De-icing centre.

English: De-icing centre.

French: Centre de dégivrage.

Continuing our short lesson on aircraft de-icing, know that most airports in the world that deal with winter weather conditions will also have de-icing facilities. Most certainly, any commercial airport in Canada would have these facilities, given our winters here. Each airport can decide how to run its own de-icing operations. Smaller airports may let the de-icing truck come and spray the airplane right at the gate before it even leaves the gate for the runway. Larger airports might have a “de-icing centre”, sometimes known as a “central de-icing facility” (Your pilots might refer to this as the CDF), requiring all airplanes to push back from the gate, taxi over to the de-icing centre and wait in line for de-icing there. Many de-icing trucks may be operating at the de-icing centre, processing multiple planes at once.

Centre (m)=Centre

De=Of

Dégivrage (m)=De-icing

Centre de dégivrage=De-icing centre.

Occasionally, you’ll also hear both in French and in English “la baie de dégivrage” “the de-icing bay”.

As mentioned previously, de-icing is the process by which the snow, frost and/or ice is removed from the wings and critical surfaces. Anti-icing is done to prevent new snow, frost and/or ice from forming, namely while de-icing is done when precipitation is still coming down and sticking to the wings and critical surfaces.

De-icing fluid is usually sprayed onto the aircraft. It’s usually orange in colour and you’ll often hear your pilots refer to it as “Type-I” (Type one) fluid. Anti-icing fluid is usually sprayed on afterwards, if necessary. It’s usually green in colour and you’ll hear your pilots refer to it as “Type IV” (Type four) fluid. These fluids have a “holdover time”, meaning that the fluid is only effective for a certain period of time after it is applied. If the airplane does not take off before that time has elapsed (because of unexpectedly long wait times for take-off, for example), the fluid is no longer effective and the plane likely needs to be de-iced again.

The time each airplane spends de-icing depends on how much snow/frost/ice there is to remove, how hard it is to remove, and if anti-icing needs to be done afterwards. During conditions where de-icing is necessary, if the number of planes trying to take off far exceeds what the de-icing centre can handle, then this is one reason why weather and de-icing might cause flight cancellations. Wait times just to get to the de-icing centre can reach an hour or two or more when weather conditions are bad and each plane takes much longer than usual to de-ice. The pilots need to plan to take enough fuel, as even idling on the ground, waiting in line for de-icing, will burn large amounts of fuel. Of course, the pilots need to make sure that after all that waiting for de-icing, your plane still has enough fuel left to fly to its destination. If not, you’re going to need to return to the gate again to get refueled, by which time the holdover time will have expired and you’ll need to get de-iced again. What a headache the weather and de-icing can be for everyone! However, knowing the reasoning behind this important process will help you and your passengers understand the situation better.

The French taught in our Canadian French for Flight Attendants audio course derives directly from real-life flight attendant situations such as de-icing, mechanical issues, flight diversions, and much more.

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Want to learn to speak the French you need to work as a flight attendant? Learn even more with Canadian French for Flight Attendants.

Special pre-launch price or Module 1 (French basics) and Module 2 (French for flight attendant French tests).

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Happy August long weekend. I'm in Ottawa again visiting this weekend and I'm reminded of one of my favourite restaurants in the Byward Market in downtown Ottawa. They served delicious Chinese hand-pulled noodles in soup. Unfortunately, a few months ago, there was a fire a few doors down, and this restaurant as well was damaged in the fire. The restaurant is called "Le Mien" and this picture was taken the last time I took a flight attendant colleague there on a layover before the fire. We both loved it. I'm eagerly waiting for them to re-open.

In French, "le mien" means "mine" (referring to masculine nouns). Le téléphone? C'est le mien. The telephone? It's mine.

In English, it doesn't really mean anything.

It's derived from Chinese "la mian" meaning "pulled noodles".

Why de-ice?

English: Why de-ice?

French: Pourquoi dégivrer?

Let’s put aside French for a few posts and talk about why airplanes get de-iced. During flight attendant training, de-icing is covered briefly, and you may not be told anything beyond just “the snow needs to be removed from the wings before take-off.”

Many passengers have flown enough to know that snow needs to be removed from the wings before take-off, but many others don’t know, especially if they don’t fly often, or if they aren’t used to flying in cold climates. As a flight attendant as well, it’ll be very useful to know the reasoning behind de-icing. During long de-icing delays or even cancellations, passengers will inevitably become curious about why we need to de-ice, why it’s taking so long to de-ice, or why their flight was cancelled because of the weather.

