Deicing crews give lift to airliners at Pittsburgh airport Turns out it really is darkest just before dawn. "It has kind of a sweet taste," Dougherty, 26, said of the chemical used to remove ice and snow from the wings of airplanes departing from Pittsburgh International Airport in Findlay. The critical but often unnoticed work of deicing — getting snow, ice and excess moisture from the metal skin of commercial aircraft — has been done by Integrated Deicing Services for six years. Removing that contamination is key to getting a plane off the ground, said Dougherty, a Hopewell native who joined the company in 2004. He has been a supervisor and staff trainer for the past two years. "If you don't get the ice off, it can decrease your lift by as much as 30 percent and increase drag by as much as 40 percent," he said. "It's going to have less engine power, and it's not going to have the right climbing capability. All the moving capabilities — the rudder, the horizontal stabilizer, the ailerons, the flaps — need to be able to move freely. That's what helps get the airplane off the ground, and allows it to lift, bank and descend." "Some places still have open buckets where people are standing out there spraying," he said. "This way, our people are nice and warm. They're not thinking, 'Let's hurry up and get this done so we can get back inside.' " A third pad is staffed by two trucks with sprayers, and can accommodate wider-body craft. The most uncomfortable job typically falls to that of the marshaller, who not only guides the plane in and out of its pad slot, but must slide his or her hands — in the thinnest of gloves — across the surface of the wings and body to ensure all the ice and frost has been removed, If it has not, he or she gets out a deicing hose for a few extra blasts of hot fluid. "That is definitely a cold and messy job on some days," said Dougherty, who was a marshaller before landing his supervisory role and still draws that task on occasion. "These days with the freezing rain have been ... interesting." Ten minutes is an average amount of time needed on a commercial aircraft, although deicing sometimes takes 45 minutes or more depending on the temperature, wind direction, the angle at which the aircraft has parked, the type of plane and the location of its fuel cells, said J.P. Savage, general manager for Integrated Deicing Services in Pittsburgh. "It takes as long as it takes," Savage said. Dougherty graduated from Hopewell High School in 2000 and briefly studied aircraft maintenance at West Mifflin's Pittsburgh Institute of Aeronautics before he learned from his mom — an aircraft mechanic with the Air Force Reserve's 911th Airlift Wing — about a deicing job. His father was a military aircraft mechanic, with the 171st Air Refueling Squadron of the Pennsylvania Air National Guard. Both are retired. "I guess I'm kind of carrying on in their footsteps," he said. "I've always had a passion for aviation." Starting wages are typically about $11 a hour, and the work is seasonal. For Dougherty, that means 65- to 70-hour work weeks October through April. In the summer, he and his fiancee head to Pymatuning, where five years ago he opened a pizzeria called Doc's Place. There he puts in a relatively cushy 50 hours a week. "But I pack it into about four days, and usually have three days off," he said. His free time is spent target shooting, riding quads and dirt bikes, and perfecting that hand-eye coordination needed in the deicing booms with video games such as "Call of Duty." He is unflustered by his break-neck schedule. "I really enjoy it: the work, the people," Dougherty said. "You feel like you're being helpful, You're looking out for all these people. We tell (staffers), 'De-ice the plane like your family is on it. You have these people's lives in your hands." Bonnie Pfister can be reached at bpfister@tribweb.com or 412-320-7886. |
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