The arriva lof wint er weather brin gs
an assor tment of ph enomena, wh ich
manifest themsel ves in many pred ictabl e
avia tion ha za rds. Commerc ial and
Gen eral Av iat ion are sim ilarly affect ed.
Win terstor ms, turbul ence, lowceilin gs
and visi bi lities, fog, freezin g rain , ice,
snow, and slippery surfaces all demand
spec ialattent ion .Wi th increased wo rk-
load ,con cent ration beco mes mo re frag -
men ted , and sit uat ional awarenes s can
suff er. Cr ews may exhi bit more sus cep ti-
bility to com mon or uncommo nwin ter
thre ats. The FAAis attemp ting to redu ce
the risk of run way overrun acci den ts and
incid ents due to runway contami natio n
cau sed by weat her .1 In Oct. 2016 ,the
FAA impl ement ed Takeoff andLan din g
Perfo rma nce Assess ment (TALP A) pro-
ced ure sthat includ enew tool ssuch as the
Run wa y Cond ition Assessm ent Matrix
(RCA M) .After just one seas on ,TAL PA
has pro duced signi ficant impro vemen ts
to ope rational safety. A TALPA
St akehol ders Feedb ack Revie w2 wa s
held inJul y20 17, and recommen datio ns
fro mthi sreview are targ eted to beco me
proc edu ralchang es. Thi smo nth, CALL -
BACK shar es reported incide nt s
spaw ned by typi cal wi nter weat her. Even
if you arenot fam iliar wi th TAL PA pro-
ced ure s, we encoura ge you tolearn mo re,
conn ect your dot s, and glean theles sons
in these repor ts.
The Wint er Win gDi ng
A Learjet Captain ant ici pated and
exp erience d icing condit ions duri ng his
descent .As apr ecauti on, he turne donthe
nacellehea t, but he had no tbarg ained for
the surpr ise he receiv ed during the landi ng.
- Descendi ng through FL1 80, I
turne don thenacell eheaters ,butdid no t
turn on the wing and stab hea t, asIanti c-
ipate dashort desce nt throug hashall ow
clou dlay ertotempe rat ures ab ove freez -
ing. Th eapproach proceed ed nor mall y.
The airc raf t ent ered the clo ud top s at
appro ximat ely 1, 500 feet MSL an dexited
the ba sesat ap prox imately 900 feet MS L.
There we re noindi cati ons of ice accu mu -
lation ontheno rmal referen ce ar ea dur-
ing des cent. Dur ing the lan ding flare
(lesstha n10 feetAG L), astheflying pil ot
appl ied right ail eron to count erac t the
rig ht cros swind, the left wi ng abrupt ly
dr op pe d.Iimm edi atelytook the con trols ,
ap pl ying full righ taileron asthe left main
lan ding ge arcon tacted the runw ay, fol -
low edclos ely by deployment of spo iler s,
thr ust reverse rs, an dbrak es toreturn the
air craft to the runway center line .Upon
exiting the airc raft ,Iobserve dasmal l
am oun t (less than 1/4 inc h) of rough ,
rapi dly melting iceon the leading edge s
of thewi ng s. Inspectionrev eale dthat the
tra ili ng edgeof the left wing tip hadcon -
tac tedthe run waysur face, causing abra-
sio n to the cont ac t area. I believe the
combi na tio nofthe small am ount of ice ,
ail eron deflection , and mec ha nical tur-
bu lenc e from bui lding s on the upw ind
sid eoftherun wa ycaus ed the left wing to
sta ll at a hig he r-than -no rmal airspe ed,
resulti ng in theun- comm anded left roll.
Co nt rib ut ingfac tors incl ude myfail ure
to turn on the wi ng and stabhe at prior to
entering theclou dlayer.Eve rPre sent Prove rbial
Pi totHea tThi sSR 22 pilot expe rie nce dair cra ft
icing wh ile IFR in IMC. He kept the
wi ng s, prope ller,andwi ndshie ld clear of
ice, bu ttherou tin eass oc iate dwi th his
VM Cha bits causedano ther probl em.- Iwas onan IFRfligh tplan.We had
been inand out ofthe clou ds pickingup
light rime ice.Oc cas ion al use of the air-
craf t’s ice prot ection sys tem wa s easil y
keeping the win gs, pr op eller, an d wind-
shi eld clear oficebui ldup s. We were ini-
tiall yab ov ethe cloud sat10 ,000 feet, but
wesoon real izedwe wou ldag ai nbeinthe
clouds .Cent er ga ve us aclimb to11,00 0
feet MSL whe re weremained inIMC. Th e
Con troller rep ort ed anot her ai rcraf t
ahead ofuswas inVMC at13,0 00 feet
MSL and of feredaclimbto13 ,00 0feet
MSL. As I consi der ed the op tion s of
climbi ng to13,00 0feet(we hadsupp le-
ment al ox yge nonbo ard ), Ifirst not edsig-
nificant ice ac cumu lat ing on the wi nd -
shi eld and wi ngs, and then theairsp eed
beganto fluc tua teandsud denl ydropped
to60knot sonthe Prima ry Fl ightDi splay
(PFD). Iimm ediatelyrec ogn izedaPitot-
Stat ic System failure, disco nn ected the
autopilot,andbe ga nha ndflyingusing the
attitude indi cat or and stand by ins tru-
mentsaspr imary ref ere nces. Ial so imme -
diately noted that , al thou gh the Ice-
ProtectionSwi tch wa son,the Pi totHeat
Switchwas inthe OFF posi tion .Iturne d
onthe pitotheat,sel ected alterna testatic
air, and advi sed Cent er. Th e Center
Co ntrol ler cleare d me for a descent to
8,000 feet,whi chIinitiated slowl yusing
only theattitude indicat orasarefere nce.
