Retesting and filling oxygen tank.

On 5/1/2012 3:17 PM, lynn wrote:
I have had considerable difficulty getting FAA authorized oxygen
service stations to retest and refill my 22 cu. ft. steel tank. It
was originally purchased and installed in 1978 by Sailplane Repair
Service in Ft. Collins, CO in accordance with a 337. Local stations
here in Dallas, TX will not touch it without an assembly part number
AND, even if it had one, they would only be able to service it if the
P/N matched one for which they are authorized to service. My tank
only shows the DOT 3AA1800 number stamped in the steel, but this is
not the number required for the assembly. How do others in the U.S.
get their tanks serviced, as I don't think the older tanks ever had
such a number affixed? Do any owners of the newer aluminum tanks
have similar problems with getting them serviced?

I'm under the impression that most gliders don't have an oxygen system
installed in them; instead, the pilot uses a "portable" system in the
glider, carefully ensuring the bottle and regulator are secured when
they are carried in the glider during flight.

My portable system is an oxygen bottle that can be easily removed in
less than a minute without using any tools, and a Mountain High
regulator that can be popped off the Dual-Lock fasteners in 10 seconds.
The bottle goes to any place that does testing and will affix the
correct DOT numbers; the regulator goes back to Mountain High if it has
a problem.

Do you have something different than this? If not, stop taking it to the
FAA shops, as they are not the appropriate place to work on it; if it is
different, describe it for us.

--
Eric Greenwell - Washington State, USA (change ".netto" to ".us" to
email me)

We use a lot of oxygen in Minden. All the bottles I see are hydrotested by a local fire extinguisher company, which is certified by the DOT. I'm not telling you how to do it, just how we do it here. Fred