Winter flying and frost

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Daz

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Daz
Guys - my airplane is tied down outside during the NE winter. Just wondering what folks use to remove frost/ice from wings. Is there any de-ice solution or something that is safe to use? Just wondering.........
 
In the long run it would probably work best to have a good set of wing covers. Or move to Florida with us old people.
 
My CFI Certificate.
 
Go to walmart and buy one of those pump sprayers people use to spray weeds an insecticide with. Buy a couple of jugs of the pink colored RV/boat antifreeze. Use this to get rid of ice and frost on the airplane in the morning. If your plane must be outside this is the best way to do it IMHO. Dealing with wing and tail covers sounds like a major PITA to me.
 
CessnaN1315efw said:
Go to walmart and buy one of those pump sprayers people use to spray weeds an insecticide with. Buy a couple of jugs of the pink colored RV/boat antifreeze. Use this to get rid of ice and frost on the airplane in the morning. If your plane must be outside this is the best way to do it IMHO. Dealing with wing and tail covers sounds like a major PITA to me.
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Wing covers are not bad. And turn your airplane so the sun hits the wings, but that takes forever. We have a spray bottle with glycol in it, buy it from the home drome. You can get heated battery blankets/aquarium or whatever to heat the fluid too. Works better when it is warm. The RV antifreeze is probably the same stuff, just a bit diluted.
 
I found that a microfiber towel and some elbow grease worked really well the few times I had a frost issue last winter.
 
CessnaN1315efw said:
Go to walmart and buy one of those pump sprayers people use to spray weeds an insecticide with. Buy a couple of jugs of the pink colored RV/boat antifreeze. Use this to get rid of ice and frost on the airplane in the morning. If your plane must be outside this is the best way to do it IMHO. Dealing with wing and tail covers sounds like a major PITA to me.
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It takes very little of this stuff to melt frost on the wing, so make sure the sprayer can "spritz" it on rather than produce a coarse spray (to minimize the amount used). Also, check the ingredients and get the RV antifreeze based on propylene glycol and not a type based on ethanol. I found that the ethanol can pretty quickly evaporate from the ethanol type and the water can refreeze if the wing skin temperature is below freezing.
 
Turn the airplane tail to the sun. On most days it will melt frost in 15 or so minutes.
 
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There are several ways to get rid of Frost....
 
Just like when the airport de-ices the big iron, your de-icing fluid needs to be warm. Hot is even better. Truth is, wing covers are easier 90% of the time but sometimes wing covers leave clear ice underneath so de-icer is always good to have. Use a steel sprayer tank, put it on the stove, and it'll stay plenty warm as you drive across town. Heat is the magic ingredient.
 
For frost, I carry a bucket, a garden sprayer, towels, a gel blade squeegee scraper, and a jug of TKS.

The bucket I fill with hot water at an FBO, dump on wings, then towel off. Gel-blade what remains.

Warm TKS in the sprayer for other surfaces. Warm is important.
 
I have (had) an old Blockbuster card I used to help scrape frost off.. no joke. Honestly, even on very cold morning usually just angling the plane into the sun seemed to help melt it off.
 
NoHeat said:
For frost, I carry a bucket, a garden sprayer, towels, a gel blade squeegee scraper, and a jug of TKS.

The bucket I fill with hot water at an FBO, dump on wings, then towel off. Gel-blade what remains.

Warm TKS in the sprayer for other surfaces. Warm is important.
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I was under the impression that there was some (probably minor) risk to using the water for fear of the water running back and re-freezing.
 
SoonerAviator said:
I was under the impression that there was some (probably minor) risk to using the water for fear of the water running back and re-freezing.
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This. I wouldn't use water.

We do routinely use TKS in a spray bottle for frost though.
 
