Each winter season in Earth’s northern hemisphere creates linked challenges for aviation-focused meteorologists and an SAE committee of expert international stakeholders.1 The committee’s pre-season fluids testing, performance validation and technical guidance enable the publication of new aircraft ground deicing/anti-icing holdover time (HOT) tables and allowance times. The season’s updated technical standards are reviewed by the Association of European Airlines (AEA), the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and Transport Canada (TC), the principal entities that in turn develop authoritative derivative documents for the industry.
Their documents underscore the addition of newly approved fluids, the removal of obsolete fluids, changes in approved water dilutions and the effect, if any, of such changes on generic HOT table values. Most airport service providers and regional airlines in Europe, for example, have preferred deicing/anti-icing systems combining relatively low …
