Dash-8 Icing Question

[wxman13]

Had a friend flying QX last week with an icing experience that freaked her out. I have no doubt that everything was within SOP, but I'd appreciate any info from anyone who flies similar equipment and what's "normal," etc. The flight was in IMC (duh), and my friend heard a loud *thunk* on the outside of the plane. The FA told the cabin a few minutes later that it was just the props shedding ice, but my friend still thought it was disconcerting since this happened every few minutes for the rest of the flight (half an hour?). Any other info out there? What's the rough weight of the ice coming off a prop blade if it's loud enough to be heard in the cabin?

Thanks,
Peter

 

[Dan CFI/CFII]

It's probably slinging an ice cube's worth every 30 seconds or so--and very fast.

On the airplane I fly, just where the ice protection plate ends, it looks like the plane has been beat with a baseball bat. And I rarely HEAR the ice slinging off there, but it's got a lot of dents where the ice protection plates end.

Dan

 

[Trash8Mofo]

The electrically-heated leading edge of the props activates every minute or two (I forgot the exact interval of the ON and dwell time). The sound could be just the ice being slung against the cabin (Row 1&2). No worries, that part of the fusalage is reinforced.

 

[Nalo Boy]

How would you know? That stuffs prb unplugged on the WP planes

 

[NCFlyer]

On the Dash-8 the props heat in pairs for either 10 or 20 seconds. Then are off for 1 minute before the same pair is heated again. The sound of ice banging into the side of the fuselage is fairly common. The aircraft does have ice protection plates on the side of the fuselage and they do look like they were beaten with a ball bat. In more severe icing conditions it is not unusual for the props to begin vibrating because of ice imbalance.

Is it unnerving? Yes.

Is it dangerous? Not as long as the ice keeps coming off.

 

[jobear]

My first winter as a Beech fo the sound of ice smacking into the plane scared the bejesus outta me and thats with the plates.

jobear

 

[Dash8]

the dash can haul incredible amounts of ice around,
i've got some great pics of the entire plane coated in a good quarter-half inch of ice (except where ice protection systems are obviously lol)

those protection plates do look like someone took a large ballpeen hammer to em, but they do the job, tell your friend not to freak out, its all good

 

[blzr]

Tell her when that happens again just to bring the props up to 1050 for a few seconds. this will also help shed a bit more ice.

 

[propjockey]

In my 1.5 yrs flying the 1900 there were a couple of times that I could not only hear the ice hit, but FEEL it shake the fuselage. Now that was icing! The 1900 is another airplane that carries "scary" amounts of ice without even breathing hard.

 

[wxman13]

Thanks for the replies so far. I figured there was probably something reinforcing the fugelage in that area, but I wasn't certain.

 

[Dave Benjamin]

disregard

 

[dashman]

How would you know? That stuffs prb unplugged on the WP planes

below freezing temp + visible moisture = ICING whether light rime or severe clear depending on the cloud type, so in actuality, one can encounter icing virtually anywhere, given those basic conditions, even in hawaii. i fly dash`s for a company in the southern caribbean, we had to use the boots just 2 days ago.

p.s. (my virgin post, i feel soo special)

 

[RJP]

How would you know? That stuffs prb unplugged on the WP planes

Ah, but it's NOT unplugged. Believe it or not, the boots work and the props supposedly heat. Didn't someone melt a prop a year or two back by leaving it on accidentally?

When you're flying those "long" legs, it's cool to watch the boots inflate....

 

[91100 100 set]

If I remember correctly, the prop heat is on the WOW switches, so you can't "leave them on" on the ground. There is a test switch to bypass the WOW sensors to test them. Never happened to me, but a coworker was telling me a few years back how the system malfunctioned and did activate on the ground, sitting in line at LGA with an engine shut down. Reportedly, they could smell the burning rubber from the cockpit.

Dash8, do you have those pics on your computer? If so, email me some, I'd like to see.

 

[Wankel7]

Same thing happens on the Shorts. Of course we are cargo and there is no sound deading material. So those smacks are rather loud. We have plates on the shorts. Rather flat plates

On the planes with the six blade props we have to run 1450 rpm min during icing.

Wankel