Flying Module C

Scenario/Narrative
You are a commercial pilot flying 5 passengers and their baggage in a Cessna Caravan from
Yellowknife Airport, Northwest Territories (NT) to Fort Simpson, NT. The early morning temperature
this winter day is -10°C, with light snow falling from overcast low clouds. You have an instrument
rating, so you plan to climb through the clouds to an altitude of 8,000 ft, where you expect to be in
clear air above the cloud top. From the weather report before take-off, you don't expect ice to form
on the aircraft while you are climbing through the cloud layer.
You get your clearance from air traffic control, take off, head west toward your destination, and
start climbing through the clouds. You had expected to find the cloud top at about 4,000 ft altitude,
but at 6,000 ft altitude you are still in the clouds. To make matters worse, ice has been sticking to
the leading edges of your aircraft, and it is starting to get thick.

What should you do?

A. Continue climbing to 8,000 ft altitude enroute to your destination. But keep an eye on the
build-up of ice on the aircraft so that you can turn around and fly back to your departure point if
the ice gets too thick?

B. Climb to an altitude higher than 8,000 ft, where you expect temperatures to be warmer than
freezing (to melt off the ice)?

C. Fly a holding pattern (circling) within the clouds at 6,000 ft altitude while you radio for more
weather information to help you make a good decision?

D. Make an unscheduled landing on the frozen ice surface of Great Slave Lake, so you can chip
off the ice from your aircraft before you take off again to continue your flight?

E. Turn around right away to return to your departure point even though the ice is not thick
enough to warrant it? Your boss will complain because of the fuel you wasted and your
passengers will complain about not getting to their destination?

To help you decide, access the Related Info linked below to better understand the situation and the
weather that can affect the flight.

Access to Related Info

Aircraft

Flying Module C 1
 This is not the aircraft involved in the scenario of module f15, but it is a similar model.

Source: [Link]
_1.jpeg
Your Cessna 208B Caravan is a high-wing aircraft with fixed landing gear. It has a single turboprop
engine (a jet engine that turns a propellor) that burns jet fuel. There is normally just one pilot. The
aircraft can carry about 9 to 13 passengers, and your aircraft also has an under-belly pod to carry
extra baggage. To prevent the aircraft from tilting backward when people are boarding, you try to
put as much baggage as possible toward the front of the airplane, in the front portion of the under-
belly pod.
Your plane was built in 1995, and is in good working order. Cruise speed (the normal speed it flys)
is about 185 knots (343 km/h), and stall speed (how slow it can fly before it falls out of the sky) is
61 knots (113 km/h) for a clean ice-free airplane. Typical range is almost 2,000 km. Max altitude is
25,000 ft. Base price is over US$ 2,000,000.
It has the equipment needed to fly in bad weather (instrument conditions). It is also certified to fly
in light icing conditions:

pneumatic de-icing boots on the leading edges of wings, struts, and horizontal and vertial tail.

heated propellor, windscreen, and pitot tube (for measuring airspeed).

Pilot
Pilot Licence: Commercial with instrument rating. (This means you can get paid for flying
passengers for hire, and you can fly on instruments through clouds.)

Medical Certificate: valid

Experience: Very good.

Total Flying Hours: 3500

Hours in that type of aircraft: 1800

You had flown that type of aircraft within the previous week

Flying Module C 2
 You also have all the required training on how to fly in icing conditions, and you passed your
pilot proficiency check. So you are good to go fly.

Maps
The big picture:

Planned route from from Yellowknife Airport (CYZF), Northwest Territories (NT), to Fort Simpson
Airport (CYFS), NT.

Flying Module C 3
 Passengers & Weight
The plane is not full. You are carrying 5 passengers, plus yourself. But there is a lot of baggage,
which you put in the front baggage compartment, as you normally do. If the plane were full, you
would add only sufficient fuel to get you to your destination (plus extra reserves as required by
regulation). But a few of the passenger seats are empty, thus making the plane lighter. So you
use that saved weight to good advantage - - you fill up the fuel tanks to have enough fuel to get
to Fort Simpson and back again.

You estimate the total aircraft weight including people, baggage, fuel, etc to be about 8738
pounds, within the max gross weight limit for this aircraft of 9062 pounds. You know from your
previous training that if you are planning to fly into known icing conditions, then the max weight
at take-off must be less than 8550 pounds. But since there were no pilot reports of icing, and
because you do not expect to experience icing based on the weather forecast you received,
you feel that this lower weight limit does not apply to this flight.

The weight of the payload (passengers, baggage, etc.) is distributed such that there is a lot of
weight in front. You have made this flight in this airplane so many times, that you don't bother
with doing precise balance calculations because it takes too much time. Based on your eyeball
estimate of the distribution of the weights, you feel that the plane is adequately balanced. So
you are good to go.

Info on aircraft weight and

balance: [Link]

Keywords: Weight and balance

Regulations: VFR vs IKR

Flying Module C 4
 To fly IFR, you need to:

be specially trained to believe the instruments and to ignore your normal physiological stimuli
like inner-ear signals (that could cause vertigo) and "seat of the pants" feelings of pressure or
G-forces on your body

have an aircraft with the proper instruments and radios, all in good working order

have the proper charts (paper or electronic)

You can fly IFR in good and in bad weather. Bad weather is called Instrument Flight Conditions
(IFC) or Instrument Meteorological Conditions (IMC), i.e. weather for which VFR flight is not
allowed.

Nonetheless, even IFR pilots must stay out of thunderstorms (due to violent turbulence, hail,
lightning, etc.) and out of volcanic ash (which sandblasts the engines, causing them to fail). Also,
not all aircraft are built with the equipment to remove ice that forms on the wings and propellors, so
even IFR pilots without the right aircraft need to stay out of clouds with supercooled cloud and rain
drops.

Flying IFR is like playing video game where you are given certain clues (readings on your
instruments) and you need to figure out what the aircraft is doing and what adjustments you need
to make. It takes a lot of attention and can be exhausting if you don't have an autopilot. Unlike a
video game, there is no reset button if you crash.

Visual Flight
VFR = Visual Flight Rules means that you fly by mostly looking out the window. You need good
visibility and need to stay out of clouds. By looking with your eyes, you can:

navigate (see where you are relative to landmarks on the ground) so you can go toward your
destination without flying through airspace where you are not allowed;

avoid hitting obstacles, such as mountains, tall towers, or other aircraft;

control the aircraft — namely, see whether it is climbing (nose up), descending (nose down), or
turning (banked left or right);

find airports and land on the appropriate runway.

All pilots, including private pilots, learn how to fly VFR during their basic pilot training. Visual
Meteorological Conditions (VMC) or Visual Flight Conditions (VFC)is the name given to weather
that is good enough for you to fly VFR. The specific values of visibility and clouds for VMC are
specified by regulations, and depend on your location. For example, in the USA and Canada, the
normal weather minimums needed to fly VFR at an airport are: horizontal visibility of 3 statute miles
or more, and ceiling (altitude of the lowest overcast or broken cloud base) of 1000 feet above the
airport.

Flying VFR is very enjoyable because you can see amazing scenery from the air.

But what happens to pilots with only VFR skills if they accidentally fly into clouds, fog, or other
obscuration that reduces their ability to see things outside the window:

Flying Module C 5
 most often pilots are not able to determine if the aircraft is rightside-up. These VFR pilots are
not trained to interprete and ignore their balance signals from their inner ear, or their inertial
feelings (seat of their pants). So the pilots inadvertantly turn the steering wheel (control yoke)
in the wrong direction. This causes the aircraft to stall (lose aerodynamic lift, causing the plane
to fall out of the sky), or spin(a rapid spiral corkscrew descent) until the aircraft crashes on the
ground. Namely, the pilot loses control of the aircraft.

pilots also lose track of where they are. Because of this, they might accidentally fly into
mountains or other high terrain that they cannot see (called "controlled flight into terrain" by
accident investigations). Or they might fly in the wrong direction and never find their airport,
requiring them to make an emergency landing on a road or farm field before they run out of
fuel. Or they might hit tall TV towers or powerlines. Or they might hit other aircraft. Or they
might accidentally fly into more-dangerous weather such as thunderstorms.

psychology is another factor. As pilots get into difficult situations, they can panic. Namely, they
are so scared about their situation that they become irrational, they forget their emergency
training, and they make poor decisions. The result: a bad situation can become worse.

This video re-creates the fatal flight of a VFR pilot who flew into IMC (instrument meteorological
conditions) associated with clouds, rain, and snow in the mountains. ATC = air traffic
control. [Link]

Marginally Visual Flight

Conditions for which VFR is allowed, but for which visibility is poor and/or cloud-base is low, are
called Marginal VFR (MVFR). It is a lot more work to fly in these conditions because it is hard to see
landmarks on the ground, and difficult to see other aircraft that may be near you.

Instrument Flight

IFR = Instrument Flight Rules mean that you can conduct most of the flight by NOT looking out the
window. Instead, you:

navigate using onboard GPS map displays and other navigation signals

control the aircraft by looking at the instruments on your dashboard (called a "control panel" on
aircraft)

get to airports by following the instructions and clearances given by air traffic
controllers (ATC) who keep track of your flight and make sure you arrive at your distination
without hitting anything (mountains or other aircraft or tall towers). You are required to file
a flight plan before you start, so that ATC knows where you want to go.

Above Left: Old style aircraft instruments. Above Right: Control tower for air traffic control
(ATC). Below: Newer style "glass cockpit" aircraft instruments. (Accessed Aug 2018 from
[Link] )

Flying Module C 6
 VFR Over the Top

VFR over the top is when there is a layer of clouds below you, so you cannot see the ground to
help you navigate. But above the clouds where you are flying, the air is clear (good visibility and
few clouds), so you can control the aircraft and avoid hitting other aircraft.

