From the time I had my first job at Allis-Chalmers in Milwaukee, flying was part of my work career. It started with commercial flights and evolved into private Lear jets capable of flying into smaller local airports. There has always been a glamour to flying. Originally it was for people in business and the more affluent members of society. It has evolved into trips to Florida for $79. Of course the chickens and other poultry go in the top luggage racks.
So I've flown a lot! I do not like to fly. If man were meant to fly, God would have given him wings. I am not alone. John Madden, the sports announcer travels only by bus. Charlie Sheen the actor will fly but observes that when a car fails, you pull to the side of a road. If a plane fails, it falls straight down at 500 miles per hour.
This week a plane crashed on approach to Buffalo, N.Y. They will never know exactly what happened but ice build up on the wings appears to haved played a major role. Ice is not a friend to aircraft.
I recall two personal ice situations. The first was in Washington D.C. I was there for business and was to fly home from Washington National Airport. Temperatures were in the low 30's. Several weeks earlier, a plane flying out of Washington National crashed because of ice build up on the wings. Ice had prevented the plane from gaining altitude from the notoriously short runways at "National". I remember sitting in the airport terminal looking at the commercial jet outside as they "hosed" deicing liquid on the wings to remove ice getting it ready for flight and thinking "what am I doing here"? We did have a flight delay but flew home uneventfully.
The second ice memory was when I was in Sheboygan, my boss had a twin engine Beech Baron that he owned personally. He liked to fly his personal plane to River Falls, Wis. where we had an "insulated panel business". On a February day we flew into a local airport near our River Falls plant. On the return trip from River Falls on a bright star lit night, my boss says "I think we've got a problem". I was sitting in the co-pilot seat next to him and of course my response was "what do you mean we have a problem"? He explained that we were getting ice build up on the wings and it was slowing the plane significantly and if we didn't get rid of some ice, we'd have to "put the aircraft down". What the hell did that mean, put it down? I found out one solution was to drop the plane down to a lower altitude which would drop temperatures (it gets very cold up high) and maybe ice would stop forming. He handed me a high tech tool called a flash light and told me to shine it out on the wing. If I noticed a change in the build-up of ice I should let him know. I know he was playing with my "head" because he already could see the wings on this clear night. The rest is history. He dropped down in altitude, the ice began to dissipate and my kids still had their father. The experience did nothing to make me feel better about flying.
The lesson Grasshoppers is that fear rules many things we do. The statistical chances that an aircraft is going to crash are infinitesimal. It is actually a very safe mode of transportation. I will fly! I don't have to like it. I know ice could build up on the wings!
Stay warm.
Love,
Dad