Army Aircraft Icing
13
The commander of the 12th AVN Battalion at Fort Belvoir rates deice time
as having a high impact on mission accomplishment, while the commander of the
1-222nd Aviation Regiment at Fort Eustis rates deice time as having a low
impact because his aircraft are hangared before flight. That two commanders
within 154 miles of each other can regard deice time so differently points out that
location (frequency of occurrence of ground icing) and facilities (availability of
hangars) jointly determine whether deice time is a significant factor in aviation
operations.
b. Aircraft damage during deicing.
By the 50% criterion, aircraft damage due to deicing (improper techniques or
inadequate training) is significant only at Fort Drum and Fort Belvoir (Table 3).
Units that hangar aircraft in advance of ground icing events have minimal
deicing-related damage unless aircraft become iced in flight, and so impact on
mission is low. At the other extreme, units that often contend with deicing soon
master the skills and procedures required to avoid damage during deicing. As the
commander of the 4-123rd Avn Regt (Fort Wainwright) noted in rating deicing
damage as having a low impact on mission accomplishment, "unfortunately, we
have the chance to get the experience." Similarly, the commander of the SHAPE
Flight Detachment in Belgium commented that his unit flies in icing all the time
and so is very familiar with proper procedures. The SHAPE aircraft would rarely
be exposed to ground icing (vs. in-flight icing) because, as reported by the com-
mander, the aircraft are hangared nearly all of the time when on the ground, even
when deployed.
Deicing damage is most likely to occur with new personnel or when units
without prior experience deploy to locations where they encounter ground icing.
The commander of the 1-501st (Attack) of the 1st Armored Division in Hanau,
Germany, rated deicing damage as a moderate impact on mission accomplish-
ment, and noted that soldiers were inexperienced with deicing techniques and
often tried to use brooms and other inappropriate tools to scrape ice. He com-
mented that an educational process coupled with an in-depth training program
would minimize such incidents. An alternative, used for fixed-wing aircraft, is to
employ contract maintenance, as the 3rd MI BN (AE) does at Camp Humphreys,
Korea. The commander of the 1-6 Attack unit (Camp Eagle, Korea) of the 6th
Cavalry Brigade reported the loss of some seals and elastomeric bearings in
rating deicing damage as moderate impact on his mission accomplishment; this
unit moves alert aircraft into hangars to avoid having to deice them.
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