Turning the airplane into the sun has worked for me, too. Make sure the area over the fuel tanks gets cleared. That area may hold the frost longer than the rest of the wing.
 
write-stuff said:
Turning the airplane into the sun has worked for me, too. Make sure the area over the fuel tanks gets cleared. That area may hold the frost longer than the rest of the wing.
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And more environment friendly than adding yet more odd substances to the airfields ground water.
 
write-stuff said:
Turning the airplane into the sun has worked for me, too. Make sure the area over the fuel tanks gets cleared. That area may hold the frost longer than the rest of the wing.
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UngaWunga said:
And more environment friendly than adding yet more odd substances to the airfields ground water.
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I believe the premise of the original post is that he wanted a solution so as to be airborne before/by the time the sun was up so as to not have to wait until after sunrise to melt the frost.
 
CessnaN1315efw said:
Go to walmart and buy one of those pump sprayers people use to spray weeds an insecticide with. Buy a couple of jugs of the pink colored RV/boat antifreeze. Use this to get rid of ice and frost on the airplane in the morning. If your plane must be outside this is the best way to do it IMHO. Dealing with wing and tail covers sounds like a major PITA to me.
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Wing covers are great for frost, but necessary when you get a lot of snow. Snow melts, then freezes into a layer of ice that can sometimes require a trip to a heated hangar to remove. Not even a liberal application of antifreeze will get through 1/2” of ice frozen solid to the wings and tail. You either pay for a heated hangar for the day/night/few hours or have to wait for a warm day and spend the time cleaning it off.
 
interestingly, most of the times it snowed, the wind blew the snow off the wings... normally very little snow on the wings at KBED.
 
Little light frost on the tail?

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Timbeck2 said:
What is this "frost" substance of which you speak?
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It's some sort of made up phenomenon that the east coast guys are always talking about Tim ... between this and the "fake" IMC stuff, I never know WHAT they're talking about ... they even state they get SNOW sometimes:p:p:p
 
danhagan said:
It's some sort of made up phenomenon that the east coast guys are always talking about Tim ... between this and the "fake" IMC stuff, I never know WHAT they're talking about ... they even state they get SNOW sometimes:p:p:p
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Ice season is in full swing around here. Zipped through the clouds, 7,000 feet, 31 F. Fortunately no ice formed, but it's happening.
 
PaulS said:
Ice season is in full swing around here. Zipped through the clouds, 7,000 feet, 31 F. Fortunately no ice formed, but it's happening.
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I love the southwest, no weather issues normally except high winds in the spring and most of those are doable if you get things wrapped up before noon.
 
danhagan said:
I love the southwest, no weather issues normally except high winds in the spring and most of those are doable if you get things wrapped up before noon.
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um, thunderstorms?
 
Bob Noel said:
um, thunderstorms?
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SoonerAviator said:
Pheonix/Las Vegas/Albuquerque get an average around 10" of rainfall per year or less. I doubt thunderstorms enter the equation too often.
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Well, usually for an hour or so every other day each August between 4 and 5 pm ... most of us desert flyers during the summer have the airplane put away and are drinking adult beverages no later than 2pm anyways;)
 
SoonerAviator said:
Pheonix/Las Vegas/Albuquerque get an average around 10" of rainfall per year or less. I doubt thunderstorms enter the equation too often.
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The nastiest, ugliest, most evil, most ominious thunderstorm I ever saw was on the way from long beach to Pheonix. That cloud system had "DANGER! STAY AWAY! STAY FAR FAR AWAY!" written all over it.
 
Bob Noel said:
The nastiest, ugliest, most evil, most ominious thunderstorm I ever saw was on the way from long beach to Pheonix. That cloud system had "DANGER! STAY AWAY! STAY FAR FAR AWAY!" written all over it.
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You need to spend some time in TX/OK/KS east of the dry line around May/June. You'll get used to ominous convective systems as a weekly occurrence. For @danhagan it starts in west TX in mid-afternoon, unfortunately by the time that storm makes it to Tulsa it's 10PM and you have to imagine what the tornado looks like because it's pitch black with lightning mixed in, lol.
 
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