Withintwo mi nut es, theai rsp eedind icator
andaltime ter beganindicatingnorm al ly...
Webrok eoutint oVMC atappr ox imately
8,000 feet MS L.Th erest ofthetripwa s
unevent ful,andasaf elandingwas com-
pleted. In hind sight,Ireal izedtha tItra-
ditional ly do not tur n on the pitot hea t
becau se mo st of my perso na l flying is
VFR.Iwi llno w...alway stur nonthe pitot
heatbefor etakeo ff,reg ardless of thefligh t
conditions.Clearand Present Danger
Thi s BAe 125 cr ew encountered
wides pread win ter weat her and ele cted to
di ver t. Weather and aircraft consum abl es
reduc ed their numb er of op tions and
influe nce dde cisi ons, whic hcould hav e
ha damuch worse outc ome.- The entire New York City area was
forec astfor moder ate to severe icing con -
di tions, snow , and low visibility.
Num erou sPI REPs reporte dthe pr ese nc e
of such icingcon ditio ns, whic hwere fur -
ther conf irm ed by an amber ICE
DET EC Tlight indica tion.We electedto
di ver t to Morr istow n, N.J., whi ch was
report ing two miles visib ility , ade quat e
ceili ngs, an dmoder ate sno w.At the time ,
we beg an rece ivi ng vectors, the ambe r
AN TI-ICELOWQUAN TITYannun cia-
tor illum inat ed, indic ating that we had
ap pr ox imat ely 30 mi nute sof iceprote c-
tion remain ing. Wewere cleare dfor the
approach and conf igured normally.
Upon reachin g the MD A, I contin ued
searc hi ng for the runw ay. Th e run way
cam einto view,an dIcalled,“Run wayin
sight, 12 o’ cloc k.”...Itbecam eclear to
methatwedi dno thavetherequi redvis-
ibility for the appr oachandtha twedid
no thav ethe abi lityto achi eveanormal
rate of de scent to a normal landing. I
calle dfor ago-ar ound, and thepilotfly-
ing respond ed something like, “I think
I’vegot it, yeah, I’vegotit,”and contin-
ued the appro ach. He immediately
retar ded the thrust levers to idle and
called for full flaps. We immediat ely
be gan an excessive de scent rate and
receivedgro undpr ox imitywarningsthat
said, “S INKRA TE ,SINKRATE,PULL
UP, ” an d contin ue d... unt il jus t be for e
touchdown. We landed just about
ha lfw ay do wn a snow-covered runwa y
that was 5, 998 feetinlength.Th ebraking
ac tio nwas good ,andwestoppe d...on
the runw ay. The next several aircraft
be hin dus werenot abletoland ...an d
di verte dto an alt ernate.LowVi sibi lityWhiteOut Taxi
After a success ful approach and
landi ng in traditi onalwinterwe ather,this
La rge Transpo rt Captain was sur prised
by anune xpectedstop whiletaxiingto
thega te.- Afte rlan ding ,onthe tax i-in,we
turne dwe stbo und onthetaxiway.Sinceit
was snow ing fairly har d and the wind
wasblow ing, wemadesur etoidentifythe
yellow center line and conf irmed it by
no ting the bl ue taxilightstoourright.
Al mos t abeam [the tur n point] to the
ga te, the rig ht engi ne shu t down. We
stoppe dand requ estedatug.Whenthe
snowletup ,wede termine dthatwewere
stuck on asnowd rift that had blow nonto
thetax iway.
Icing the Pu ck
Thi sLargeTransportcrewplanne d
exte nsiv ely for theirapp roa chand land -
ing. The appr oa chandtou chd own were
exe cut ed well,butprocedurestheyused
du rin gthelan di ngrolloutwereno tas
successful.- We athe ratourarrivaltimewas
40 In Flight USA Celebrating 34 Years Dec ember 201 7Itha sbe en said that theonly vo luntar yactin aviation is the de cisio nto take-off.Ev eryaction after take- off involves theskillf ul management of
risk,the enj oym entofflightandacontin uous str eamofdecision stha tresult in asafe landing.
In1974, NASA creat ed the Avia tion Saf ety Repo rting System (ASRS )to allow aviation professionalstoshare experiencesin afrank, non-punitivema n-
ner. Th eAS RSstructure allows pilotsand other aviatio nprofessio nals tofile an anonymous report of an incide nt, error or occ urr ence that the contribut or feelsmi ghtbeofval ue to othe rs. Th ese
rep orts aregathe red,analy zed anddat abasedby NASA expe rts andmade avai labl etoall interested parties as atool for creat ing proact ive aviati on safetyprograms .Ad ditionally, NA SA distributes
an electronic publication,CAL LBACK,which contains selec ted, de-id ent ified, reports onafree subscripti on basis.In Flig ht USAis proud to repri nt selected reports,exerpted fromCA LL BAC K,for
ourreaders to read, study, occa sionallylaugh at, and alway slearn from. Visit http: //asrs.arc.nasa.gov/to learn how you can partici pate inthe ASR Sprogram.Con tin ued on Page 41WEAT HER–Y OU ’RE PREPA RE D OR NOT