"The airplane got out over the water, the [cloud] ceiling was dropping, the temperature was at freezing, the engine ices up, and all of a sudden, as they're flying along, more than halfway across the Channel, there's a loud noise, like a bang, like a backfire," researcher Dennis Spragg explains on History Detectives.
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The Merv Hardie in 2011. The Merv Hardie, named for politician, businessman and bush pilot Merv Hardie, was a ferry that connected the eastern and western portions of the Yellowknife Highway, across the Mackenzie River, near Fort Providence. She was retired in late 2012 when the Deh Cho Bridge, the first road bridge across the Mackenzie, was completed. The Mackenzie River ices up for months of the year.
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Its outer edges begin accumulating a layer of ice as the surrounding water, cooled by this jet to below its freezing point, ices up. A brinicle has now been formed, resembling an inverted "chimney" of ice enclosing a downward flow of this supercooled, supersaline water. When the brinicle becomes thick enough, it becomes self-sustaining. As ice accumulates around the down-flowing cold jet, it forms an insulating layer that prevents the cold, saline water from diffusing and warming.
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Blake finally accepts that the flight surgeon is trying to help pilots survive dangerous high altitude flying, and volunteers as a "guinea pig" pilot for aerial experiments. The first flight test of a pressurized cabin nearly ends in disaster when the aircraft ices up and Blake passes out, forcing Lee to take over. After ground testing of a new invention jointly developed by Lee and Blake, a pressure suit, Blake is told that he did not pass his most recent flight physical and will be grounded. Taking off without permission, Blake carries out the aerial testing of the new suit anyway, but when the oxygen regulator fails, he loses consciousness and fatally crashes.
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Y and H cylinder valves have two outlets, each with its own valve, allowing two regulators to be connected to the cylinder. If one regulator "freeflows", which is a common failure mode, or ices up, which can happen in water below about 5 °C, its valve can be closed and the cylinder breathed from the regulator connected to the other valve. The difference between an H-valve and a Y-valve is that the Y-valve body splits into two posts roughly 90° to each other and 45° from the vertical axis, looking like a Y, while an H-valve is usually assembled from a valve designed as part of a manifold system with an additional valve post connected to the manifold socket, with the valve posts parallel and vertical, which looks a bit like an H. Y-valves are also known as "slingshot valves" due to their appearance.
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