but that is it! AND PLEASE MAKE SURE THE CAPTAIN DOES NOT TRY TO GET UP ON THE WING. HE CAN PUT HIS HAND ON THE WING TO FEEL THE FROST BUT NEVER ALLOW HIM TO CLIMB ON THE WING. BECAUSE...
I was called to provide a stair for a captain to inspect his wing for ice. I bring over a window wash stand and place it where he wanted it and stepped back. The captain looks at me as if he is waiting for me to go up. I said to him "you want me to check?" he says yes and I told him that I cannot make that decision for him. So away he goes up the stand. Instead of stopping at the top he steps out onto the wing. Now forgetting that there are places on top of the wing that should not be tread upon remember the reason he called me over? That's right ICE!! So the captain takes one step off the stand and starts slipping. Backward, forward, to the side then he is on his hands and knees! Remember which way the wing is sloped? That's right he is sliding toward the trailing edge. All the stuff falls out of his pocket and he is moving toward the edge and the great abyss after that which end with him hitting the concrete. About half way to the trailing edge he manages to stop himself. By this time I got to the top of the stand and said to him "how about you get down from there?".
Imagine the paperwork involved if this nut had fallen off the wing. I would be filling out incident reports, answering emails, irregularity reports, phone calls from Dallas etc. To top it all off who do you think would get into trouble over this? Not the captain, not the Port of Oakland or California.
My wife is a pilot at Alaska Airlines (furloughed). When she was in school they said that she should get out onto the wing to check and see if ice is present. She told them that there was no way she was going to try and walk on an icy wing and she is right. The crew members have pilot shoes, pilots pants, and no gloves typically and are going to try to walk on a wet wing! Crazy!
Just make sure the captains do not get onto the wings and do not let them pressure you into making a decision for them when it comes to icing.
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