You need some of the skills of the IFR pilot (to navigate and control the aircraft without seeing the
ground), but in many countries you do not need an IFR clearance to fly VFR over the top. The
problem is that if you get to your destination and the layer of clouds is still below you (with no gaps
in the clouds), then you have a serious problem if you cannot legally fly IFR because you cannot
see the airport to land on.

Generic Rules for Determining IFR vs. VFR from ceiling and visibility

For flight safety, the 3-D air above the earth's surface is divided into different regions
(called airspaces) depending on the types of flight, congestion near airports, closeness to the
ground or mountains, and various restricted airspaces. Each different class of airspace has
different requirements of visibility and ceiling in order to operate within them. We will not go into the
details here.

However, for many situations, the following is a rough guide* (as used in Canadian Graphical Area
Forecasts [GFA] Comments on IFR Outlook) to help you determine if the flight can be conducted
visually (VFR).
VFR = nice weather. Have fun flying and enjoy the scenery you see out the windows.

MVFR = marginal VFR. Namely, you can legally fly VFR, but you will find it difficult to see and avoid
obstacles and other aircraft because of poor visibility and/or low clouds.

IFR means that you are not allowed to fly at all (i.e., you are grounded), unless you and your aircraft
are certified for instrument flight and you obtained a clearance to take-off and fly from Air Traffic

Flying Module C 7
 Control.

Visibility (SM = statute

Category Ceiling (AGL = above ground level)
miles)

IFR cloud base is less than 1,000 ft AGL and/or less than 3 SM

cloud base is between 1,000 ft and 3,000 ft

MVFR and/or between 3 and 5 SM
AGL

VFR cloud base is more than 3,000 ft AGL AND more than 5 SM

given in the TC AIM section MET 4.9 Graphical Area Forecast (GFA) Comments Box. Table 4.3-
IFR Outlook Criteria.

Keywords: air traffic controllers (ATCs), airspaces, flight plan, instrument flight rules (IFR),
instrument meteorological conditions (IMC), marginal VFR (MVFR), VFR over the top, visual flight
conditions (VFC), visual flight rules (VFR), visual meteorological conditions (VMC), control yoke,
stall, spin, loss of control, panic.

Jargon
aerodrome = a place where aircraft take off and land. Includes airports on land, and "water
aerodromes" on water bodies.

AIM = Aeronautical Information Manual

AGL = Above ground level (use when reporting heights or altitudes)

ASL = Above sea level (use when reporting heights or altitudes)

attitude = the orientation of the aircraft relative to the flight direction. E.g., nose pitched up or
down; wings rolled left or right; tail yawed left or right.

CAVOK = Ceiling and Visibility are OK. (i.e., good for VFR flight).

CDT = Central Daylight Time (= UTC - 5 hours)

Commercial pilot = a type of pilot's license that allows you to be paid for flying activities,
including carrying passengers, cargo, etc.

Convection / Convective / Cumuliform Clouds = vertical clouds with up & downdrafts

EC = Environment Canada

ENE = East North East

FAA = Federal Aviation Administration (USA)

ft = feet. A distance measure used for altitude. ( 1,000 ft = 304.8 m)

knot = a unit of speed: a nautical mile per hour (100 knots = 185 km/hour = 115 mph = 51 m/s)

ICAO = International Civil Aviation Organization (part of the United Nations)

IFR = Instrument Flight Rules

Flying Module C 8
 IMC = Instrument Meteorological Conditions (i.e., weather in which your are not allowed to fly
by looking out your windscreen)

lose control of the aircraft = causing the aircraft to have an attitude that causes one or both
wings to lose aerodynamic lift (not enough air flowing over the wing).The wing(s) then start to
fall due to gravity. In this situation, some of the pilot's normal controls do not work, making it
difficulty for the pilot to change the aircraft attitude to bring it back to normal controlled flight.

Maneuvering Speed = safe speed for an aircraft to fly within violently turbulent air.

METAR = aerodrome routine meteorological report

MSL = above Mean Sea Level

MVFR = Marginal Visual Flight Rules

NWS = US National Weather Service

Private Pilot = a type of pilot's license that allows you to fly almost anywhere, but you cannot
be paid or compensated.

spin = a type of stall resulting in autorotation about a vertical axis, and a shallow, rotating,
downward path. Like a corkscrew.

stall = different things for a car vs. aircraft. In a car, a stall is when the engine stops
unexpectedly. In an aircraft, the wings stall when they lose aerodynamic lift, such as when the
aircraft is going too slowly. An aircraft stall can (and often does) happen while the engine is
running. When the aircraft stalls, it starts to fall out of the sky. However, pilots are trained to
recover from stalls, and to avoid flying the aircraft in a way that creates a stall.

TAF = Aerodrome Forecast = weather forecast at airports

TC = Transport Canada

USA = United States of America

UTC = Coordinated Universal Time = Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) = Zulu time (Z)

VFR = Visual Flight Rules

VFR over the top = flying in clear air above the top of a cloud layer.

VMC = Visual Meteorological Conditions (i.e., weather good enough to fly by looking out your
windscreen)

virga = precipitation that completely evaporates before reaching the ground.

WMO = World Meteorological Organization (part of the United Nations)

yoke = control yoke = aircraft steering wheel. Used to bank the plane left or right, and to pitch
the nose up or down.

Your Weather Queries

Flying Module C 9
 What is the actual altitude of the cloud tops along my planned route, and are they higher than
forecast?

At what altitudes on my route are the outside air temperatures expected to be above freezing,
where ice might stop accumulating?

Are there any pilot reports (PIREPs) from other aircraft in this region about icing severity and
cloud top heights?

What are the latest METARs and TAFs at my departure, destination, and alternate airports,
especially regarding visibility, ceiling, and icing conditions?

How is the snowfall intensity expected to change during the flight, and will visibility improve or
deteriorate enroute?

Metereological Concepts
Aircraft Icing (3g)

Frontal Hazards (3h)

Cloud Types (1a)

Fog (1h)

Cloud Coverage (1c)

Cloud Ceilings (1d)

VFR vs. IFR (1g)

Obscurations (1i)

Aviation Weather Services (4i)

Glyphs on Weather Maps (1f)

Data Available at Start of Trip

Your Own Observations
Background & History: Sunrise happens at about 9:30 AM during this time of year at Yellowknife.
You anticipate that most of your flight will be in the dark, during the morning before sunrise. You
arrive at the airport at about 5 AM, and go online to get the weather observations and forecasts for
your planned flight. The online graphical area forecast (see the weather-map link) shows a band of
possible icing conditions along your flight track, from which you expect possible icing conditions
below about 4,000 ft altitude. It is snowing lightly in the pre-dawn hours at Yellowknife - - not a
hazard to flight.

Flying Module C 10
 You preflight the aircraft (check that it is in good working order), and remove the wing covers. You
phone the Flight Information Center to file your instrument flight plan [notifying air traffic control
(ATC) about your planned flight], and you ask them if icing conditions have been reported by other
aircraft. There are no pilot reports about icing - - mostly due to the fact that there are not many
aircraft flying at that time in the morning near Yellowknife. From your own observations and the
weather reports you receive, your overview of the current weather conditions just prior to take off
is:

Wind: A light wind from the east, suggesting a smooth ride with a tailwind.

Temperature -11°C to -10°C. Namely, below freezing, but normal for Yellowknife in late November.
Dew-point temperature is reported as -12°C.

Clouds: Overcast low clouds, with cloud base reported at 1,200 ft above the airport.

Visibility: By looking at distant city lights this night, you see that the visibility was very good - -
about 10 to 15 statuate miles.

Weather: Light snow.

History (continued). You board the passengers about 6:30 AM, load the baggage, and give a pre-
flight safety briefing to the passengers. You receive your clearance from ATC, and take off about
6:45 AM (= 13:45 UTC). Yellowknife is a small city, with extremely low population density outside of
the city - - namely, it is very dark outside the city. That, coupled with the low clouds and snow,
means that you are relying on your instruments for the whole flight - - but this is a normal routine
for you.

As you are gaining altitude after take off, you expect to have a small amount of ice stick to the
aircraft as you fly thru the thin layer of clouds (observed cloud base at roughly 1,200 ft, and the
expected cloud top at roughly 4,000 ft). Although it is pitch black outside, your aircraft has a
special light on the front of the left wing, which you can see from the cockpit to check if any ice is
forming on the wing at night. Indeed, a small amount of ice has formed, but it is easily removed
when you activate the de-icing boots. You come out of the top of the cloud layer at about 4,000 ft
altitude, as you continue to climb to your desired cruise altitude of 8,000 ft.

But as you climb through 6,000 ft altitude, you enter another layer of clouds. Ice starts
accumulating much more rapidly on the aircraft. You activate the de-icing equipment, but
nonetheless the aircraft is not climbing as rapidly as you expect for this altitude. At this point, you
are about 10 km west of Yellowknife Airport, just about to fly over the north arm of Great Slave
Lake. You still have 375 km to fly to get to your destination of Fort Simpson.

Soundings
Aside

To better synchronize weather observations around the world, meteorologists use Coordinated
Universal Time (UTC). This corresponds to the time in Greenwich, England. The letter
designation for this time zone is "Z", which pilots and controllers call "zulu" using the phonetic
alphabet.

Flying Module C 11
 In the Mountan Standard time zone (where this aircraft is being flown), 12 UTC corresponds to a
local time of 7 AM local time.

There are no soundings made at Yellowknife. One is made at Ft. Nelson, BC, which is 608 km
southwest of Yellowknife. Another is made at Ft. Smith, which is 302 km southeast of Yellowknife.
Thus, both are south of the intended flight track, but one station is to the west of the trough, and
the other is to the east.

