***NEW*** Picture of Capatin Doug inside the cab of the "Snowman"
**NEW** This picture of the Vestergaard Elepha nt Beta was sent today by student 'Chris'
Yesterday, I took the Brampton Flight Centre aviation diploma students to the Central Deice Facility at Toronto's Pearson.
It was plus one, so the facility was at idle. So far this year the CDF deiced 9500 aircraft. It's been slow for the CDF but I see Toronto maybe be getting snow on Monday. The day I go back to work. Winter is not over yet.
Here one of the students gets checked out on the deice truck simulator. It's tougher than it looks. Every year each deicer must be re certified just like pilots.
Inside the cab of the Vestergaard Elephant Beta. It has more joysticks than my Airbus.
The orange rod is the "tusk" of the Elephant Beta. As soon as it makes contact with an airplane the truck stops and shuts down. A great safety feature.
Type I fluid (orange) inside the truck's holding tank (6000 litres)
Type IV. It's colour changed to this lime florescent green about two years ago. This anti-icing is similiar to a liquid plastic with a shear speed of 180 knots. Cost, almost $4 Cdn per litre.
4 comments:
Nice post, Doug! Never got a tour of a deice center but did have another awesome tour. When I was in 8th grade, my teacher was a private pilot. A few other guys and I started an Aviation Club at school. One day we went to our local airport (KMDT) for a tour. We saw a maintenance hangar, avionics shop, and got a tour of the control tower and radar facility. At the end of the year, we each got to go up separately for a half-hour or so flight in our teacher's Cessna. Good times.
Tim. I'm willing to bet that had a lasting impression on you. That's why I teach, mentor, blog, and write. I try to convey aviation. When I was growing up I had no one to ask questions.(I know, a sad story) Heck we didn't even have an aviation college on the east coast of Canada. Because of it, I'm willing to answer questions on aviation to anyone interested. Thanks for post.
Hello from the Big Apple Doug...
Looks like de-ice will be used tomorrow - Metar looks quite wintry for CYYZ.
You are a credit to the profesion Doug. No question. Heck, even my checker knows about you...
After return to EGLL tomorrow morning, I will post all about the fun of the check ride - no APU, weight balance queries,pax reporting smell of smoke (burned panini), Montreal Centre playing up and a changed approach twice courtesy of JFK (did they know I was being checked out I wonder)?
Anyway, great post on the de-ice machines. I've always wanted to drive one, as well as fire frozen chickens at windscreens at Boeing!
Regards, Ian
Ian. Sounds like you are having fun...NOT. I took a quick look at the TAF for CYYZ. The snow doesn't start until 1500z. I depart for Montreal/Halifax at 1200z so I miss the fun.I have a 5:45 a.m local check in.
A B.A checker knows of me? Wow. I wish I had more clout on this end. My eldest daughter, who is first year engineering, decided she would try the enmasse interview Air Canada was hosting for
part time summer/full time flight attendant positions. We arrived at the Toronto downtown hotel today only to see a line up wrapping around the lobby, up the stairs to two full waiting rooms.I was kind of proud to see so many people interested in flying for Air Canada.
Five hours later, my daughter had another three hours to go. Captain Doug aborted the mission.
I was embarrassed. No food or drink was offered and this was all for a ten minute interview. I'll be looking for contact emails in the next few days to voice an opinion. But not that loud, I'd hate to see my blog shut down. :)
I guess it was similar to the CYHZ storm causing a six hour delay on Wednesday. We pilots like efficiency. I sure didn't see it today.
Talk to you when you return from your route check. I can feel the tension from here. :)
A 4:00 a.m wake up comes early. The only glitch is...the Canada and the U.S men's hockey game is on.
Doug
Post a Comment