Airbus A300F4-600 (N662FE)

"Vanesse" was one of the last Fed Ex A306s to visit here recently. During the holiday season, FDX sends these Big Busses here to handle the increased cargo loads, but when the holiday season is over, Fed Ex resumes the use of two primary aircraft, the B752 and the B763, for its daily cargo runs into/out of RNO. Unless something extremely unusual happens, we won't see A306s in Fed Ex attire here again until next November.

Outstanding as always Gary!

Wonderful Photo Gary..........

At ATW the Red / Type 1 Deice is the propylene glycol mixed in stream with hot water ....the main deicing fluid out of their FMC Tempest Truck. Type 1 removes the snow and ice build-up best.

The Green Type 4 is propylene glycol with a thickener added to gel it. It goes on not heated. The Type 4 is an anti-ice. It will prevent snow or ice forming on the wing, tail, or fuselage if it is snowing / sleeting etc. before plane push back and on its way to the runway. When the plane rolls down the runway with Type 4 on it....it just sluffs off in the slipstream.

If the plane has been treated with Type 1,then Type 4 and 30 minutes have gone by and the plane has not pushed back. Guess what. You have to repeat both Type 1 & Type 4 Deicing Steps. Also, if it has not taken off within 30 minutes of type 4 treatment...deicing has got to re-happen in precipitation. The clock is always ticking.

The Tempest has the feature of blowing forced air out the boom nozzle too to remove heavy snow off an aircraft wing. It is sometimes used at ATW but typically the Type 1 is good enough.

Pilot in command has the responsibility to order a deicing. We had one this week on the Airbus...temp was 36F out. However, the plane had just been fueled. There was some fuel venting out the wings and that is going to cool the wing down where a little ice could form along the wing edges. seems like we used about 10 gallons of Type 1 on each wing tip and that was it.

Take care Gary. Enjoy your weekend. Hope my explanation answers your questions.

I did see Vanesse at ATW back in February during our cold snap. Just the opposite, we will see a 757 if our A306 is cancelled or mechanical issues develop. It will arrive out of Madison, Indy,or Memphis. Maybe once a year.

The A306 1st wide bodied 2 engined jet aircraft. Dating back to 1972 if I recall

U lucky,,,,,5x