In the northern hemisphere, it’s that time of year again, when clouds are full of ice and it’s time to dust off those icing training manuals and relearn the pertinent points about handling icing conditions.

Fortunately, with the growth of the Internet as a training medium, the options available to pilots for learning about icing have multiplied. There are now many icing courses available online, and one of the best and most comprehensive–developed by NASA–is free.

As always, the manufacturer’s flight manual remains the final authority on how to handle icing encounters.

Following is a brief summary of the online icing training that is currently available.

Cessna Caravan
Cessna launched its Caravan-specific “Online Safety Awareness Seminars for Caravan Operators” last year. Cessna instructors also teach the same cold-weather course in various locations. The on-site course is free, while the online class costs $50.

Both classes meet a new requirement in Cessna Caravan Known Icing Equipment Supplement S1, which mandates that pilots complete Cessna’s flight-into-known-icing training within the previous 12 months before flying into known or forecast icing conditions.

For more information, see www.cessnaelearning.com.

FlightSafety International
FlightSafety just added a new Cold Weather Operations Course to its eLearning Specialty Training Library. The eLearning courses are available online and cover a variety of topics in short courses that are easy to take during layovers or office duty times.

The Cold Weather Operations Course takes about two hours and focuses on ground and in-flight icing issues, deicing procedures, anti-icing and cold weather operational considerations.

The course also includes many examples of icing-related accidents and tests to check student progress. Organizations that sign up for eLearning packages can also sign up for the company’s learning-management system to track classes taken and flag recurrent training requirements.

FlightSafety’s Specialty Training Library eLearning courses are available as part of training packages, or priced individually for those who are interested in taking specific courses but aren’t enrolled in regular FlightSafety training programs. The Cold Weather course, normally $250, is available until early next year at an introductory price of $200.

FlightSafety is adding more eLearning courses on other subjects, and the full package of Specialty Training Library courses will be available for a flat rate of $700 a year for the named user. For flight departments, a training package is available to cover multiple users.

For more information, see www.flightsafety.com/elearning.php.

iviation
A variety of i-Learn courses– including Aircraft Icing, Severe Weather Avoidance and Wind Shear–is available from iviation. Each course costs $30, although iviation offers discounts for flight departments that want to purchase multiple courses.

The iviation courses also include the company’s learning management system, which keeps track of training accomplished and sends alerts when recurrent training is due.
Training taken elsewhere can be added to the system for tracking purposes.
For more information, see www.iviation.com

NASA Training
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration has developed two icing courses, “A Pilot’s Guide to Ground Icing” and “A Pilot’s Guide to In-flight Icing.” Both courses are free and include comprehensive use of the online medium to illustrate the subject, with videos, animated graphics and detailed material based on NASA’s extensive research on icing.

For more information on the NASA course, see http://aircrafticing.grc.nasa.gov/courses.html.