Are you Legal?

Abstract

If you shell out thousands of dollars for deicing equipment – whether on a new airplane or retrofit-ted to an existing older aircraft – you should rea-sonably expect your investment to see you safely through icy clouds or other freezing precipitation, right? Perhaps, but not necessarily. Most deicing sys-tems offered on new light general aviation (GA) airplanes are not certificated for flight in icing conditions. No, you didn't misread that: Several deicing systems installed on new light GA aircraft do not allow legal launches into icy skies. The same is true of many deicing or anti-icing systems retrofitted to existing aircraft. It's natural to think that having a deicing system means you can routinely tackle all but the most severe icing conditions. But unless your particular airplane model and system has gone through all the rigorous testing and been certificated for flight in icing conditions, there's no guarantee. And, systems not certificated for flight in icing condi-tions do not make it legal for you to take off into icing conditions. Though many pilots are unaware of it, there are two main varieties of deicing systems available today for light GA aircraft: FAA certificated sys-tems for flight in icing conditions and so-called " non-hazard " systems that are meant simply to buy time for a pilot to escape from unexpected icing conditions. Many of the systems installed on new light GA aircraft today are the latter, which some pilots erroneously believe allow them a legal takeoff into icing conditions.