Whaddaya Mean No F%&g Ice!!!

If you flown much, then you’ve encountered airframe ice. Everyone does at some time in their flying careers. Some of us more than once. While those who fly jets, either as corporate, airline or military pilots, airframe icing is something one can quickly climb above. However, those of us who fly piston engined airplanes and helicopters, airframe ice can  a real problem.

Back when this story takes place in the late 1950s, weather forecasting wasn’t as accurate as it is today. We didn’t have satellites that could photograph the earth so we could track warm and cold fronts, hurricanes and typhoons.

This is another one of those stories from my father’s aviation career. We were living in St. John, Newfoundland which is on the east coast of the island. As I would find out later in my flying career, the meteorological conditions conducive to airframe ice forming are prevalent for about half the year.

I’m willing to bet that many of us have similar icing stories, but this is one I witnessed at age 11ish.

Here’s the link to the ANA Grandpaw Pettibone site where the story was first published. http://gpsana.org/?p=2755