Fort Nelson, BC, sounding at 5 am local time.

The following columns of data are relevant:

HGHT = height above ground (m).

TEMP = air temperature (deg C).

RELH = relative humidity (%).

Flying Module C 12
 Fort Smith, NT, at 5 am local time.

Flying Module C 13
Flying Module C 14
 Interpretation hints:

At Ft. Nelson, 608 km southwest of Yellowknife, is a 1.2-km-thick layer of above-freezing air

temperatures between about 620 and 1830 m agl (= altitudes of roughly 2000 to 6000 feet
above ground), with colder (below freezing) air below it and above it.

At Ft. Smith, 302 km southeast of Yellowknife), all the air is colder than freezing, with no warm
layers.

Weather Maps
Here is the surface weather map valid at 5 AM local time.

Interpretation Tips:

The dark green "X" near the center of the photo is the approximate location of Yellowknife
Airport.

A low pressure (L) center is just south of Yellowknife.

Coming from the low is a trough of bad weather (orange line) associated with it. This trough line
is close enough to affect the flight.

Well west is a cold front (blue line with triangles), and well southwest is a stationary front (red
and blue symbols on opposite sides of the line), but both of these fronts are so far away from
the flight location (X) as to not be a factor.

X-info. Extra info for experts. Not needed for this course.

Flying Module C 15
 This is the surface observation at 12 UTC = 5 AM on that November morning. The purple oval
shows the weather station data for Yellowknife Airport.

The dashed orange line (just west of the circled station) is a trought axis - - a region of bad
weather.

Synopsis (Overview of the weather situation)

South of you in the southern part of the Northwest Territories is a low-pressure center with
extensive cloud cover all around it. From the low is a warm front extending southeast into northern
Alberta, and a cold front extending southwest into northern British Columbia. Neither of these
fronts intersect your flight path. However, north of the low center is a trough of warm air aloft
(TROWAL) above your flight altitude, where temperatures are warmer than freezing aloft in the
clouds, even though the temperature is colder than freezing at your flight altitude below this warm
layer.

METAR (Meteorological Aviation Report) or (Meteorological Aerodrome

Report)

Flying Module C 16
 (This is an observation of the current weather that was observed near your departure point, just
before your take-off.

The original code:

METAR CYZF 201300Z 10011KT 15SM -SN OVC012 M10/M12 A2967 RMK SC8 SLP068=

Expanded into full text:

Location: Yellowknife Airport

Day of month: 20

Time: 13:00 UTC = 6 AM local time

Wind: True direction = 100 degrees, Speed: 11 knots

Visibility: 15 Statute Miles

Weather: Light Snow

Clouds: Overcast sky, at 1200 feet above aerodrome level

Temperature: -10 degrees Celsius

Dewpoint: -12 degrees Celsius

Altimeter setting: 29.67 inHg (inches of Mercury)

TAF (Terminal Aerodrome Forecast)

TAF CYZF 201142Z 2012/2112 12015KT P6SM -SN OVC010 TEMPO 2012/2015
3SM -SN BKN008
FM201500 12012G22KT 3SM -SN OVC008 PROB30 2015/2024 1SM -SN OVC004

FM210000 08012KT 6SM -SN SCT008 BKN020

FM210600 06010KT P6SM BKN025
RMK NXT FCST BY 201800Z=

Expanded into full text:

Yellowknife Airport terminal area forecast issed @ 11:42 UTC ( = 4:42 AM local time)

Forecast Period: 20th day of the month at 12:00 UTC (= 5 AM local time) to 21st day of month 12:00
UTC (= 5 AM the next day)

Rough forecast for the whole 24 hour period:

Wind: 120° at 15 knots

Visibility > 6 SM
Weather: Light Snow

Clouds: Overcast ceiling at 1,000 feet

[Thus, the weather is MVFR ]

Flying Module C 17
 But temporarily different weather during the following period:
Temporary 12:00 (= 5 AM local time) - 15:00 UTC (= 8 AM local time)

Visibility: 3 SM
Weather: Light Snow

Clouds: Broken cloud coverage at 800 ft cloud-base altitude,

Then, starting at 15:00 UTC (= 8 AM local time)

Wind: 120° at 12 knots, with Gusts up to 22 knots

Visibility: 3 SM

Weather: Light Snow

Clouds: Overcast 800 ft cloud-base altitude

[Thus, the weather is IFR ]

But with 30% Probability during 15:00 UTC (= 8 AM local time) to 00 UTC (=5 pm local time)

Visibility 1 SM
Weather: Light Snow

Clouds: Overcast 400 foot cloud-base altitude.

Satellite Images (from GOES 15 satellite), taken an hour before

the departure time
Visible image
Just before take-off, it is nighttime in Yellowknife, so too dark for a visible photo from the satellite.
However, the day before, you had seen the following visible satellite photo, to give you an idea of
the "big picture" of weather patterns:

Flying Module C 18
 Interpretation Hints:

The big swirl in the Gulf of Alaska are the clouds associated with a dying (occluding) low-
pressure system.

From the words "Gulf of Alaska" in the photo above is a wide band of clouds extending toward
the southeast. The sharp back (western) edge of this band marks the location of a cold front
(cold air is west of this sharp back edge of the cloud band, and this cold air and its clouds are
advancing toward the east).

That low and cold front are too far from Yellowknife to influence the weather during the next
day.

However, at present, there are lots white areas over Yukon and Northwest Territories. Sadly,
both snow and clouds show up as "white" in normal visible satellite images. How can you
distinguish clouds from snow on the ground?

Based on the patterns in the white areas near Yellowknife, these patterns don't follow any
mountain ranges or rivers, so the patterns probably indicate clouds.

If these clouds persist overnight and into the next morning at your scheduled take-off time,
then you can anticipate that you will need to fly IFR (fly on instruments through the clouds).

Infrared (IR) image, which was observed at night just before the take-off time.
The following satellite image is very poor quality, but unfortunately might be equivalent to what was
easily available to you (the pilot) in Yellowknife just before your departure on that date.

Interpretation Hints:

Flying Module C 19
 In the IR image, higher cloud tops (such as along a cold front) appear whiter, mid clouds are
grey, and low clouds are dark.

The black "X" is at the approximate departure location (Yellowknife) for this flight.

Near and west of the "X" is a very large area of clouds (shows as white and grey colours),
some with cold cloud tops.

The next IR image was taken with a very special satellite the night of your flight, and is already
"zoomed" to the region of your planned flight from Yellowknife to Fort Simpson. But to be honest,
you probably would not have been able to access this image easily using the normal flight-planning
software available at the time.

Interpretation Hints:

Brighter whites are higher cloud tops (colder). Darker blues are lower (warmer) cloud tops. But
warmth is relative (because, after all, it is winter in northern Canada).

As you already anticipated from the "day-before" satellite images, it looks like there are lots of
clouds (whiter areas in the image) along your planned route.

Although IR images allow you to estimate the height of cloud TOPS by their temperature (higher
clouds are colder), the IR images tell you nothing about how thick the clouds are. Namely, is it a
high, thin cloud that you can fly under, or is it a thick cloud (the top of which is high) that you
would need to fly through.

Flying Module C 20
 Other Info
You also viewed the following graphical area forecasts on the internet, before you took off.
[These are very technical weather maps produced by Environment Canada, designed for pilots. You
don't need to know how to read them for this course, so I have put them in the X-info box below.
However, here I provide your interpretation of these maps.]

If you look closely at both maps, you will see YZF with an arrow pointing toward Yellowknife Airport
(the departure point), and YFS with an arrow pointing to Fort Simpson (the destination).

Clouds and Weather

Between the departure and destination points is an area of broken cloud cover (shaded green) with
cloud bases (ceilings) at about 2,000 to 4,000 ft above ground level (agl) and cloud tops at about
18,000 ft agl. Intermittent visibilities of 1 to 4 statuate miles in light snow showers are expected in
that area. Patchy ceilings of 400 to 1000 ft agl are possible. The bad weather is associated with a
trough of warm air aloft (indicated by the red/blue ckeck marks in the map) extending northwest
from a low pressure center (L) just north of the Alberta border.

Icing and Turbulence

Rime icing is expected in the clouds between altitudes of 2,500 ft and 4,000 ft agl. No turbulence is
forecast.

X-info. Extra info for pilots. Not needed for this course.

Graphical Area Forecast of Clouds and Weather:

Flying Module C 21
 Graphical Area Forecast of Icing and Turbulence:

Flying Module C 22
Flying Module C 23
 Glyphs on Weather Maps (1f)
Symbols on Weather Maps
Learning Goal 1f. Recognize and interpret certain
weather and obscuration glyphs on weather charts.
Weather maps show locations of weather stations worldwide. Each weather
station observes many weather variables (wind, temperature, clouds, weather,
precipitation, etc). The issue: how to display so much info at so many locations on
the same map? The solution: meteorologists devised symbols or glyphs as a
short-hand notation for many of these weather variables.

In the tables below, the glyph is the symbol that is used on weather maps. Also
listed for completeness is the text abbreviation for the same phenomenon, which
is used in text-based Meteorological Aviation Reports (METARs). For this course,
focus only on the glyphs.
For this learning goal we consider only a small sample of the glyphs used in
meteorology. There are many more that are not shown here, and for which you
are NOT responsible to know for this course. Please focus on only the key glyphs
shown here.

