De-icing

Flyers,

I went to fly on Thursday and low and behold my baby was covered with a half
inch of snow and ice. I could brush off the top 1/4 inch of snow, but the
bottom 1/4 inch was ice that was welded to the airframe.

I remembered that an instructor told me back in my primary training, that
you could de-ice a plane with properly diluted anti-freeze bought at an auto
supply and sprayed on with a garden sprayer.

When I asked my A&P he said that "...people use all kinds of crap, but he
didn't recommend any of it because it was bad for the plane. He said it
could eat the paint and ruin rubber. He said even the de-icer that they
make for airplanes is bad for the plane and that he'd never put that "$hit"
on his plane.

Now I'm scared to de-ice my plane. This is all new to me as this is our
first winter out of our hangar. The owner raised the rent in the spring and
we raised our middle finger in defiance. (BTW, I'm going to start a new
thread on this hangar issue...it will be called "What would you pay?")

So how to you all de-ice your planes and are my mechanic's fear justified on
the use of auto anti-freeze?

Kobra

("Kobra" wrote)
I went to fly on Thursday and low and behold my baby was covered with a
half inch of snow and ice. I could brush off the top 1/4 inch of snow,
but the bottom 1/4 inch was ice that was welded to the airframe.


We had rain turn to snow last week. The rain hit our row of key'd mailboxes
out next to the street - and froze. Mailboxes were welded shut with ice.

We ended up filling a 1quart ziplock baggie full of super hot water. It was
so hot I had to wear mittens, which is fine because ...IT'S WINTER!!

I held the 'hot water bottle' ziplock baggie on the aluminum door (both were
about the same size) and presto, 30 seconds later the mail door opened - no
more ice.

Your task - somehow scale up this success story to work for you.


Montblack

I'm interested in this also. I have a spray bottle filled with plain
old isopropyl alcohol bought at the local pharmacy. I use it to get
rid of frost if I'm parked somewhere away from my hanger. It works
great at removing the frost and light ice that has formed on the plane
while parked overnight.
Is there a problem with this?

TKS deicing fluid is isopropyl alcohol and ethylene glycol (antifreeze). You
can spray it on a plane safely, including plexiglass, landing gear, props,
etc. I've also bought cheaper non aviation stuff from home depot, and mixed
it with hot water and sprayed it on the plane as well, which also works.

It will make a big slimy slippery mess of a hangar floor and it doesn't go
away or evaporate.

Kobra wrote:

snip
When I asked my A&P he said that "...people use all kinds of crap, but he
didn't recommend any of it because it was bad for the plane. He said it
could eat the paint and ruin rubber. He said even the de-icer that they
make for airplanes is bad for the plane and that he'd never put that "$hit"
on his plane.

I guess he wouldn't be too thrilled if my Bonanza, with its TKS weeping
wing anti-ice system, rolled into his shop.

Go here to read about the how it works and the de-icing solution this
system requires:

http://www.weepingwings.com/system.html


--
Peter

In article ,
"Kobra" wrote:

Flyers,

I remembered that an instructor told me back in my primary training, that
you could de-ice a plane with properly diluted anti-freeze bought at an auto
supply and sprayed on with a garden sprayer.

Kobra,
Anti-Freeze is just that ANTI-freeze. It does not effectively melt ice.
It prevents it from freezing. Heated glycol will work. It is ithe heat
that melts the ice and the remaining glycol will prevent it from
re-freezing. The airlines use a variant of this method.

Alcohol will melt the ice layer by layer. Your best bet is heated
glycol. If this is not possible a un-heated glycol-alcohol mix.

Michelle P

On Sat, 10 Dec 2005 00:19:24 -0600, Montblack wrote:

We ended up filling a 1quart ziplock baggie full of super hot water. It was
so hot I had to wear mittens, which is fine because ...IT'S WINTER!!

Don't do this on your plane.....

I thought it would be cool to wash my car in the winter with warm / hot
water in a bucket, and while I had nice and comfortable hands when washing,
come time when the car cooled down to freezing, the paint crazed from the
expansion from warm water, and contracted from the cold weather which
caused the crazing.

Allen

We ended up filling a 1quart ziplock baggie full of super hot water. It
was
so hot I had to wear mittens, which is fine because ...IT'S WINTER!!

Don't do this on your plane.....
come time when the car cooled down to freezing, the paint crazed from the
expansion from warm water, and contracted from the cold weather which
caused the crazing.

Hmmm. Isn't this EXACTLY the procedure Hai Longworth described using on her
newly painted Cardinal?

Hai?
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

A Lieberman wrote:
Montblack wrote:

We ended up filling a 1quart ziplock baggie full of super hot water. It was
so hot I had to wear mittens, which is fine because ...IT'S WINTER!!

Don't do this on your plane.....

I thought it would be cool to wash my car in the winter with warm / hot
water in a bucket, and while I had nice and comfortable hands when washing,
come time when the car cooled down to freezing, the paint crazed from the
expansion from warm water, and contracted from the cold weather which
caused the crazing.

Your going flying which removes the liquid stuff, same way I did to
unfreeze my car in a Colorado 22 incher. You go drive, don't let it sit
there and refreeze, duh...

We ended up filling a 1quart ziplock baggie full of super hot water. It was
so hot I had to wear mittens, which is fine because ...IT'S WINTER!!


Don't do this on your plane.....

I thought it would be cool to wash my car in the winter with warm / hot
water in a bucket, and while I had nice and comfortable hands when washing,
come time when the car cooled down to freezing, the paint crazed from the
expansion from warm water, and contracted from the cold weather which
caused the crazing.

Allen

As a (former) painter, I offer that the reason the paint crazed may have
had something to do with the paint film depth. If paints are applied in
the recommended thickness, they are much less likely to craze from rapid
temperature change. Add another paint job and/or multiple coats of clear
and crazing becomes much more likely. Also, improper substrate
preparation will allow crazing over time and accelerate with rapid
temperature change.

When we used to do custom paint jobs in the 70s, we would cool the
finish down gradually on a completed vehicle. We would go from shop temp
of 68 degrees to an unheated stall at 45 or so for about 10- 20 minutes.
After that, it was out to the open. Never had one craze.

I did have a guitar paint job I did craze after a night out in the car
at zero. Again, 40 coats of clear lacquer will do that.

Mike