Weather Hazards

 Aircraft Icing 

    Icing can be one of the most dangerous things affecting an aircraft. Icing can adhere to any part of the aircraft adding undesirable weight. Icing adds a lot of drag, weight, and if encountered on the wings, it can reduce lift exponentially. Icing can be encountered both in the air and on the ground. In the air, icing can be found anywhere up to a temperature of approximately 10 degrees Celsius, and in visible moisture (rain, cloud, fog, etc). On the ground, in cold areas, snow can adhere to the aircraft and needs to be removed before flight.
    There are many ways and forms of icing that can be present on an airplane. We have Structural, Instrument and Induced types of icing. Structural icing refers to all icing that is found on all the outside parts of the aircraft, like wings, fuselage, etc. Instrument icing refers to the icing that forms on the instrument systems such as the pitot-static system, and induced icing is form on the engines air intake, for example, the most known type of induced icing is carburetor icing.
    When talking about structural icing we encounter with three different types of icing. We have clear, rime and mixed icing. The three of them vary in shape and form, but they all have some things in common. This is that they all add weight and drag to the aircraft, but the most dangerous and common thing they have is that if encounter on the wings, they reduce lift significantly. 
    Instrument icing affect instruments such as the airspeed indicator, altimeters or vertical speed indicators. It could potentially be a very dangerous scenario if one of these instruments fail, since pilots rely on this instrument a lot.
Finally, induced icing, as said before, is the type of icing that forms on the air intake of the engine, and for example on the carburetor it has been proved that even with temperatures up to 10 degrees Celsius, ice can form on the carburetor. This is because in the carburetor the temperature of the air drops significantly and creates the an opportunity for ice to form, and potentially give the way to an engine failure.
There are many ways to combat icing on an aircraft, both with anti-icing or de-icing systems equipped on aircraft. Nevertheless, icing is very dangerous and could hit you by surprise if you are unexperienced with it.











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