Weather and Storm Glyphs

Glyphs on Weather Maps (1f) 1

 The intensity of the precipitation is indicated by the number and arrangement of
those glyphs, as described in Table 9-3b. Also, a descriptor for the precipitation
can be included. Here is just a subset of intensity and descriptor glyphs:

Glyphs on Weather Maps (1f) 2

 Obscuration Glyphs

Glyphs on Weather Maps (1f) 3

 Examples of Combinations of Glyphs
The glyphs described above can be combined in logical ways. Here are some
examples:

Glyphs on Weather Maps (1f) 4

 Obscurations (1i)
Obscurations
Learning Goal 1i. Explain the nature of these obscurations: haze, smoke,
blowing dust/sand, blowing snow, volcanic ash, rain, and how they affect
aviation.
Pilots flying visually (VFR, see Learning Goal 1g) must see where they are going.
Sometimes the sky is obscured, meaning that something is totally or partially
blocking your view of either the sky or the ground. A pilot trying to take off might
not have good enough visibility (see Learning Goal 1e) to depart safely, and an
aircraft approaching an airport might not be able to see the runway to land safely.
For these reasons, pilots check to see if there are any current or forecast
obscurations before they fly.
Obscurations (and their abbreviations) include: mist [BR; horizontal visibilities ≥ 1
km (i.e. ≥ 5/8 of a statute mile)], fog [FG; visibilities < 1 km (i.e. < 5/8 statute
mile)], smoke (FU), volcanic ash (VA), sand (SA), haze (HZ), spray (PY), and
widespread dust (DU). Snow and blowing snow causes many hazards, one of
which is as an obscuration. Fog is discussed in detail in Learning Goal 1h.
Visibility is also reduced in rain, which can obscure landmarks needed for VFR
flight.

Mist
Mist is when very small precipitation particles (small rain drops, only slightly larger
than 0.5 mm) are gently falling through the air. Visibility is usually greater than 1
km (about 5/8 mile), as compared to fog, which has lower visibilities. Mist can
exist in air having a relative humidity between 95% and 100%. (Relative humidity
is the ratio of actual water vapor in the air to the maximum water vapour possible
in the air, expressed as a percentage.) Mist creates a thin grey-colored partial
obscuration.

Smoke

Obscurations (1i) 1
 Smoke can come from factories, cars, and forest fires. The figure below shows
smoke from the Fort McMurray, AB, forest fire in 2016.

© User:DarrenRD / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 4.

Obscurations (1i) 2
 Even far downwind of forest fires and other wild fires, the smoke is often spread
out somewhat uniformly within the bottom several km of the atmosphere. In the
photo below, the smoke is so thick that it is difficult to see the bottom parts of the
clouds.

My research team makes forecasts of forest fire smoke for the public, as
sponsored by the Environment Ministries in the provinces of BC, AB, SK, and ON,
and with former federal support from the CSSP program. Here is an example from
20 July 2016, from the [Link] web site.

Smoke from forest fires and other sources can reduce visibility to the point where
it is a hazard to aviation. Also, if you fly through smoke then you could breathe
the toxic fumes that enter the aircraft cockpit or cabin through the aircraft
ventillation system.

Volcanic Ash
Ash from a volcanic eruption is not like the soft, fluffy ashes from a fireplace.
Instead, volcanic ash consists of microscopic rocks with sharp edges. The
smallest ash particles are so small that they settle out very slowly due to gravity.
But while they are suspended in the air, they can cause serious problems to
aircraft that accidently fly through the ash clouds.

Obscurations (1i) 3
 Volcanic ash is very abrasive, like sandpaper. If it gets in an aircraft internal
combustion engine, it can cause bearings and gears to wear-out very quickly and
fail or seize (stop turning). It can clog or contaminate the air filter, the oil filter, and
the aircraft and passenger ventillation systems. It can sandblast the windscreen,
making it difficult to see through. If it sticks to wings and other surfaces, it adds
weight and changes the balance of the aircraft. Also, as ash hits the aircraft, it
causes a static electric charge to build up, which at night can be seen as St.
Elmo's fire (sparks writhing across the windscreen). And, as an obscuration, ash
clouds reduce your visibility.
If volcanic ash gets in jet/turbine engines, it can not only abrade the turbine
components, but can also melt and re-solidify into glass-like coatings and
protuberances that cause the turbines to break. Two Boeing 747 aircraft lost
power on all four engines when they accidently encountered volcanic ash.
For this reason, volcanic ash forecast maps are produced for aviation. But they are
produced only when the hazard exists.
The Mount St. Helens volcano in the Washington Cascade Mountains, USA,
erupted on 18 May 2008. I flew past it later that summer. By that time, ash was
mostly being emitted by the volcano into lower levels of the atmosphere, so I
could safely fly over most of it. See photos below.

Obscurations (1i) 4
 Volcanoes also emit lots of gases, such as sulfur dioxide, high into the
stratosphere. This gas gradually reacts to become small sulfate particles that are
blown completely around the world many times by the winds in the upper
atmosphere. These very tiny particles, called aerosols, are not a hazard to
aviation — though they do cause amazingly beautiful red skies long after the sun
has set below the horizon!

Obscurations (1i) 5
 Sand
Strong winds over deserts and sandy regions can create sand storms, also
called haboobs. Some of these haboobs are created by outflow winds from
thunderstorms (Learning Goal 4b).
Most of this sand falls out of the atmosphere fairly quickly after the winds subside.
However, the finer sand particles can stay suspended for hours after the wind has
decreased. The sand storms have a similar abrasive effect on aircraft and engines
as does volcanic ash (but perhaps not melting in jet engines). The sand storms
also greatly reduce visibilities and create large static electric charges, making
flying and using navigation instruments difficult — so don't fly into haboobs.
Sadly, even if your aircraft is tied down on the ground, the strong winds
associated with a haboob can sandblast your aircraft. That is why many aircraft
owners in parts of the world where sandstorms are frequent will always park their
planes in hangars.

Courtesy of the US National Weather Service.

Here are some nice photos from the US National Weather Service with safety
recommendations:

[Link]

Obscurations (1i) 6
 [Link]
no-joke

[Link]

Here are some amazing YouTube videos of sandstorms:

[Link]

[Link] (play this one at 5x speed)

[Link]

See the American Meteorological Society Glossary for the definition of a

haboob: [Link]

Haze
Haze is weird. It consists of microscopic liquid water droplets that form around a
pollutant particle or chemical that attracts water vapor. Because of this attractive
(hygroscopic) behavior, the haze particles can grow even when the relative
humidity in the air is less than 100%, sometimes as low as 75%. (Normally, clean
liquid water drops form when the relative humidity is at 100%, i.e. when the air is
holding all the water vapor that it can at that temperature.)
Another weird aspect is that haze particles quickly grow to a final small size by
attracting water vapor out of the air, but they don't keep growing. They stop
growing at a particular microscopic size (radii of about 0.0001 mm) determined by
the humidity, temperature, and the particular hygroscopic chemical. (Normally,
larger liquid water drops keep growing as long as there is excess water vapor to
condense onto them.)
Small haze particles are generically known as aerosols, which include
microscopic solid and liquid particles. The original pollutant particles might be
very small and spread out in the air, so that visibility is good (i.e. not haze).
However, as the humidity increases above about 75%, these particles suddenly
become larger (called aerosol swelling) as they soak up water vapor, resulting in
the aerosol particles that reduce visibility. The reduced visibility is a flight hazard.
Examples of common hygroscopic chemicals are salt (e.g. left in the air after sea
spray evaporates), sulfates (a pollutant associated with oil and coal burning, with
volcanic emissions, and with farts from small microscopic phytoplankton in the

Obscurations (1i) 7
 sea), nitrates (a pollutant by-product of combustion), and quite a few biological
(organic) chemicals emitted from plants while they live, burn, or decay.

Haze (smog) in New York City. Public domain, courtesy of the U.S. Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Public Health Image Library (ID# 1523).

Spray
Breaking waves cause tiny droplets of sea water to be injected into the
atmosphere. These small droplets (less than about 0.2 mm in diameter) settle out
very slowly. You can often see the effects of spray near a beach during windy
conditions with breaking waves — the visibility is very poor due to the spray.
When spray exists, it is usually relative close to the ground.
I have encountered poor visibilities due to spray when landing at airports adjacent
to ocean beaches. Notice the white layer near the horizon on the second photo
below, caused initially by sea spray. The salt in the sea-spray attracts water from
the air, which continues to create a white haze even as the wind blows that air
away from the beach.

Obscurations (1i) 8
 Left: Photo courtesy of National Marine Sanctuaries, US NOAA. Right: Photo by
R. Stull while flying over the Georgia Strait, BC, Canada.

Here is a nice YouTube video showing sea spray from wave

breaking: [Link] (watch only a minute
or two. Can you see rainbows in the spray above the breaking waves?)

Dust
Dust in the atmosphere can consist of a variety of microscopic solid substances
(dirt, pollen, ashes, decaying biological material) stirred up into the atmosphere

Obscurations (1i) 9
 from the Earth's surface. These dust particles are smaller than the sand particles
of sand storms. Hence, the dust can stay in the air longer after the strong winds
end, because the particles gravitationally settle out more slowly.
During droughts, when strong winds blow over normally arable farmland, the fine
particles in the soil can be lifted by the turbulent winds and temporarily
suspended in the atmosphere as a dust storm. Examples are the dust
bowl conditions in the central USA in the 1930s. In severe duststorms the visibility
can be reduced to values less than 1/4 mile (about 400 m), making it a hazard to
aviation.
See the American Meteorological Society Glossary for a definition of a dust
storm: [Link]
Dust storms are similar to the sand storms described earlier, except that the dust
particles are smaller size than sand particles. Often, the general public (and TV
news people) use "dust storm" and "sand storm" interchangeably.

