The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) wants the owners of 743 Cessna Caravans and Grand Caravans to spend about $9,600 on each plane to reduce icing hazards on takeoff.

In a proposed air worthiness directive issued last month, the FAA said it wants the aircraft adapted so that pilots can perform a hands-on inspection of the wing prior to takeoff. If the directive were adopted, aircraft owners would have 125 days to install a handle that would enable the pilot to climb up the plane and feel the wings. The FAA estimates it would cost about $1,100 to install the pilot assist handle. The FAA also would require deicing boots to be installed within the same 125-day timeframe on the landing gear struts and cargo pods at a cost of about $8,400 per plane.

According to the FAA, there have been six accidents over the last two winters, and nine incidents last winter alone, involving icing. One-third of these reports involve Cessnas in which the pilots lost control of the aircraft after takeoff due to icing that had accumulated on the ground.

Cessna has issued four service bulletins dating back to 1995 with suggestions to reduce icing on the aircraft. The most recent service bulletin was issued in October 2004. Cessna issued its first accessory kit in 1991 for the Grand Caravan to minimize the icing problem.

More than 400 of these Cessnas are now flown by small cargo carriers, said Stan Bernstein, president of the Region Air Cargo Carriers Association (RACCA). In fact, 258 are flown as part of the FedEx network.

While the FAA may require the additional deicing boots, many RACCA members already have these boots installed, said Richard Mills, the safety director at Empire Airlines and the chairman of the new RACCA safety committee. The committee will provide comments to the FAA on the proposed directive before the Aug. 22 deadline, Mills said.

In addition, Bernstein said the group would try to seek a meeting with the FAA or propose that the agency conduct a public hearing before finalizing the directive.

Instead of the more expensive modification, Mills said the installation of the handle is a greater concern to most of the Cessna operators. Under current FAA regulations, the pilot is require to feel the wings after they have been deiced to make certain that all the ice has been removed, Mills said. Pilots are now using ladders or standing on baggage loading equipment to get access to the wings, he said. The FAA wants the handle installed so that pilots can safely reach the wings for the inspection.

But Mills questions the safety of the handle, fearing that it will create a "serious injury hazard" to the person performing the inspection. The FAA is asking the pilots to climb a wet and slippery aircraft that has just been deiced to check the wings, he noted. In addition, he said, on the Grand Caravan model, shorter pilots may not be able to reach the wing even with the proposed handle. "We are going to get people hurt," he said.

When the FAA wrote the rule requiring the "tactile" inspection of the wings, Mills said the regulators wrote the rule in a vacuum. He said the regulators failed to take into account that most of the Part 135 operators of the Cessna aircraft have deicing procedures to prevent the accumulation of ice on the wings. A thorough visual inspection is adequate, he said.

In an early comment filing, Eric Barnum, who has one Cessna 208 in the charter fleet of Crow Executive Air, is opposed to the new equipment.

"One of the Caravan's particular attractiveness is its ability to operate in and out of smaller airports which typically do not have ground deicing facilities. Unfortunately, this adds to the necessity for the crew to be especially diligent in pre-takeoff examination, assessment and judgment as to the aircraft's fitness for safe flight," Barnum said. "It will be far more cost effective and the results will be better" to provide the crew with more training.

Adding "expensive and drag inducing equipment" will not solve the problems, Barnum noted.

>>FAA Docket: FAA-05-21275. Contacts: Stan Bernstein, RACCA, (508) 778-7788; Richard Mills, Empire Airlines, (208) 292-3868; Eric Barnum, Crow Executive Air, (419) 838- 6921.<<