Regional Jet CL65; Undifferentiated or Other Model
Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Time Pressure; Communication Breakdown; Distraction; Situational Awareness; Training / Qualification
Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy; Ground Event / Encounter Other / Unknown
General None Reported / Taken
Company Policy; Procedure; Weather; Environment - Non Weather Related
Due to the existence of freezing fog and an unknown flow delay for our filed destination we had requested TYPE IV de-ice fluid applied to aircraft prior to departure. Number one; there is no de-icing communications frequency other than a relay from the operations people who obviously do not know how to give a proper de-icing report. More importantly; as the fluid was being applied to our aircraft I did not see any color to it. NONE. At all other stations and in every other circumstance I have encountered TYPE IV fluid is always green. This fluid had NO COLOR. I asked my First Officer if he could discern a color on his wing while they sprayed and he said he could not. I then asked our Flight Attendant; who is also a pilot; to look out the cabin windows and tell me if she could see any color in the fluid and she said she could not either. I then questioned Operations about it; they were evasive and basically told us of course it was TYPE IV but would confirm with truck. She came back and said it was confirmed and additionally truck driver walked up beside Captain's window and attempted to confirm TYPE IV via sign language. I still had my concerns as I have never seen TYPE IV that was not green. I queried our Dispatch to see if they could find anything in the FOM or POH about color. Neither of us could. I was able to find it on the INTERNET on my smart phone that TYPE IV is indeed green. After discussing it with my First Officer we chose to continue on as we had a departure time that kept us within the hold over time for just TYPE I and we had the reports of being on top by 1;000 FT. Operations and de-icing crew using a fluid with no apparent color to confirm proper type. Additionally; we have no guidance that anyone could find in the FOM or POH regarding color coding of de-icing fluid except that in the FOM Chapter 10 it states TYPE III (which we never use) is amber.
An Air Carrier Captain expressed concern that the de-icing crew had no communications frequency for a De-ice Report and also a clear fluid; not the usual green; was applied even as Operations claimed it was Type IV.