Snow and Blowing Snow

The intensity of snowfall is often evaluated based on the visibility through snow.
For example, heavy snow has visibility less than 0.4 km (0.25 miles),
while moderate snow has visibility in the range 0.4 to 0.8 km (0.25 - 0.5 miles).
Although snow is listed as a weather element (in present or past weather), it does
affect visiblity and can obscure landmarks important for air navigation and
landing.
A blizzard is when there is blowing snow in the air with reduced visiblity (less
than or equal to 0.25 miles in USA, or 1 km in Canada) AND fast wind speeds
(greater than or equal to 35 miles/hour in USA, or 40 km/hour in Canada). In
extreme conditions, visibility can be so poor that pilots and observers report a
"white out", where you cannot discriminate between the ground and sky because
everything is white and visibility is low. Even after a snowfall as ended, fast winds
can pick up snow from the ground to create poor visibility. White out is also
discussed in the Snow-sports Weather theme.

Rain
Light and moderate rain can have reduced, but acceptable, visibilities. But heavy
rain can be a problem (see figure below). Although not officially listed as an

Obscurations (1i) 10
 obscuration, heavy rain can reduce visibility to the point where landmarks and
obstacles (e.g., mountains, tall towers, wind turbines, etc.) are obscured,
preventing safe VFR flight.

Luckily, heavy rain often has limited horizontal extent. Namely, it is patchy. Thus,
pilots can often fly around the heavy rain regions to remain in conditions safe for
VFR flight.

Obscuration Symbols
Recall from learning goal 1f the weather-map symbols for these obscurations:

Obscurations (1i) 11
 The abbreviations in the right column above are used in textual weather reports
called METARS.
The weather-map symbol for heavy snow is:

and for blowing snow is:

Key words: aerosol swelling, aerosols, dust, dust storm, fog, haboob,
hygroscopic, haze, mist, nitrates, obscured, organic, salt, sand, sand storm,
smoke, spray, sulfates, VFR, volcanic ash, visibility, St. Elmo's fire, blowing
snow, blizzard, white out, heavy snow, moderate snow.

Obscurations (1i) 12
 Fog (1h)
Fog
Learning Goal 1h. Anticipate when fog might occur
based on location, humidity, temperature, winds,
and cloudcover, and how fog affects aviation.
Fog reduces visiblity and makes it difficult to see where you are, where the airport
is, and where other airplanes are. This video show how fog at an airport can
cause confusion and danger.

[Link]

You can improve your safety by understanding what fog is, and how it forms.

Fog Formation and Dissipation

Fog is a cloud that touches the ground. Most fog is made of tiny liquid water
droplets that are falling so slowly through the air that they seem suspended. In
fog, the visibility is very poor, usually less than about 1 km (or 5/8 mile). [Compare
this to "mist", which is a diffuse fog with visibilities greater than about 1 km.]
If the fog is made of supercooled tiny liquid water droplets (unfrozen liquid water
at temperatures below freezing), then it is called freezing fog, because the
supercooled droplets can freeze instantly when they touch something like an
airplane or runway. Ice fog is made of tiny ice crystals (water that is already
frozen).
Fog can form due to two mechanisms:

1. When water is added to unsaturated (non-foggy) air, or

2. When unsaturated air is cooled to its dew-point temperature (the temperature

at which water vapor starts to condense into liquid droplets).

Sometimes both mechanisms work together to make or maintain fog. Cooling is

common at night, which is why fog is most likely during late night and early
morning.

Fog (1h) 1
 If the air is not very humid, then fog is less likely, because (1) there might not be
enough water available to add to the air to make it saturated (foggy), or (2) the air
might not get cold enough to reach its dew-point temperature. Conversely, fog is
more likely in humid air, and most likely in cool humid air.
Cool air is denser (heavier) than warm air, so the cool air often flows downhill and
settles into valleys. For this reason, many fogs form in low spots or valleys
as valley fog. Unfortunately, airports are often in valleys.

Fog (1h) 2
 On windy nights, the wind makes turbulence that mixes cool humid air near the
ground with warmer drier air aloft. The resulting mixture is often too warm and dry
to become fog. So, fog usually forms when the winds are relatively slow or near
calm. Conversely, if fog already formed at night when winds were light, then the
fog will dissipate if the wind speed increases.
On nights with clear skies, the ground surface radiates heat upward to space. As
the ground loses heat, it gets colder, and the cold ground cools the air above it by
contact. If the air is cooled sufficiently, and has sufficiently high humidity, then fog
can form. If there is a deep layer of humid air near the ground, then the ground
surface does not cool as much, but the deep layer of humid air cools directly by
radiating heat to space. If this humid layer cools enough, then a deep fog layer
can form that is difficult to dissipate.
On nights with substantial cloud cover, the clouds prevent the ground from cooling
rapidly, because the clouds are radiating heat back to the [Link] blanketing
effect by the clouds often prevents the ground (and the air touching the ground)
from cooling sufficiently to make fog.
Fog formation and dissipation times are very difficult to forecast.

FOG TYPES

Fog (1h) 3
 Radiation
During clear, nearly-calm nights the ground cools by infra-red radiation to space.
The cold ground cools the air that touches the ground. These fogs often form first
as a very shallow fog, and gradually get thicker (deeper, and lower visibility) as
the night progresses. If the fog gets deep enough, then IR cooling happens from
fog top instead of from the ground, which quickly creates a deep fog layer that is
difficult to dissipate.

Advection
Humid air blows over a colder surface, causing the air temperature to decrease to
the dew-point temperature.

Example: Warm humid air over the Pacific ocean flows over a cold Alaska
ocean current just offshore of the west coast of North America. An example is
the fog near San Francisco, California, as sometimes partially obscures the
Golden Gate Bridge.

Another example: Humid cool air flows over snowy ground, causing the air to
cool to its dew point.

These fogs can form as thick layers, sometimes with sharp, well-defined front
edges.

Fog (1h) 4
 Second to last photo of the San Francisco Bay is courtesy of the NASA Earth
Observatory.

Fog (1h) 5
 Upslope
When the wind blows air against a hill slope, the air is pushed upward. But
upward-moving air cools adiabatically (without the transfer of heat) about 10°C for
each 1 kilometer that it goes up. When the air rises sufficiently high and gets
sufficiently cold, then fog can form.
As the top photo shows, these fogs often appear as if the mountain top is in a
cloud. If you were on the mountain top, you would be in fog. If you were at sea
level in this photo, you would see the same phenomenon as a cloud that the
mountain sticks up into.
In the second photo example here, winds from the top left of the photo are
blowing humid air toward mountains in the bottom right of the photo. As this air is
funneled into the valleys and up the mountain slopes, upslope fog has formed.

Fog (1h) 6
 Precipitation or Frontal

Fog (1h) 7
 Steam
Steam fog occurs when cold air moves over warm humid surfaces such as
unfrozen lakes or oceans during early winter. The lake warms the air touching it by

Fog (1h) 8
 conduction, and adds water by evaporation. However, this thin layer of moist
warm air near the surface is unsaturated (not foggy). But the warm humid air is
more buoyant than the rest of the cold air that is flowing over the lake. The warm
air rises, creating a shallow (5 to 100 m) layer of convective turbulence touching
the ground. As turbulence causes the humid air to mix with the colder air higher
above the surface, the mixture becomes saturated, which we see as steam fog.
One of the photos here shows steam fog over the warm water of a cooling pond
next to a power plant.
You can also see steam fog after a rain storm when the sun comes out and heats
the wet surfaces, such as roofs, docks, and farm fields.

Fog (1h) 9
Fog (1h) 10
 What you can do about fog
Unfortunately, fog and aviation do not play well together. Fog is considered to be
an "obscuration" that reduces horizontal visibility to 0.5 statute miles or less.
Fog prevents pilots from seeing where they are going (i.e. very reduced visibilty),
and prevents weather observers from seeing the sky condition and weather above
the fog.

Fog (1h) 11
 There have been many occasions when I landed at an airport in nice weather one
afternoon, and then woke up the next morning to find the airport "socked in" with
fog. Even my instrument rating doesn't help, because pilots need a certain
visibility to be able to see the runway to take off safely. Not much you can do,
other than relax, read a good book, play with your smartphone, and wait for the
fog to disappear before you take off...
When pilots do finally take off, if there is still a bit of reduced visibility due to a
weak or thin fog, then pilots flying aircraft with carburated engines (engines that
blend air and fuel) need to ensure that their carburator heat is turned on, to
prevent ice from clogging up the air-fuel intake to the engine.
If you are already flying and find that your destination airport has become foggy
before you arrived, then often your only choice is to fly to an alternate airport with
nicer weather and spend one or more nights there. So be sure to have sufficient
fuel on board if you intend to fly to a destination that is known to have a fog
problem.
Fog can eventually dissipate (disappear / evaporate) or lift (change from fog into
a low cloud). This improvement to the flying conditions can happen as the sunlight
starts to warm the earth's surface, or as winds pick up and blow the fog away or
turbulently dilute it with drier air. The thicker the fog, the longer it takes to
dissipate. If conditions are really bad, the fog can persist all day.
Sometimes, the heat of a large nearby city, or the heat and turbulence from many
commercial aircraft take-offs and landings at an airport, can delay the onset of
fog, and can help dissipate it faster if it already exists. However, seeding the fog to
make it disappear works rarely, and is very expensive. So we are just stuck with
fog.
Fog depends so strongly on local conditions that many of the national weather
prediction models do not forecast it very well. However, local forecasters with
knowledge and experience with their local fogs can do a reasonable job
estimating when fog will disappear. Fog forecasting is extremely difficult, and I
commend the forecasters.

