Narrative:

While we were waiting in line to be deiced; we observed the deice crew deicing and anti-icing the aircraft just ahead of us. When the deice crews began applying type 4 fluid they were using a straight stream adjustment on their nozzle which was causing a very uneven application of fluid; such that there were small piles of type 4 fluid on the upper surfaces of the wings and horizontal tail. In addition you could see a very uneven distribution of type 4 fluid based on a very uneven color (as the fluid is green) on the aircraft surfaces. As we were watching this my first officer mentioned that directly behind this event we could see [another air carrier] being anti-iced by their deice crew. The [other air carrier]deice crews were using a nozzle angle of approximately 30-45 degrees and sweeping their nozzles back and forth very evenly over the aircraft surfaces which resulted in a very even uniform application of fluid as observed as an even green color over all the wing and tail surfaces. Also [the other air carrier's] deicing crews completed their job much faster and with less than half the fluid used in my opinion. [It appears to me] the [other air carrier] deice crews are applying the type 4 fluid correctly based on my understanding of the fluid manufacturers guidelines. I believe we should modify the guidance we give to our deice crews to model the technique used by the [other air carrier] deice crews. This change will improve our safety and efficiency in this critical area of our operations.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: An air carrier Captain reported it appeared to him that another carrier's de-ice crew was using superior technique to the crew working his aircraft.

Narrative: While we were waiting in line to be deiced; we observed the deice crew deicing and anti-icing the aircraft just ahead of us. When the deice crews began applying Type 4 fluid they were using a straight stream adjustment on their nozzle which was causing a very uneven application of fluid; such that there were small piles of Type 4 fluid on the upper surfaces of the wings and horizontal tail. In addition you could see a very uneven distribution of Type 4 fluid based on a very uneven color (as the fluid is green) on the aircraft surfaces. As we were watching this my First Officer mentioned that directly behind this event we could see [another air carrier] being anti-iced by their deice crew. The [other air carrier]deice crews were using a nozzle angle of approximately 30-45 degrees and sweeping their nozzles back and forth very evenly over the aircraft surfaces which resulted in a very even uniform application of fluid as observed as an even green color over all the wing and tail surfaces. Also [the other air carrier's] deicing crews completed their job much faster and with less than half the fluid used in my opinion. [It appears to me] the [other air carrier] deice crews are applying the Type 4 fluid correctly based on my understanding of the fluid manufacturers guidelines. I believe we should modify the guidance we give to our deice crews to model the technique used by the [other air carrier] deice crews. This change will improve our safety and efficiency in this critical area of our operations.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of April 2012 and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.