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ERDC/CRREL TR-02-13
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SOURCES OF PRIMARY INFORMATION
The information-gathering portion of this project was conducted in several
ways.
Soldiers and Army civilians were contacted directly at three conferences,
Quad A (Army Aviation Association of America, 29 March1 April 2000), the
TRADOC System Manager Unmanned Aerial Vehicles Conference 2000 (68
June 2000, Fort Huachuca), and the Aviation Ground Support Equipment User's
Conference (56 December 2000, Fort Rucker).
Fact-finding discussions by telephone were held with the following: Direc-
torate of MEDEVAC Proponency (Fort Rucker); PEO Robotics (Redstone
Arsenal); the UAV training base (Fort Huachuca); the 160th Special Operations
Aviation Combat Development--Systems Integration and Maintenance Office
(Fort Campbell); and the 160th Special Operations Aviation Equipment Acquisi-
tion Office (Fort Bragg).
In association with the Directorate of Combat Developments (Army Aviation
Center, Fort Rucker [DCD-Aviation]), four questionnaires (Appendix B) were
developed to elicit information on icing's impact on aviation operations as
experienced by commanders, flight operations officers, maintenance personnel,
and weather support personnel. These questionnaires were mailed to 59 aviation
units (Appendix C) selected by DCD-Aviation in August 2000; a second set of
questionnaires was mailed to non-responding units in March 2001.
With the assistance of the Army Safety Office (Fort Rucker), its database of
incidents and accidents was queried for icing-related entries.
Army Aviation Association of America (Quad A) Convention
A CRREL exhibit booth at the Quad A convention presented ongoing acti-
vity in preflight and in-flight deicing research and served as a focal point for
obtaining information on icing problems from the Army aviation community.
Among the information gained at the Quad A meeting is that aircraft flying near
the ground by visual flight rules (VFR) must land, turn back, or follow instru-
ment flight rules (IFR) upon encountering fog. In addition, in IFR flight the
aircraft must climb in order to clear terrain by 10002000 ft, and so could
encounter icing at altitude. Units such as the 160th Special Operations Aviation
have radar to follow terrain in fog and so could encounter icing near the ground.
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