New Satellite-observed Fog products

The new GOES-18 (also known as GOES-West) geostationary weather satellite
was launched on 1 March 2022 and became operational in 2023. GOES-18

Fog (1h) 12
 replaced the earlier weather satellite GOES-17. GOES-18 provides a good view of
the western half of the Americas. A corresponding GOES-East provides a similar
view of the eastern half of the Americas.
These satellites have high spatial resolution (can see fine details), and observe
many radiation bands (visible and infrared/heat). By combining several of these
different bands, they can detect fog and low clouds at night, which is an amazing
new capability.
In the first photo below, at nighttime, the fog/low-clouds are coloured light blue.
The corresponding photo taken later that same day during daytime (noon) is
shown in the second figure, where all clouds, fog, and snow-capped mountains
appear white. The third photo below shows corresponding ground-level view of
the fog over the Georgia Strait, as viewed from the town of White Rock at 10:30
am that same day.

Fog (1h) 13
 GOES 17 satellite images at night (top), and noon that same day (middle), on 14
January 2019. Fog appears light blue in the top (nighttime) images, and white in

Fog (1h) 14
 the middle (daytime) image. Notice the fog in the mountain valleys in the upper-
right portion of these top 2 images, and in the Georgia Strait (between Vancouver
Island and the mainland). Also notice the snow-capped mountains in the middle
image. The bottom image shows the same fog as viewed from ground level at
10:30 am that same day, looking roughly south over the Georgia Strait from the
town of White Rock. Top 2 images courtesy of NOAA/RAMMB.

Fog (1h) 15
 Photo taken from a commercial aircraft of valley low cloud or fog in the mountains
of southeastern British Columbia. Photo by Lynn Engel, used with permission.
This fog-observation capability can be very important for aviation, especially for
fog in remote locations for which there might not be weather stations or weather
observers along your flight track. For winter flights in Canada, when days are
short and nights are long, information on fog along your route or at your
destination can help you make better go/no-go decisions.
You can see a current loop of images from this satellite, zoomed into British
Columbia, at the rammb-slider/CIRA website (it might take a long time to load
these large images). This loop uses the infrared band at night and uses visible-
light images during daytime, to make a movie that spans both day and night.
Key words: advection fog, dew-point temperature, dissipate, fog, freezing fog,
ice fog, lift, obscuration, precipitation (or frontal) fog, radiation fog, socked in,
steam fog, supercooled, unsaturated, upslope fog, valley fog, horizontal
visibility

Fog (1h) 16
 Cloud Types (1a)
Flying Module A

Flying Module B

We can divide clouds into "normal" clouds and "special" clouds. Here, we explore
normal clouds. Special clouds are covered in Learning Goal 1b.
Normal clouds are classified into two categories (click on these links for more
photos):

Convective clouds or cumuliform clouds (Cu) look like stacks of cotton balls,
and are associated with updrafts.

More information on Cu clouds

Convective clouds or cumuliform clouds (Cu) look like stacks of cotton balls.
They form when warm humid air rises through cooler surrounding air in the
atmosphere. The buoyancy (tendency of objects to sink or rise due to density
differences with their surroundings) associated with the warm air drives strong
updrafts. Even more buoyancy is created as water vapor in the air condenses
to become cloud droplets, because condensation releases latent heat (energy
required during a phase change — in this case, condensation).
Convective clouds often have relatively flat bases that are somewhat near to
the ground (roughly 1km above the ground, though this varies significantly
from cloud to cloud). However, the vertical depth of the clouds can vary
significantly. These clouds come in 4 sizes:

1. Small: cumulus humilis (Cu hum), also called "fair weather cumulus"

2. Medium: cumulus mediocris (Cu med)

3. Large: cumulus congestus (Cu cong), also known as towering cumulus

(TCu)

4. Extra large: cumulonimbus (Cb), also called thunderstorms (see learning

goal 4)

Cloud Types (1a) 1

 The sketch below shows how cumuliform clouds are classified by their vertical
depths (where z = height above ground):

Here are some photos showing how these different sizes of cumuliform clouds
look, both from aircraft and from the ground. In the first column are also links
to timelapse videos from the weather cameras on the rooftop of our institute at
UBC.

Cloud Types (1a) 2

 Where do they form?
Convective clouds form wherever the air near the ground is colder than the
ground- or ocean-surface. This can happen:

behind cold fronts (where a warm air mass is forced upwards by collision
with a cold air mass),

on mostly clear days when sunshine warms the ground more than the
overlying air,

over urban and industrial centers that are warmer than the surrounding
rural areas,

or when cold air blows over a warmer ocean or lake, or over warmer land.

Also, mountains can trigger all sizes of cumulus clouds, including

thunderstorms. Mountain clouds are explained in Learning Goal 1b
"Recognizing Special Clouds".

Local Effects
For all size cumulus clouds, there is usually an updraft that starts near ground
level and extends up into the cloud all the way to the cloud top. Birds and

Cloud Types (1a) 3

 sailplane (glider designed for sustained flight) pilots intentionally circle in the
updrafts to get a free lift to higher altitude. Between the updrafts are weaker
downdrafts of clear air. Airplane and helicopter pilots flying at a constant
altitude below cloud base would feel a bumpy ride as they fly through the up-
and down-drafts.

At the earth's surface, the downdrafts of air hitting the ground cause
windgusts that sailors can see as slightly rougher, darker-looking patches of
water called "cat's paws". Similar gusts over pastures and grain crops can
cause wavy fields of grain.

Hazards
Deeper cumuliform clouds have stronger updrafts. The deepest ones, cumulus
congestus and thunderstorms, have such violent updrafts that they can be a
hazard to aircraft. Namely, the strong updrafts can cause the pilot to lose
control of the aircraft, or can over-stress the aircraft, causing things to break.
The medium and smaller cumulus can be flown under and through, but will
cause a bumpy ride — so be sure to have your seat belt fastened (and
shoulder harness, if available), and provide barf bags to your passengers.
Key words: buoyancy, cat's paws, cold front, convective cloud, cumuliform
cloud, cumulonimbus, cumulus congestus, cumulus humilis, cumulus
mediocris, latent heat, thunderstorm

Layer clouds or stratiform clouds (St) look like sheets or blankets that can
extend hundreds of kilometers horizontally.

More Information on St Clouds

Layer clouds or stratiform clouds (St) look like sheets or blankets. They range
from only 100 m to 6 km thick in the vertical, but can have a horizontal extent
of 100 km to 1000 km. They are associated with layers in the atmosphere with
different relative temperatures, as explained next.
The sketch below shows a wedge of cool or cold air at ground level. When a
horizontal wind moves warmer air toward this cold wedge, the warm air slides
up along the top surface of the cold air, because the warm air is more buoyant
(lighter) than the cold air. This behavior is typical of warm fronts.

Cloud Types (1a) 4

 As the warm air rises, it gradually cools to the point where water vapour can
condense and make clouds. Indeed, we often find stratiform clouds along
warm fronts.

Stratiform clouds are classified by their altitude, and are grouped into 3
categories:

1. High: cirrus (Ci), cirrostratus (Cs), and cirrocumulus (Cc)

2. Middle: altostratus (As) and altocumulus (Ac)

3. Low: stratus (St), and nimbostratus (Ns)

NOTE: The sketch below shows how stratiform clouds are classified by their
altitudes (where z = height above ground):

Cloud Types (1a) 5

 As a warm front approaches you, you normally see the high clouds first. These
clouds extend many hundreds of kilometers ahead of the front, so you see
them about half a day before the warm front arrives. Next comes the mid-level
clouds, and finally the low clouds along with drizzle or light rain/snow. This
sequence is sketched below, where the warm front (at the thick black line with
semicircles) is moving toward the northeast (towards the upper-right corner),
with the stratiform clouds ahead of the front.

Cloud Types (1a) 6

 Here are some photos showing examples of stratiform clouds.

Cloud Types (1a) 7

Cloud Types (1a) 8
Cloud Types (1a) 9
 Stratus vs. Nimbostratus
Stratus and nimbostratus clouds both have low cloud bases, and by eye
appear equally dark. But nimbostratus clouds are precipitating (snow, mist,
drizzle, or light rain), while stratus is not. Thus, nimbostratus clouds often
have diffuse (washed out) cloud bases, while stratus clouds often have well
defined cloud bases. The next picture shows stratus and nimbostratus clouds
photographed from the same vantage point on the same day.

Cloud Types (1a) 10

 Hazards
Stratiform clouds are not usually turbulent, so flying through them is often a
smooth ride. However, inside any cloud, including stratiform clouds, pilots
need to be flying on instruments because they cannot see the ground or
landmarks (instrument flight is covered in Learning Goal 1g).
If the stratiform clouds are cold enough (at temperatures just below freezing),
ice can form on the leading edges of the aircraft due to the quick freezing of
supercooled (below freezing) liquid water drops (aircraft icing is covered
in Learning Goal 3g). Also, soarplane pilots usually don't like stratiform clouds
because they shade the ground and prevent thermal updrafts from forming.
Key words: altocumulus, altostratus, cirrocumulus, cirrostratus, cirrus,
corona, layer cloud, nimbostratus, stratiform cloud, stratus, warm front

The table below compares cumuliform and stratiform clouds (z = height above
ground). For more info and cloud photos for each of these categories, click on the
links above.

Stratocumulus

Cloud Types (1a) 11

 are a low-altitude layer of lumpy clouds. They don't fit well in the normal
cumuliform or stratiform groups, yet they have characteristics of both groups.
There are many photos of stratocumulus clouds in Learning Goal 1c on cloud-
coverage, but here is a good photo and the associated video.