As mentioned in the previous post, de-icing is done to remove any snow/ice/frost from the wings and critical surfaces of the airplane. Remember that airplanes fly when air flows below and above the wings. It is the very shape of the wings that creates a speed difference between the air that flows above the wing and the air below the wings. This difference of speed causes a difference in air pressure below and above the wing, which creates lift and allows the airplane to fly. When snow/frost/ice sticks (known as “surface contaminants”) to the wings, this changes the shape of the wings and disrupts air flow, thereby reducing lift and increasing drag. If lift is reduced enough when the plane tries to take off, the consequences can be catastrophic. (For a real-life example, see Air Ontario flight 1363 on 10 March 1989).

When these surface contaminants stick to other critical surfaces of the plane (surfaces that are essential to the airplane's function), such as the flaps, the tail, the rudder, etc., it could also disrupt the air flow there, interfering with the airplane’s ability to turn, bank, roll, change attitude, etc.

When flights get delayed because of winter weather conditions, passengers (and flight attendants as well) can get understandably impatient and frustrated. But knowing the reasoning behind de-icing helps to put things into perspective, ensuring we all understand how crucial it is to flight safety.

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Want to learn to speak the French you need to work as a flight attendant? Learn even more with Canadian French for Flight Attendants.

Special pre-launch price or Module 1 (French basics) and Module 2 (French for flight attendant French tests).

www.facebook.com/frenchforflightattendants

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Seoul, May 2019. Séoul, mai 2019. Finishing off my trip to Korea, back at Incheon Airport (ICN), ready to fly home. I was just standing around on the departures level and this little robot crept up behind me and asked me if I needed help, scaring the daylights out of me. AIRSTAR is the robot's name and it wanders the airport, helping passengers with directions.

To de-ice. De-icing. Anti-icing.

English: To de-ice. De-icing. Anti-icing.

French: Dégivrer. Dégivrage. Antigivrage.

Speaking of weather, let’s focus on one very important aspect of aviation. When the weather is cold, an airplane often needs to be de-iced before take-off in order to remove any snow, frost, or ice that’s sticking to the wings or other critical surfaces of the aircraft.

If you’ve ever flown (even as a passenger) during the winter months, especially in Canada, your aircraft probably had to get de-iced before take-off. As a flight attendant in Canada, de-icing is something you’ll regularly come across flying in the winter months. Even when surface temperatures are well above zero, de-icing may sometimes still be necessary if the plane accumulated ice and frost on its wings from its previous flight. Flying at higher altitudes, the temperature is much colder and moisture may have frozen to the wings.

De-icing is the process by which the snow, frost and/or ice is removed from the wings and critical surfaces. Anti-icing is done to prevent new snow, frost and/or ice from forming, namely while de-icing is done when precipitation is still coming down and sticking to the wings and critical surfaces.

In French, we have:

To de-ice=Dégivrer

De-icing=Dégivrage (m)

Anti-icing=Antigivrage (m)

While the word “ice” is the root of the English words, the root “givre” (m) is the root of the French words.

Givre (m)=Frost.

Canadian Francophones tend to use a lot of anglicisms and French expressions derived from English. You may remember that the French word for “ice” is “glace” (f). For example “de l’eau, sans glace” “some water without ice” or “du jus avec de la glace” “some juice with some ice”. When speaking of de-icing, you’ll therefore hear many of your French Canadian passengers say “déglacer” “déglaçage” instead of “dégivrer” “dégivrage”. On one cold, winter morning, a passenger got on the airplane and asked me “On va-tu déglacer?” “Are we going to de-ice?”

French for de-icing is covered in Module 4 of our Canadian French for Flight Attendants audio course. Learn not only the technical aviation French that other French courses do not teach, but also the informal aviation French terms that passengers will use with you.

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Want to learn to speak the French you need to work as a flight attendant? Learn even more with Canadian French for Flight Attendants.

Special pre-launch price or Module 1 (French basics) and Module 2 (French for flight attendant French tests).

www.facebook.com/frenchforflightattendants

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Seoul, May 2019. Séoul, mai 2019. For any K-pop enthusiasts, in the western part of Seoul, you'll find Hongdae Shopping Street. Besides the abundant shops and restaurants, you'll also see street performer K-pop groups. Here are two clips I took. These groups are performing one beside the next and crowds of people have gathered around to watch.