Removing ice before flight (pump-up dispenser and fluid type) - merged

Sometimes what one gets is an ambient of about +1C when one gets to the plane, and rising as the morning goes on, but the plane is covered in frost or ice because it was cold at night. One could argue that just hosing it down with warm water will then work, but the general opinion is that that is dangerous because the water could re-freeze. My view is that it is OK because a plane is mostly thin metal and there is very little thermal mass – except in the fuel in the tanks which can remain below zero for a long time.

But then if you wait another hour, or push the plane out into sunshine, the stuff will mostly come off anyway…

What matters by far the most is removal of ice from the flying surfaces. Ice on the rest of the airframe is just a bit of drag and is a lot less critical.

On rental planes (never do this if you are a civilised pilot, and never do it on your own plane ) lots of people use a credit card to scrape the stuff off. It works but you end up with scratched windows, and scratched everything else. But then so many rental planes are so badly scratched that nobody cares anymore… And if you use an Amex Platinum card it shows that you have a certain (dubious, but good enough for GA) class, enhanced further by a “genuine” (meaning it must not have pockets) RAF-issue leather jacket, but obviously the benefit is lost if nobody sees you do it

Yes it depends on the OAT. If above zero my hot water in a bag works. If below it won’t and the water will just refreeze. I carry car deicer.

Apply heated de-ice fluid Type I, then, if necessary apply anti-ice Type II. Use your Amex Gold, Platinum or Black to pay the extortionate fee for 300-400 liters of fluid (mostly on the ground beside the aircraft).
Don’t forget to wait until reaching Vr=100kts before climbing into the sky. Find a cheap hamburger.

The car stuff is perfekt, but forget the spay bottel, your fingers get pain! Take a hole 5 liter bottel, put in 3-4 holes with the knife and put it on top and squeez it over the wings/plane. 20 Minutes for a full deice (big froozen bubbels) on a c210, testet last week! What a luck to have this stuff in car, all other de-ice fluied was nice in the hangar at home :-(

Kilfrost in a weedkiller type hand pump backpack thing (you know what I mean right?). Used to use that at work as well.

I consider “car” type deice fluid “urgency” use only. Such fluids may contain methyl hydrate, which although an excellent deicer, is unkind to aluminum. You may not see the damage soon after, but the liquid will seep into the lapped skin joints, and can cause long term corrosion. And worse, in places where when finally detected, are now serious.

Sometimes an ice covered aircraft, which cannot be gently heated, or deiced with the proper fluid, just should not fly then.

Such fluids may contain methyl hydrate, which although an excellent deicer, is unkind to aluminum.

Certainly not in the EU – the use of methanol in consumer-grade deicing fluids is prohibited by law.

My top tip would be to not bother to deice the windscreen. Use the aircraft Demisted to do that once the engine is running. The oil will take some time to get to operating temperature and by the time it has the ice on the windscreen will have melted.

I’ve bought a 5 litre plastic container of TKS fluid and filled up a garden hand held sprayer thing. I’ve then sprayed the wings and other areas, positioned the plane towards the sun if possible, then 10 minutes later used a brush to remove the ice. In the UK, that generally worked for me OK, and our group had a ban on car de-ice as it apparently had long term effects on the paint lacquer. Better or worse than TKS, I’ve no evidence.