Cloud Types (1a) 12

 Frontal Hazards (3h)
Learning Goal 3h. Locate likely areas of turbulence, icing, and thunderstorms
relative to warm, cold, occluded fronts, and dry lines, and describe how these
frontal hazards affect aviation

Contents:
A) Overview of Fronts
B) Frontal Conditions at the Earth's Surface
C) Frontal Weather Above Ground
D) Occluded Fronts
E) Dry Lines

F) Fronts and Aviation

A) Overview of Fronts
On weather maps, the boundary between warmer and cooler air is called a front.
If the cold air advances, it is a cold front. If the cold air retreats, it is a warm front.
If the boundary doesn't move very much, it is a stationary front. If the cold front
catches up to and merges with the warm front, the result is called an occluded
front. Another type of front is a dry line. These are explained in more detail
below.
Fronts often have clouds, precipitation, strong winds, and turbulence - - all could
be flight hazards, as explained below.

Frontal Hazards (3h) 1

 Fronts often rotate around a low-pressure center (a "low") similar to spokes
around a wheel hub (see Fig. 12.1 below). Also below is a list of the symbols for
different fronts. In that frontal list are some definitions: frontogenesis = birth of a
new front; frontolysis = death of an old front; squall line = line of convection /
thunderstorms along or ahead of a front.

Frontal Hazards (3h) 2

Frontal Hazards (3h) 3
 B) Frontal conditions at the Earth's surface
Temperature is not the only thing that changes across the front. Also changing are
wind speed and direction, clouds, humidity, etc. The diagrams below (from Stull's
book "Practical Meteorology") show some of these changes for cold fronts, and
for warm fronts. Isotherms show temperatures. Arrow lengths indicates wind
strengths. These diagrams show how weather varies in the horizontal.
Cold front at the Earth's surface. Actual temperatures depend on the season.

Frontal Hazards (3h) 4

Frontal Hazards (3h) 5
Frontal Hazards (3h) 6
 C) Frontal weather above the ground
Pilots are also concerned about weather above the Earth's surface. If we make a
vertical slice through the atmosphere across a cold front and a warm front, the
results are shown in the diagrams below. Higher in these diagrams correspond to
higher above ground. The figures below and above confirm that cumuliform
clouds (such as thunderstorms) are often found at cold fronts, and stratiform
clouds are often found at (and ahead of) warm fronts. Cloud types are given in
Learning Goal 1a.
Cold front (a vertical slice through the atmosphere):

D) Occluded Fronts

Frontal Hazards (3h) 7

 Occluded fronts come in two flavors: cold occlusions and warm occlusions.
They both occur when a cold front catches up to a warm front. Where very cold
air catches up to, and under-rides, cooler air, then the result is a cold front
occlusion. Where cool air catches up to, and over-rides, colder air, then the result
is a warm front occlusion.

Regardless of the type of occlusion, there are two characteristics that are
important to pilots:

Frontal Hazards (3h) 8

 The resulting clouds and weather are a combination of widespread stratiform
drizzle and focused intense thunderstorms. Namely, an IFR pilot could
encounter dangerous thunderstorms embedded in gentle stratus clouds. Or a
VFR pilot could be flying between stratiform layers and have part of the route
blocked by a thunderstorm updraft tower (see figures below).

The warmest air between the cold and warm fronts is pushed upward above
the collision between the cold and cool air, causing fronts aloft.

E) Dry Lines:
The boundary between dry and humid air of virtually the same temperature is
called a dry line. Don't let the word "dry" deceive you - - it can still be dangerous.
Drier air is denser than the moister air of the same temperature. The less-dense
moist air will rise over the more-dense dry air, which can trigger thunderstorms
along the dry line. Although a dryline cannot be called a cold front or a warm front
(because the temperature is often nearly the same on both sides of the front), it
behaves very similar to a cold front in its ability to trigger thunderstorms. See
more info above and below about cold front hazards.

F) Fronts and Aviation

Frontal Hazards to Pilots

1. VFR pilots (i.e., not flying on instruments) encounter clouds, precipitation, low
ceilings (= low cloud base), and poor visibility near the front that can block
their intended flight (Learning Goal 1g).

Frontal Hazards (3h) 9

 2. Strong winds can occur near fronts, including wind shifts with time and wind
shear with altitude. The result could be headwinds that slow the flight and
require the aircraft to consume more fuel. Strong crosswinds at small airports
could prevent safe landings. See Learning Goals 2d and 2e.

3. Thunderstorms, which have many flight hazards (Learning Goal 4b) can occur
along cold fronts and can be hidden inside occluded fronts.

4. Depending on the season, if the cold air near the ground is below freezing and
the air above the front is warmer than freezing, then rain falling from warm air
layers into lower cold layers can become supercooled to create aircraft icing
hazards and freezing rain (Learning Goal 3g).

5. Drylines behave as cold fronts and can trigger dangerous thunderstorms.

6. Heavy snowfall during frontal passage could temporarily close an airport until
the snowplows can clear it.

What Can Pilots Do?

Do their homework before taking off by checking the weather maps (see
example below) and forecasts, and making a go/no-go decision for the flight.

But regardless of what the forecast said (because forecasts can be wrong),
believe what you actually see in front of you, and change your flight route if
needed to stay safe.

Fly around the front (not always possible because fronts can be thousands of
kilometers long).

Fly under the front (not always possible because sometimes the bad weather
can reach the ground).

Fly over the front (not always possible, even for commercial airlines, because
frontal clouds can extend to 15 km altitude).

If you are flying for fun, then don't fly when a low or front is near. Instead, wait
for a high-pressure system to move in, which has fair skies and light winds.

Land just before you get to the front, and wait for the front to pass before you
take off again. You might need to stay overnight. This is my favorite, because

Frontal Hazards (3h) 10

 I've accidently "discovered" some beautiful places during these unplanned
overnight stops.

WPC Surface Analysis

Frontal Hazards (3h) 11

 Aircraft Icing (3g)
Supercooled Water in the Atmosphere
Hard to believe, but liquid-water cloud and rain droplets can remain unfrozen at
temperatures well below freezing in the atmosphere. In particular,
these supercooled droplets can be liquid between temperatures of –40°C and
0°C. But supercooled liquid droplets freeze almost instantly when they touch
something solid and cold such as an airplane, a snowflake, tree branches, power
lines, runways, and road surfaces.

Aircraft Icing (3g) 1

 First diagram: Standard atmosphere temperature sounding. Higher in the graph
corresponds to higher altitude above sea level.
Second image: Clear ice on leading edge of the wing, as viewed from inside the
cockpit of a high-wing aircraft during flight.

At air temperatures between 0°C and -40°C, it is possible for the cloud and
precipitation to be all ice crystals, all liquid water, or a mixture of liquid water and
ice. But at these temperatures, any liquid water is supercooled, and can freeze
almost instantly when they are hit by an airplane. Recall from Learning Goal
3a that on average, the air temperature in the troposphere decreases with altitude
(see first diagram above). So as you climb away from the earth's surface, you will
reach a range of altitudes where the air temperatures are between 0°C and
-40°C. Namely, that range of altitude is the danger zone for ice formation on
aircraft. But the danger exists only if the aircraft is flying through liquid-water
clouds or rain at those altitudes. Namely, if you are flying in clear air at those
altitude, or if you are flying through clouds that are already 100% ice crystals, then
there is no hazard for ice to form on the aircraft (except for a few exceptions
described below).
As you climb to near the top of the troposphere, the temperature becomes colder
than –40°C. At this altitude and above (i.e., in colder air), all liquid water is already

Aircraft Icing (3g) 2

 frozen into ice crystals, so there is not normally an icing hazard at these altitudes.
At any altitude, if the precipitation particles are already frozen (i.e., are snowflakes
or ice crystals or sleet), then they are NOT normally a hazard to aircraft (see
exceptions later), because the ice crystals simply blow around the aircraft and
don't stick to it.
The actual atmospheric temperature sounding varies from day to day, location to
location, and season to season. Thus, the actual sounding is always somewhat
different from the idealized sounding shown above in the first figure. In summer,
the icing hazard to aircraft might mainly be in the top half of thunderstorms and
other deep convective clouds. In winter, freezing rain can reach all the way to the
ground, forming ice on parked aircraft. In fall and spring, the supercooled water
hazard is often associated with weather fronts such as warm fronts. Examples of
frontal conditions that cause significant icing hazards are in Learning Goal 3h.

Ice on Aircraft - - Hazards

Why do we care about supercooled water? Because many bad things happen
when a flying aircraft starts to accumulate ice on the aircraft:

On wings, it disturbs the airflow, so the wing gets less lift (the upward force
that keeps airplanes up).

Anywhere on the aircraft, it adds weight (helping gravity to pull the aircraft
down).

On propellors, it decreases their thrust (the ability to pull the aircraft forward).

Anywhere on the aircraft, it increases drag (tending to slow the aircraft due to
friction).

On the empennage (the tail of the airplane), it reduces the ability to keep the
aircraft flying level.

On the wind screen, it prevents you from seeing where you are going.

On carbureted engines (not fuel injected; not turbines), ice forms in the
carburator, partially or totally blocking flow of the fuel-air mixture into the
cylinders of the engine (i.e., the engine loses power or dies).

Ice can form on engine air intake filters and manifolds, reducing the air flow
needed for the engines to properly burn their fuel. This literally chokes the

Aircraft Icing (3g) 3

 engine.

On some control surfaces (ailerons, elevator, rudder, flaps) it can prevent their
movement so the pilot cannot control where the aircraft is flying.

Ice can clog the pitot tube (which measures speed of the aircraft), causing
erroneous speed readings in the cockpit.

On some turbine (jet) engines, ice can form on the turbine blades, reducing
thrust (see last subsection).

On the space shuttle, ice that breaks off during launch can hit other parts of
the shuttle that can damage the protective tiles on the wings and body,
causing the shuttle to burn and explode during reentry.

Aircraft Icing (3g) 4

 Some tips:

If you are not flying in a cloud or through a rain shower, then ice will not form
on the aircraft (see exception below).

