The FAA last week published its de-icing holdover time (HOT) guidance for the upcoming 2015-2016 winter season. The document is designed to work in conjunction with the agency’s Revised FAA-Approved Deicing Program Updates Winter 2015-2016. There are no changes to the guidelines for active frost or Type I fluids. Type II fluids have been updated, however, with HOT guidelines for two new fluids—Kilfrost ABC-Ice Clear II and Newave Aerochemical FCY Bio+. There are now six changes to Type II HOT, including increases/decreases of up to five minutes, for some Type II fluids.
For Type III, HOT guidelines have been added that are specific to the fluid, application temperature and aircraft rotation speed profile. Fluid-specific HOT guidelines have also been created for a new Type IV fluid, Deicing Solutions Eco-Shield. Most of the LNT Solutions E450 snow HOT have been increased as a result of recent supplemental testing. For the 2015-2016 winter season the HOT and allowances published last year related to the accelerated degradation of fluids on flaps/slats in the takeoff configuration, including a 90-percent adjustment, remain unchanged for this season.
No holdover times exist for heavy-snow conditions in any of the current HOT tables.