Over the air I sound like a cross between Woody Allen and Steve Urkel so I am forced to use a "radio voice," which comes out sounding somewhat like Groucho Marx. Go figure.

Completely agree!

Some posts from new members are on "auot hold" until a mod sees and releases them. Some algorithm.


They *might* have had frost from the night before. Or dew that looked like frost (if it's a NB or bigger I'm not going to get a ladder and crawl around the top of the wing doing a tactile check). Keep in mind that a cell-phone pic of something that looks like frost could generate media interest and an annoying company/FAA investigation... got to respect the optics these days.

Or they might have been padding their block time, that's an old trick if the company is screwing over labor. Or they might have been just trying to stick it to the man (de-ice ain't cheap... ).

Ever heard of cold fuel frost? If they had a long trip and had super cooled fuel in the tank it could form frost on the upper surface of the wing. Then, if their gate was in the shade the frost may not have had time to melt thus resulting in the need to deice.

Once you make that decision, the entire aircraft needs to be deiced. You could argue that the tail didn't need deicing, but that Captain was most likely exercising his authority to make the most conservative decision. I had a buddy that this happened to in Denver on a blue sky day with the temperature in the 40s as well.

The MD-80 had this problem until they put the upper wing heater blankets on the airplanes.

A couple lines of black paint "fixed" cold soaked fuel frost on the 737 :)

Exactly. It's a common theme these days though, people who think they know everything about every situation and are lightning quick to judge.

The MD80 issue was usually solved by running outside to the fuel panel right when you blocked and getting the cold wing fuel transferred into the center tank before the fueler showed up. A PITA...or you could just deice.

Also, even in this situation, if an airplane needs deicing, one is best served by letting the deicer decide what to spray. Limiting the surfaces that they can deice puts needless liability squarely on you.

At least some airlines specify that it all needs to get sprayed, pilots and de-ice crew have no discretion.

Perhaps they had ice on the aircraft. It’s not unusual at all to need to spray a aircraft in 48 degree temps. Lots of reasons for that including cold soaked fuel in wings or horizontal stabs. Deiced a A330 once with the temp near 60. Cold soaked fuel!

And there you have it folks... another unsolicited opinion form the company’s turd hearse driver,:mad whose inexperience clearly shines.

He may have a point after all.

I’ve never seen wing ice in Las Vegas or any climate that wasn’t humid. If it was raining that day maybe. Unsure what the weather was.

Even so unless SOPs forced me to I wouldn’t deice the tail too.

So it could be a crew that did the wrong thing or the right thing. Not enough info to blame either party IMO.