De-icing Procedures

During cold weather, de-icing may be required around the wings and fuselage of the aircraft. In general, de-icing will be performed remotely on Apron E (see picture below). Additionally, PAD North can be used for de-icing north of runway 06L/24R.

In real life, de-icing is available between the 5th of October and the 30th of April. During this period, the following special position may be staffed by S2+ controllers:

Login	Callsign	Frequency
EDDB_ICE_GND	Berlin De-Icing	121.665

General Procedures

Before Start-Up

If de-icing is required, the pilot shall inform the Delivery controller before start-up approval. Additionally, ATC can also ask the pilot if de-icing is required.

Delivery will then assign a de-icing pad and confirm this with the pilot:

EJU43JB, expect de-icing at PAD13, report ready for start-up.

Note: The pilot will not contact the de-icing coordinator for PAD assignment (anymore).

PAD Assignment:

In general, Delivery shall assign a de-icing PAD with a short taxi time from parking position to runway. If the de-icing coordinator (EDDB_ICE_GND) is online, he may inform Delivery which PADs will be in use. In real life, not all PADs will be used at the same time.

All de-icing pads on Apron E can only be used up to Code C. PAD 03 and PAD17 are approved to be used by the following aircraft types: A332, A333, A338, A339, A400, B752, B753, B763, B764, B772, B778, B788, B789, B78X, C130 and IL76. PAD NORTH 1 can be used up to code letter D (max. wingspan < 52 m).

Aircraft not suitable for a de-icing pad need to be de-iced at their parking position.

The de-icing PADs can be displayed via the Ground Radar Plugin map selection window (Functions > Map Selection > Ice/Snow)

The assigned PAD shall be marked in the scratchpad by using "/ICR [PAD]" (e.g. "/ICR PAD13" for remote de-icing at PAD13). If de-icing is performed at the parking position, Delivery shall enter "/ICP" in the scratchpad ("de-icing on position).

Taxi Clearance

Apron North (EDDB_E_GND) will be responsible for all movements on Apron E or Apron 3b. After the aircraft has arrived at the assigned PAD position, Apron shall transfer the aircraft to the de-icing coordinator when online:

EJU43JB, taxi to PAD13 via P2, follow the blue-dashed line, on the PAD contact on second set 121.665"

If no EDDB_ICE_GND is online, Apron should request the pilot to report de-icing completed:

EJU43JB, taxi to PAD13 via P2, follow the blue-dashed line, report de-icing completed and ready for taxi again.

If workload allows, Apron/Tower may also decide to take over de-icing duties on a secondary frequency.

De-Icing Coordinator Duties

The Berlin De-Icing will take over the phraseology tasks usually performed by the de-icing crew. While the pilot will use his simulator add-ons to perform de-icing, the de-icing position on Vatsim will only enhance realism by providing realistic phraseology and holdover times.

Available Fluid Types

At Berlin, fluid type 1 will be used for de-icing and fluid type 4 will be used for anti-icing. Anti-icing will add a protective fluid to the aircraft's fuselage. Anti-icing is only required if new icing could build up after de-icing (snow, freezing rain, fog, low clouds, etc.).

Holdover Times

Holdover time is the timeframe the de-icing and/or anti-icing fluid will protect the aircraft. This will differ depending on the meteorological conditions. The holdover time starts when the de-icing treatment starts. The pilot needs to be informed about his holdover time.

The holdover times can be determined in the tables below:

Expand for Holdover Time Tables

Fluid Type 1 (de-icing):

Fluid Type 4 (anti-icing):

Phraseology Example

Green: only required if using fluid type 4 for anti-icing (if required)

Ice Shredding

To remove ice from the engine's fan blade, a special ice shredding procedure may be applied. This will require the pilot to perform an engine run-up on the runway for up to 40 seconds. The pilot shall request this before line-up clearance. Tower needs to plan the departure sequence accordingly.

A-CDM Procedures

The CDM plugin allows adjustment of the taxi time for aircraft required to taxi to a remote de-icing position. In this case, Delivery should add the de-icing remark to the start-up list column:

P1-9 for de-icing on PAD03, PAD05, PAD07 or PAD09
P11-17 for de-icing on PAD11, PAD13, PAD15 or PAD17
P-N for de-icing on PAD NORTH 1
STND: for aircraft requiring de-icing at their parking position

The DEICE column can be added by clicking on the little "F"

In the de-icing column, the de-icing remark can be added: