We don’t get much in the way of freezing temperatures here (I think I get to scrape ice of the car windscreen about twice a year typically) but it was one of those days when I needed to fly a Grumman Cheetah to England.
Part of the problem was that while the sun was out, the sun angle was so low it didn’t really do much. It took me about an hour to deice the plane by hand using soft kitchen towels to remove it as the sun slowly thawed it. Had to turn the plane around to allow the sun to get on different parts of it.
Well I had a flight over the Christmas period, where the aircraft was covered in a lot of frost. Air temp was +2 at the time.
If above zero my hot water in a bag works
Having read this I thought it would be a great idea and decided to give it a try. First I removed as much frost/ice as I could by rubbing it off with my gloved hands. Boy that was cold! I brought two zip log bags, and filled the first one with hot water from the bathroom tap.
While filing the second one, the first one fell on the floor and emptied.
Lesson 1: Don’t over fill them, and leave them on the floor when full!
I then used it on the aircraft, and while the water was very warm, and it did start to have an effect on the ice pretty quickly, it was only affecting a small area as I needed it leave it on one area for a bit. It also tended to affect the top area only, and the ice underneed took much longer to clear. So I tried to rub it around a bit, so that rather than melting the ice, it just “loosened it” so I could get it with my gloved hands. After a few seconds it burst open!
Lesson 2: The initial warm feeling of having the hot water pour over my gloves and the lower half of me doesn’t last long in +2 temp, and quickly becomes fecking cold!
Lesson 3: Even the hot water that ended upgoing over the wind didn’t clear a lot of ice.
So with the second bag, I tried a different strategy, and left it on one (difficult) spot for a while, while I proceeded to brush off some more ice with my (wet) gloved hands, and returned in a minute or two to that one spot.
Lesson 4: While that small bag size area did clear, the water was now cold to the touch. So a zip log bag doesn’t melt much ice before going cold itself.
In the end I’d the fusulage, stabalisor and one wing 100% clear by hand, and the second wing 70% clear. The 70% wing was not getting any sunshine, so I taxied into a different postion where it would get some direct sunlight.
Lesson 5: Direct sunlight helps a lot! Within a few minutes, I was able to clear the other wing by hand so that it was 100% clear.
So 1 & 1/2 hours later, I had the aircraft deiced. I’d budgeted 1 hour, needed longer than expected.
So after the rest of the preflight, I headed off, cold, wet and hungry, but looking forward to a nice warm breakfast at the destination.
Lesson 6: Just because the airport is open and operating during the Christmas holidays, doesn’t mean it’s café is! Doh!
The flight was nice though, getting to see some snow across Ireland. :)
I must try again to get myself some of that Kilfrost for next winter ;)
Dublin Pilot, rookie error. You need a bigger shopping bag! 
Dublin Pilot, rookie error. You need a bigger shopping bag!
Funny you should say that! As I was flying I though “I bet you they still have plastic shopping bags in the UK! I bet that’s what he was talking about!”
Plastic shopping bags are a thing of the past here. We were the first country to put a tax on them, and they pretty much died out over night. I’m not sure that a big liner could hold much water ;)
But in the end all they would do is melt the ice into water. Because that melt water isn’t much above freezing, it’s much more likely to refreeze then simply pouring hot water onto the wing, which will largely run off before getting cold enough to freeze. At least that’s what I think.
I agree. In the end we poured the water over the wing too. Clearly it is not a CAT quality way to deice but it is safe and helps things along if the OAT is in the plus range.
In the end we poured the water over the wing too.
I dimly remember having read an FAA piece that said that the hot water method was often the only approved deicing method, as lower end pistons are often not approved for standard aviation deice fluids.
Tom Once a again the FAA is causing a situation with absolutes. Hot water melts ice but will also drain into areas and re-freeze. Like my TKS panels.
I have wing covers and they are black work great if they are put on while the wing is dry. I bought a car brush the other day and the cheapest vodka I could find. I got most of the frost off with the brush then a splash of vodka and the rest came off.
PS Did not put the wing covers on cause it wasnt supposed to get cold. Ha!
Why all this trouble using warm water (where do you get it from?) if you can just spray the TKS fluid from a garden spray bottle you keep in the back. It takes only 5 minutes and you are off to fly.
@AeroPlus can you please describe the full “kit” you carry?
I assume it is a brush (soft to not scratch the surface of the Cirrus wing), the garden spray bottle with TKS – what else?
It is a garden spray. I spray cold TKS fluid on the aircraft. No brushing. If there is snow, you mostly can just wipe it off. If it is ice, I just spray and get in the aircraft and go. It works well for me. Better would be to pre-heat the TKS fluid or to store the aircraft inside. That is not always possible for me (storing inside) and pre-heating is too much hassle and not really needed.