If you are at an altitude where the temperature is warmer than freezing, then
cloud and rain drops are usually not supercooled and do not cause aircraft
icing. They just give your plane a shower and wash off all the bugs.

If you are at an altitude where the temperature is colder than –40°C, than ice
will not form on the aircraft (see exception below).

The rate of ice buildup depends on how much supercooled water is in the air.
For non-precipitating clouds, the tiny cloud droplets cause a gradual
accumulation of ice on the aircraft. For clouds with drizzle or light rain (in the
cloud or falling below the cloud base), accumulation of ice is faster. If you are
accidently flying through a thunderstorm at an altitude where heavy rain with
large supercooled raindrops can occur, then ice buildup on the aircraft can be
extremely rapid and dangerous (in addition to all the other thunderstorm
hazards).

Exceptions
Consider an aircraft that is very cold from flying at high altitudes. If the aircraft
descends into warmer humid air, then frost can form on the aircraft even in non-
cloudy air. This is similar to frost that forms on the inside of your house windows
on a cold winter night. While the frost is not very heavy, it does increase drag and
decrease lift, and if on the windscreen it can block your view.
Some of the newer high-bypass turbofan (jet) engines on modern fuel efficient
airlines can develop ice on the turbines even when the aircraft is flying at high
altitude where the temperature is colder than –40°C. Namely, there is no
supercooled liquid water at these high altitudes — only ice crystals in the clouds.
However, sometimes when these aircraft fly through high ice crystal clouds, the
tiny ice crystals melt while flowing into the turbine and then refreeze on the
turbine blades. This causes the engine to develop less power, or in extreme cases
for the engine to stop running.

Types of Ice

Aircraft Icing (3g) 5

 For an aircraft that is flying, most of the ice forms on parts of the aircraft that the
droplet-laden air hits straight on. These include leading edges of wings, horizontal
and vertical stabilizer (in the tail), the nose (front) of the fusalege (aircraft body),
propellor, tires, antennas, and other strutures that stick out into the air (pitot tube,
thermometer, etc.).

There are two main types of ice that form when supercooled water freezes: clear
and rime (white).

Clear ice: Larger raindrops take a second or more to freeze when they hit the
aircraft, allowing some of the water to flow a short distance along the wing
before freezing. Also, droplets in regions of 0 to –5°C air temperature freeze
slowly. This "slow" freezing also allows any trapped air bubbles time to
escape, causing this ice to be relatively clear (or dark) and very hard. It is
difficult to remove this type of ice.

Rime ice: forms when smaller cloud droplets freeze instantly upon hitting the
leading edge of the wind and fuselage (body) of the aircraft. Also, droplets in
regions of –15 to –20°C air temperature freeze faster. This traps air pockets
between the frozen drops, which scatter the sunlight making the ice look white
or milky. Also, this rime is relatively brittle and does not have much strength,
so it can break off easier.

Aircraft Icing (3g) 6

 Also, layers or mixtures of clear and rime ice can form on an aircraft. Mixed ice is
more frequent when the aircraft is flying in clouds where air temperature is –5 to –
15°C.
Frost forms when water vapor (not liquid water) deposits on the aircraft and forms
a "fuzz" of small ice crystals on the aircraft.

How Do PIlots Deal with Ice?

First, IFR pilots (see Learning Goal 1g) do their "homework", checking weather
forecasts and pilot reports to pick a route (or to cancel or delay their flight) to
avoid likely areas of ice, unless their aircraft is certified to handle ice. VFR pilots

Aircraft Icing (3g) 7

 stay out of clouds anyway, so no problem there. But VFR pilots (who normally are
allowed to fly through rain showers if the visibility is good enough) should avoid
flying through rain showers if the air temperature is below freezing at their flight
altitude.
Some of the more expensive general aviation aircraft and almost all commercial
aircraft and airlines have de-icing equipment or anti-icing equipment on the
aircraft. De-icing removes ice that has formed. Anti-icing prevents the ice from
forming.

Some jet aircraft duct some of the hot jet exhaust through the wing leading
edges and other critical areas of the aircraft, to keep them too warm for ice to
form.

Other aircraft have electric heaters embedded in the wings or glued to the
leading edge, but these heaters draw so much electricity that they are not
used on smaller aircraft.

Some aircraft have pneumatic boots glued to the leading edge of the wing
(where ice usually has the greatest accumulation), which can be inflated and
deflated with air to crack off any ice that has formed. You can recognize these
as the black covering on the leading edge of the wing.

Some aircraft carry a special antifreeze or other chemical that can be pumped
onto the propellors or windscreen to disolve the ice.

Almost all carburated aircraft have a control called "Carburator Heat" that can
be activated by the pilot to draw warm air from near the hot engine into the
carburator. This reduces engine power slightly (because hot air is less dense
and has fewer oxygen molecules for the engine to use), but melts or prevents
carburetor ice which would otherwise cause the engine to stop.

Aircraft Icing (3g) 8

 For aircraft that don't have de-icing equipment and accidently find themselves in a
cloud with ice accumulating on the aircraft, three actions are recommended
(assuming the pilot asks and receives the appropriate clearance from air traffic
control):

Fly out of the cloud (laterally or vertically). Namely, make a U-turn to fly out of
the cloud, or climb or descend to clear air above or below the cloud.

Climb to altitudes where there might be warmer air in the cloud (no guarantees
that warmer air exists at higher altitudes)

Descend to altitudes where the air is warmer in the cloud or rain (doesn't work
in winter when the cold air reaches the ground)

But even after you fly out of the cloud, your aircraft still has a load of ice on it. This
will evaporate (sublimate*) very slowly in clear air, even if you are still flying in air
below freezing. However, it could take an hour or more of flight to evaporate all

Aircraft Icing (3g) 9

 the ice. Usually it is easier to change altitude to where the air is warmer so the ice
melts quickly.
Note: * sublimation = direct evaporation without melting first.

Pilot Reports (PIREPS) of Ice

If a pilot experiences ice accumulation on her/his aircraft, the pilot can help other
pilots arriving later by radioing a report of the weather conditions (called a PIREP)
to air traffic controllers or flight service station personnel on the ground. Both the
US and Canada use the same terminology for aircraft icing intensity. Here are the
quotes from the US AIM:

Trace - Ice becomes perceptible. Rate of accumulation slightly greater than

sublimation*. De-icing/anti-icing equipment is not utilized unless encountered
for an extended period of time (over 1 hour).

Light - The rate of accumulation may create a problem if flight is prolonged in

this environment (over 1 hour). Occasional use of deicing/anti-icing equipment
removes/prevents accumulation. It does not present a problem if the
deicing/anti-icing equipment is used.

Moderate - The rate of accumulation is such that even short encounters

become potentially hazardous. Use of deicing/anti-icing equipment or flight
diversion (change your route or destination) is necessary.

Severe - The rate of accumulation is such that deicing/anti-icing equipment

fails to reduce or control the hazard. Immediate flight diversion is necessary.

Ice on the Ground

Sadly, even when the aircraft is parked on the ground, freezing rain can cause ice
to form on the aircraft. This ice forms on all the top surfaces of the aircraft, not on
the leading edge. It adds tremendous weight to the aircraft, and must be removed
before flight. Ways to remove this include spraying with a de-icer (hot antifreeze),
move the aircraft in to a warm hangar, or wait until a sunny day to melt the ice.

Aircraft Icing (3g) 10

 However, these ice storms also coat the runways, taxiways, and parking
ramps/aprons with a layer of ice, making it difficult or impossible to taxi (drive the
aircraft on the ground) and takeoff or land. Also, the roads to the airport might be
ice covered and slippery, so you might not be able to drive to the airport in your
car.
Often on clear nights in air that is humid, frost can form on the top surfaces of the
aircraft wings, fuselage, and empenage (tail). This can be avoided by putting a
cover over the aircraft, or moving the aircraft into a hangar or under a tree. Once
the frost has formed, the pilot can wait a couple hours for the sun to melt and
evaporate the frost, or can try to brush off and rub smooth the frost. Also, the de-
icing fluid (antifreeze) can be sponged, mopped, or sprayed onto the aircraft.

Ice Crystal Icing (ICI)

Normally, ice forms on aircraft when the aircraft flys through LIQUID water that is
below freezing. Also normally, if an aircraft flys through cloud particles that are
already frozen (SOLID snowflakes or ice crystals), these just blow around the
aircraft and don't stick, so they are not a hazard.
Often the intake nacelle of jet engines is intentionally heated by jet exhaust to
prevent LIQUID supercooled water from freezing on it. This works great to
prevent the normal formation of ice, but there is an exception.
When an aircraft flys through an ice-crystal cloud, if conditions are right then the
ice instantly melts when it enters the heated nacelle at the jet-engine inlet, but
then re-freezes on turbine blades in the first part of the engine. Ice can build up
on those turbine blades. This degrades performance of the engine, and can

Aircraft Icing (3g) 11

 damage the engine if chunks of ice break off and shatter the turbine blades
further back in the engine. This phenomenon is called Ice Crystal Icing (ICI).
Although this is a very rare event, it has caused over 150 incidents of power-loss
or engine damage to jet aircraft over the past 20 years. Most reports were when
jet aircraft were flying at high altitude through the ice-crystal tops of tropical
thunderstorms. This is NOT a hazard that most general aviation (light airplane)
pilots would encounter, but it could affect passengers on commercial flights.
Luckily, in most cases when a jet engine is damaged due to ICI, the pilot can
continue flying the aircraft on the other engines to reach the nearest airport for an
emergency (safe) landing.
Key words: supercooled droplets, clear ice, rime ice, mixed ice, frost, de-icing,
anti-icing, ice-crystal icing.

Aircraft Icing (3g) 12