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Author Topic: KSAT turns into an ice rink  (Read 22058 times)

Offline toeknee25

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KSAT turns into an ice rink
« on: February 05, 2011, 07:31:24 PM »
During this past snow/ice storm that hit Texas this past week I tuned into my KSAT feed to see how they were handling it over here. Thursday night going into Friday it was projected that San Antonio would get ice and possibly even snow. Well the snow finally came around 2am CST but before that we did get freezing rain. Enough to shut down the entire city.

This clip is rather long (~18min) but its all relevant in diverting and helping some a/c down. Inbound are a couple 737s (3 WNs and 1 CO) and a King Air. 

It takes the first WN 737 that lands about 30 min just to get back to the gate after it lands. Later on I believe another WN and a OO (skywest) CRJ land but like the prior WN have to tippy toe on the taxiways and finally have to get tugged in. I believe it took both of those a/c about an hour to get back to the gate after landing. It was soo iced over that the tugs couldn't move them and I believe they had to come and deice in front of the tugs to get the planes in.

Not in the clip (which happened after) the twr/grd controller mentions that they ran out of deicing fluid and pretty much just throw in the towel for the night. The airport finally opened up later the next day around 5am or so using the light snow fall for traction.




Offline ridejumpfly

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Re: KSAT turns into an ice rink
« Reply #2 on: February 06, 2011, 01:25:03 AM »
Wow, that lifeguard freaked me out..  "Stand by one in a stall..standby" ATC- are you able to do the approach ..?" "Nope we're in a stall right now"...  IMC, Ice, Stall...  no bueno.

Offline toeknee25

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Re: KSAT turns into an ice rink
« Reply #3 on: February 06, 2011, 01:32:16 AM »
Yup I seriously thought we were gonna have problems there. After I followed the 3 diverts to AUS, they too had a aircraft experience heavy icing. I'll try to find that recording also but the controller pretty much had to talk the pilot down.

Offline rekno13

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Re: KSAT turns into an ice rink
« Reply #4 on: February 06, 2011, 02:09:14 PM »
Wow, great catch. That's some high drama.

Offline Fred_Garvin

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Re: KSAT turns into an ice rink
« Reply #5 on: February 06, 2011, 02:28:44 PM »
Great clip with lots of drama!

UPS seems unimpressed by it all :-)




alltheway

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Re: KSAT turns into an ice rink
« Reply #6 on: February 07, 2011, 06:58:40 AM »
Wow, that Kingair pilot is one of a lucky guy! How many pilots have not made it in such icing conditions?!

Offline toeknee25

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Re: KSAT turns into an ice rink
« Reply #7 on: February 07, 2011, 12:44:08 PM »
Troubles for the King Air didnt end on the ground either. Turns out that Customs just up and left, even though they knew he was coming in (IFR plan, etc.) After he gingerly taxied to the customs gate he had to sit there for another hour or so until he was cleared. He kept lobbying to have the patient/passenger he had with him leave. I'm sure both needed a change of underpants though.

Offline rekno13

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Re: KSAT turns into an ice rink
« Reply #8 on: February 08, 2011, 01:35:11 AM »
Coast Guard needs to clear customs?

alltheway

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Re: KSAT turns into an ice rink
« Reply #9 on: February 08, 2011, 06:10:30 AM »
Coast Guard needs to clear customs?

It's lifeguard, it stands for something different I think, a medical flight or so and I can imagine the pilot needed to share his story about his stall event and I can imagine customs did a supporting job to see if the pilot wasn't freaked out too much...

Found this on the web : Lifeguard flights are for missions of an urgent medical nature and the call sign is utilized when a flight requires expeditious handling.....

(Source: Flightaware.com)
« Last Edit: February 08, 2011, 06:24:40 AM by alltheway »

Offline Dan CZQM

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Re: KSAT turns into an ice rink
« Reply #10 on: February 11, 2011, 03:35:52 PM »
Very nice capture.  Definitely lots of action.  You came close to capturing an accident as well.

Also thanks for the flightaware tracks.  Always enjoy looking at those along with the audio.

Dan

alltheway

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Re: KSAT turns into an ice rink
« Reply #11 on: February 11, 2011, 04:50:25 PM »
You came close to capturing an accident as well.


Hmmmm, you could call it: "top of fear", it wasn't close, but reeeeeaaly close....
Like top of descent

Well anyways  After a close look at the flighttrack the pilot did some left turn work here, which leads me to this story.... http://www.pilotsofamerica.com/forum/showthread.php?t=23318
« Last Edit: February 11, 2011, 04:55:48 PM by alltheway »

Offline toeknee25

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Re: KSAT turns into an ice rink
« Reply #12 on: February 11, 2011, 04:57:54 PM »
The one up in Austin was a hell of a lot closer, but that was mostly the pilot's fault in not wanting to come in to a good airport. Instead he tried a field west of Austin then Georgetown then he was asking about going to Galveston or Corpus... FINALLY he was vectored into 35L at Austin. Had to be talked down because his windshield was completely covered in ice.
Once he landed you could heard the fear in the pilot's voice, he thanked the controller but it rolled off his back. Couple of the ground crew also said good job to the controller but he just said he was just doing his job, or something to that effect.

I tried to get that clip but its spread out across 2 hours of clips, i'd have to do some major splicing/trimming

alltheway

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Re: KSAT turns into an ice rink
« Reply #13 on: February 11, 2011, 05:08:16 PM »
The one up in Austin was a hell of a lot closer

Maybe a little early for me to comment on this one, but first of all if the windshield is covered the wing anti-ice still might work instead of the windowheater and secondly one must realize how long a second is for (for example) a cessna and a kingair turboprop, makes a whole difference to me....

In the mean time I'll be waiting for your audio..  :lol:

Offline toeknee25

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Re: KSAT turns into an ice rink
« Reply #14 on: February 11, 2011, 05:16:35 PM »

alltheway

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Re: KSAT turns into an ice rink
« Reply #15 on: February 16, 2011, 01:56:05 PM »
 :-) So no comments anymore huh? Well let's boost this discussion a bit....

As I see 1CW (Kingair) go, he noticed his left wing went low (ice build-up), he tried to correct for it by right rudder, but drifted off to the right, then he came in a stall and did a steep left turn and shallowed out, setting the rudder trim to about 2 degrees to the right the left wing stayed down about 2 degrees, causing a constant left turn.

Just before he turned left again (or in the second left turn) he reduced the overpowered propeller, by reducing the prop rpm.
Later on on approach to the runway you see he did a level straight line for a while (about 4 nm) by applying right aileron and started his descent...

Well with the audio we heard he only mentioned he was in a stall and that is near fatal.....

As for the Bonanza guy... He (him self) might have freaked out more, but in this case the kingair in a stall is more of freaking out to me, because you can allways look sideways and figure out if you're level or not, with the windshield covered in ice the wings were just fine when looking at the image of his flight path... and he didn't wanted to land on a normal runway with the help of a controller it might even be a hoax..... or maybe turn on the carburetor heat (carbheat) to prevent the engine to cool down to fast...

So, put your comments.... let's talk  :evil:
« Last Edit: February 16, 2011, 02:53:46 PM by alltheway »