CRJ Series Icing Concerns and Studys

[great cornholio]

Sure is! We've got both an auto and an all selection. The auto uses the ice detectors and will turn on when there's .5mm of ice. The all or manual will turn on the engine lips while on the ground and the leading edges (Wings and Horiz only) above 25 wheel kts. or in the air.

Its a good system overall...not much thinking required...

I've seen the ice detectors fail to detect ice and not give any kind of ice detector failure message on the EICAS so you still need to be on the look out for ice. With that being said the EMB 145 seems to handle ice pretty well. I've carried a good bit of ice on it a time or two and haven't felt any control problems or differences. One time we had ice on the side windows, nose and fuselage back to just before the pax door. That night ice was also found on the vertical stab leading edge and I think maybe even 6 inches or so past the leading edge on the vert stab. Obviously no ice protection on the vert stab. But in the 4 or so winters I've flown it the the 145 handles ice pretty good...but can be a pain to comply with ATC sometimes especially when they want you to go down and slow down and then the ice system comes on and bumps up the idle N1.

 

[DrewBlows]

Reports that the CRJ didn't flare as they expected on landing define the term 'loss of control effectiveness', no? I never mentioned loss of feel of control effectiveness.

Others mentioned "loss of control effectiveness," and yes, if the aircraft doesn't react as expected on takeoff or landing I would consider it loss of control effectiveness, but it is my opinion you wouldn't feel anything out of the ordinary through the yoke.

 

[LegacyDriver]

I was on the ERJ-135 out of TOL and the engines were icing up. It was fun watching it shed into the engine after the crew turn on the anti-ice!

The crew doesn't turn on the anti-ice in flight on the ERJ as a general rule. It is turned on automatically once the ice detectors sense accumulation.

Great system. Wish the Falcon had it.

As mentioned above you still need to keep your eyes open, but it is one additional layer of protection for the crew that is a nice thing to have. In over 3000 hours I never saw it fail to detect ice...

 

[LegacyDriver]

I've seen the ice detectors fail to detect ice and not give any kind of ice detector failure message on the EICAS so you still need to be on the look out for ice. With that being said the EMB 145 seems to handle ice pretty well. I've carried a good bit of ice on it a time or two and haven't felt any control problems or differences. One time we had ice on the side windows, nose and fuselage back to just before the pax door. That night ice was also found on the vertical stab leading edge and I think maybe even 6 inches or so past the leading edge on the vert stab. Obviously no ice protection on the vert stab. But in the 4 or so winters I've flown it the the 145 handles ice pretty good...but can be a pain to comply with ATC sometimes especially when they want you to go down and slow down and then the ice system comes on and bumps up the idle N1.

Boards, flaps, gear. Beats heck out of the N1 Tick Marks on the 50EX.

 

[great cornholio]

Boards, flaps, gear. Beats heck out of the N1 Tick Marks on the 50EX.

Those work good. If you put the gear down too soon you will get a yellow caution followed by a red warning if you don't spool the engines up soon enough. Plus icing up the gear. Its just painful sometimes watching the new low time FOs try to figure out how to get the plane to do what is needed...and reminding them leg after leg after leg...

I've always had bad luck, but I've seen it test fine and fail to detect light ice twice and mod ice once in about 2300 hours in the thing. But all in all its a great system.

 

[LegacyDriver]

I never had any problems with it. If it was that bad one could always ask for a turn.

Gear

Idle

A/I Low Capacity

*BUMP*

WARM / MELT

IDLE

Repeat.


LOL