Safety
De-icing: Forced-air de-ice likely coming soon to bizav
As airports across the U.S.

As airports across the U.S. wage their annual struggle against winter weather, business aviation operators may soon find themselves familiar with a new de-icing method. Forced-air de-icers, which use high-volume, low-pressure air to help strip contamination from flying surfaces, have been used to augment the effect of glycol on airliners at major airports for years, but the business aircraft community has been slow to embrace them.

“It’s limited primarily because of the cost of the system. It’s quite a significant outlay in the AirPlus system,” said Jeffrey Walsh, vice president for sales and service at Global Ground Support. “When combined with an enclosed cab it can add as much as $55,000 to the cost of a de-icer, and it’s difficult for FBOs or small regional airports to recoup that cost in a couple of seasons because they spray so few airplanes.”

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