Question for Caravan Pilots

[StandingBy]

Greetings,

I have a question for the Caravan pilots out there regarding an icing encounter I had recently. Since I don't know many Caravan pilots, I thought I'd roll the dice and put it on Avcanada! My hope is that someone will see this that has had a similar experience, and maybe even shed light on the matter, and I can avoid starting a debate on the Caravan's limitations in ice, how to fly in ice, what a tailplane stall is, my abilities as a pilot, etc. Any relevant info is appreciated.
I was flying an instrument approach after having stayed above a layer of cloud as long as practical before starting down, to minimize time spent in ice. Once in cloud I started to take on ice as advertised, a fair amount but not enough to be concerned about as long as one wasn't going to hang around in it for long. When the time came to select flaps, on the way from 0 to 10 degrees, slight buffeting began. I stopped the flap extension and raised the flaps until the buffeting stopped, which left me with around 5 degrees out. I completed the approach with that flap setting without any other issues.
After landing, I walked around the aircraft to see if I could spot an obvious cause. The boots on the tailplane had been working and shedding ice in their normal half-assed manner. There was nothing hanging off of the aircraft that could have caused a disturbance of airflow. The wing struts, however, on which the boots do an even less half-assed job of shedding ice than the rest of the aircraft, had ice formations in the pics I attached. Much of this ice was not being removed by operating the strut's boots.
The only explanation I could come up with was that this ice on the struts was disturbing airflow enough to cause buffeting in the tail once flaps were selected, or perhaps that disturbed air ended up causing buffeting in the flaps. These formations didn't appear on the wings and tail, which did not have an unusual amount of ice on them. I was hand-flying the approach and didn't notice any change in flight characteristics. Hopefully my explanation and pics make sense! Thanks in advance for the constructive input.


Adam

[SuperchargedRS]

It's a van, not exactly a ice master.

It's also slow, unless you going into a itty bitty strip, leave the flaps alone.

Also good to keep a eye on your elevator trim, if it's getting maxed out, things are not happy back there.

That lower pic does look pretty bad if you have the boots on.
Keeping them nice and slick with whatever rub on treatment your company stocks for you is a good idea.

[schnitzel2k3]

Agreed with Supercharged - keep the flaps up, increase ref.

I don't know your experience or profile but increase your flight planning time, and find an altitude that has limited icing - even if it means going to 10k or above. Lots of great free resources online.

The longer you're out of icing in a Van, the less likely you'll become a statistic.

Stay safe man and consider new employment lol.

S.

[co-joe]

The best stuff I have used on de ice boots is called Davies. Its thick and required a lot of elbow grease to spread around. It's rather expensive. It only lasts a few days and you have to reapply it. Have used Ice X and a few other products, I've found Davies to be the best.

[StandingBy]

I'm familiar with the Caravan's limitations, and I am quire happy with my current employment situation thanks. We take good care of the boots, and on this particular flight elevator trim was not an issue. Like I said, if you've had a similar experience to the one I described I'd be interested in hearing about it.

[StandingBy]

'Lots of great free resources online'

I did look around a bit for mention of buffeting in Caravan's and such, with no luck, aside from the TSB reports of past Caravan accidents that I'd already seen.

[schnitzel2k3]

There are two types of major buffets you get in a Caravan - one comes from icing on the prop (prop imbalance) - increasing and decreasing the prop speed with prop heat on will generally shed the ice.

The second is the onset of a stall - aggravated by uneven icing on the wing or tailplane.

I have seen first one, never the second. I would hope you'd be able to recognize one from the other. My suggestion for free resources was in reference to flight planning - not searching for 'caravan buffet'.

Call your instructor from flight safety, or your senior pilot or your chief. Lots of resources beyond us random Caravan pilots from Avcanada.

Good luck.

S.

[dogfood]

Agreed with Supercharged - keep the flaps up, increase ref.

I don't know your experience or profile but increase your flight planning time, and find an altitude that has limited icing - even if it means going to 10k or above. Lots of great free resources online.

The longer you're out of icing in a Van, the less likely you'll become a statistic.

Stay safe man and consider new employment lol.

S.

10k in a van all the chips will pop then

[schnitzel2k3]

Good point - too much haulin' cargo for me.

If stuff popped - I didn't know about it.

I did take some lobsters up to 15k once. Thought it was the gentle way to go. ☠

S.

[StandingBy]

Definitely not from the prop, Schnitzel. Thank for the input; of all the stuff out there about Caravans and icing, I'd never come across this one, so I was curious. Just putting it out on Avcanada for the heck of it.