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#12 Helicopter Check Ride Ground School Aircraft Icing

1,266 views · Published 30 June 2015 · 8:49 · Indexed 12 November 2026

Channel: Helicopter Online Ground School LLC · 2015 · Education

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Chapter 12 Helicopter Icing from Helicopter Check Ride
I want to give you a few examples of things I have seen over the years. The first thing one was when I was a younger pilot, a newer pilot, and we were going on a news call. They were calling for possible icing conditions later in the day. Thinking back now, I know what a stupid move I made. We get a call to go south of the city where I was flying. I am looking at the weather and thinking, “Well the icing isn’t for several hours yet. This is an accident, we will go out and shoot this accident, and we will get back in plenty of time before these icing conditions start.”
     We are pulling the helicopter out and the line guy who was fueling us was also a camera operator. He had been flying for years in the helicopter, so he had a good sense of what goes on around the airport, especially with flights and different things involving aircraft. When we were pulling the helicopter out he looks at the sky, looks at me and we felt like a sprinkle or two. As he gives me a strange look, and I say, “Yeah I know, icing is not supposed to happen until later.”

     Hindsight being 20/20, I should have never even left. Being a young pilot, and kind of cocky I guess, I decided I could get out there and if we start to get into something, I can just turn around and come back.
     We take off, we get flying to the south and the cloud layer starts coming down, the visibility is coming down, and there is some rain on the window. It does not take long before I figure out those raindrops are not moving up the windshield. Quickly I realize that it has turned into ice. 
I turned around and started heading back home. However, before we can get back it gets bad enough that I can barely see out the front windshield. We get over a big field and I make some right-hand circles so I can look out the side window and I land. We try to decide what to do, we scraped the window clean, and there was a little airport like a mile or two away. We decided to hop on over to this airport and just make sure we were not using excessive power. Again, being cocky, I should have just stayed in the field. We made it over to this little airport and the aircraft ends up sitting outside for 3 days. Everybody was fine. We did not get hurt. Nothing bad happened, but then there is the embarrassment of people asking, "Well why did you go out anyway? You knew there was icing forecast for later in the day."
The Three Types of Icing
     At some point the Examiner is probably going to ask, "What are some forms of icing?" or "What are the three main types of icing?”
     These are Rime, Clear and Mixed. In a Helicopter, do we want to fly in icing conditions? No! Do you even want to go when they are forecasting icing? No! In a Helicopter, you want to stay so clear of icing it is not even funny. Any time that you are near freezing, and it is just a few degrees above or below the freezing level, you had better be extremely careful, especially if there is moisture in the air.
     Recapping, the Three Types of Icing, when the Examiner asks you, Rime, Clear and Mixed. Commit those to memory. 
Chapter 12 Helicopter Icing from Helicopter Check Ride

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