Any recommendations on what to use to deice the exit of the hangar (“private” taxiway leading to the already deiced “common taxiway”)? What I’ve found up to now:
What about spraying (pragmatically, unheated) “Type 1 deicing fluid” on the ground? I carry a sprayer with some with me in the plane in the winter… If it deices the plane, it should deice the ground, shouldn’t it? I’m worried the thickening agent it contains so that it stays on the plane until about 100kts IAS will make the ground a slippery mess… But on the other hand, it also drips off the plane when used on the “big planes”, so it cannot be a serious problem, can it?
We had the same issue years ago. The exit of the hangar was iced up and it was impossible to pull out the plane by hand. The question is how big is the area you have to deice? Is the snow above the ice already removed? How long before flight can you start the procedure?
Spraying aircraft deicing fluid will be a lot more expensive than runway deicing salts.
Among the salts, I would choose potassium acetate: other salts are granulated, whereas potassium acetate is applied as a liquid (a saturated solution in water). For small-scale applications like your taxiway, it can be heated to 120°C or even higher before use, which should increase its efficacy.
On the funny side of runway deicing: every time I see a urea spreader mentioned in the list of airport equipment, it evokes a certain statue in the centre of Brussels…
Sebastian_G wrote:
The question is how big is the area you have to deice?
The bit of taxiway is about 50 m² (5 m wide by 10 m deep). Meaning I can just spread the salt with a hand scoop or spray a liquid with a “hobby garden” type sprayer, no problem.
Ultranomad wrote:
I would choose potassium acetate: (…) is applied as a liquid (a saturated solution in water)
Why is that an advantage? Just because it can be heated (which pragmatically will be complicated and I probably won’t do it unless really necessary), or some other reason?
FWIW, it seems Potassium Formate is also, or can also be, applied as a solution? UltraBlue sells it as a solution and https://www.cryotech.com/snow-and-ice-control-chemicals-for-airports-operations says it is applied liquid.
Ultranomad wrote:
it can be heated to 120°C or even higher before use, which should increase its efficacy.
That looks like it will required specialised equipment? I imagine I ain’t gonna heat it per batch of 1.7 l with a household kettle connected to my “normal” 10 A circuit I have in the hangar…
lionel wrote:
I can just spread the salt with a hand scoop or spray a liquid with a “hobby garden” type sprayer, no problem.
A garden sprayer is probably an overkill (you don’t need fine mist), and if you come out with it into the cold, the nozzle may get clogged with crystals precipitating from a saturated solution. A conventional watering pot should probably work fine:
Why is that an advantage? Just because it can be heated (which pragmatically will be complicated and I probably won’t do it unless really necessary), or some other reason?
A liquid should work noticeably faster than a solid even without heating.
FWIW, it seems Potassium Formate is also, or can also be, applied as a solution? UltraBlue sells it as a solution and https://www.cryotech.com/snow-and-ice-control-chemicals-for-airports-operations says it is applied liquid.
I wasn’t aware of formate being also used in liquid form. But if so, the same applies.
That looks like it will required specialised equipment? I imagine I ain’t gonna heat it per batch of 1.7 l with a household kettle connected to my “normal” 10 A circuit I have in the hangar…
Just dunk one of these into the pot…
If you use normal deice salt it might be corrosive but will it get to the airplane? If you do not fire up the engine in a puddle it will not do harm to the rubber tires. Now the question is where you fire up the engine. Also how long before flight you can start the procedure. If you can put down the salt a few hours before use it will probably be gone by the time you pull the plane out.
In our case the solution was to ask the airport staff to pull out the plane 2 times a year with their giant tug. This cost a little 2 digit fee and the number of times it was required was really just 1 or 2 times each winter here in Berlin.
TKS fluid makes a very slippery surface. I would not use that.
lionel wrote:
Any recommendations on what to use to deice the exit of the hangar (“private” taxiway leading to the already deiced “common taxiway”)?
Mechanically brush off what you can, then sand (or sawdust) and grit for grip. Brush everything off at the end of the winter.
Thank you all for your ideas and information, and @Ultranomad for the “low tech reality check”. E.g. I didn’t have in mind that “plunger” type warmers/boilers were still made, I would have assumed they went out of use… decades ago… due to safety reasons, people being electrocuted while in their bath, and stuff. I genuinely only saw them in books on old “before my birth” technology before 8-O
I ended up ordering some Sodium Formate-based powder Aero-Sense Grandi U2 through pilotshop.nl, which ended up being significantly cheaper than ordering direct from Aero-Sense or the UltraBlue Potassium Formate/Acetate based products. Other brands (such as Eastman Clearway 1/3/F1/SF3) seem not to make “small” packagings (not expressed in t or m³).
Sebastian_G wrote:
If you use normal deice salt it might be corrosive but will it get to the airplane?
My maintenance facility firmly insists I should not use normal (chloride) deice salt. They have no stake in this, they can’t sell me any other deicing product :)
Sebastian_G wrote:
If you can put down the salt a few hours before use it will probably be gone by the time you pull the plane out.
My scenario is more like wake up, go to airport, find taxiway iced up, and I want to go “right now”. My FPL (maybe with CTOT) is in 60 to 90 minutes, and I still need to tow the plane to the fuelling area, return the tow to the hangar, wait for the fuel truck, …
Sebastian_G wrote:
In our case the solution was to ask the airport staff to pull out the plane 2 times a year with their giant tug. This cost a little 2 digit fee and the number of times it was required was really just 1 or 2 times each winter here in Berlin.
Not a realistic option in Luxembourg; the Business Aviation Centre (the “not based GA” handling section of the airport) used to have in their price list well-into-the-three-digit prices for stuff like that, but last time I even considered using them, being in a bind (I needed external power to start my small turbine…), their answer was that they don’t serve our Apron at all any more. Maybe contact the “airliner handlers”, but they don’t have their number.
The unmounted immersion heater would-be available from school suppliers.
