Fuel anti-freeze additives - do you use any?

"Peter" wrote in message ...

"John R. Copeland" wrote:

Cold avgas should be no problem, assuming no suspended ice crystals.
Take care to keep your fuel clean and dry.
I often fly in the low flight levels where temperatures can be even lower.
The cold-soaked fuel flows just fine, including using a transfer pump to
move wing-locker fuel out into the tip tanks.
I've never had any avgas problems at those temperatures,
but cranking the starter against very cold oil has defeated me too many times.
Heated hangars are my favorite choice.

This is Europe, where heated hangars are a luxury available to the
chosen few

The specific concern wasn't the stuff flowing into the tank. It is
freezing in the pipework, especially in the injection tubes (IO540-C4
engine, in my case) which are very thin and exposed to the full 150kt
airstream.

There have been various cases of avgas freezing in fuel pipes, and the
pilot having to descend all the way down to god knows where to restart
the engine(s). And it's happened to twins too; one pilot I met
recently had to descend (a Duchess) with a dual engine failure from
25,000ft to 2,000ft over the sea, 100nm away from any coast, before he
could restart. The initial temp was -25C.


As I said earlier, keep your fuel clean and dry.
It's the suspended water, not the avgas that freezes.
One point of difficulty is the fuel screen, which ice crystals can plug.
I've never before heard of avgas congealing in the injection tubes.

Flight Level 250 in a Duchess? Better ask him again.
Beech lists 16000 feet for the Duchess' service ceiling.