Just an update… I used the firm mentioned here for one of my MH 48 cu ft cylinders. They did it for £60 all included. A really good contact for cylinder testing.
Latest details:
TPF Parachute Services
High Green
St Briavels
Royal Forest
GL15 6TS
United Kingdom
01594 530320
Going back to basics here with an aluminium can of O2 and I’m hoping for some advice.
I have a scuba tank which I can get filled with 100% O2 via diving qualifications and I talked to Mountain High about their regulators. Mountain High Regs have a female fitting but so does the scuba valve.
Has anyone found a solution to use a scuba tank in an aircraft? I’ll add that the local scuba shops will only fill scuba cylinders.
I’m in France where aviation O2 fills are rare/expensive and medical O2 is only available with a doctors prescription.
Here’s hoping
Peters solution on his personal website is good. I bought all the adapters from sub aqua products. You can refill the light aviation cylinders from a larger (and heavy diving / industrial )
Can you post a close up photo of the fitting on your scuba tank, Shanwick?
The key discussion is whether to go the DIN route or the CGI 540 route. Yours is probably a DIN but IIRC needs a screw-in converter. Everything should be in this thread.
The article mentioned by Noe is here. I use 540 threads, but then I don’t do scuba and don’t use scuba shops to refill (found them too much hassle, often due to some twit shop assistant inventing regulations).
Thanks Peter. Scuba tank has a DIN female thread but the MH regulators attach to a male fitting.
I’m just trying to keep costs as low as possible as I’m rarely above 10,000ft in my non-turbo Twin Comanche. I would be beneficial for getting over the Paris TMA though.
I’m guessing I’m going to have to fork out for a full MH system after all but I’ll have to go down the same route as you for filling.
From some googling, the DIN on scuba tank is DIN-477-13 so female 5/8" BSP RH parrallel
The DIN on oxygen bottle is DIN-477-9 so male 3/4" BSP RH parrallell
Both are 14 threads per inch (14TPI)
BSP is British standard pipe.
So you would need a male BSP 5/8" to male BSP 3/4" with the thread long enough so that the O-rings get compressed.
Peter wrote:
Unfortunately I have just sold my car and the trailer so I will have to find somebody to help me next time, because the cylinder is far too heavy for me to lift, and won’t go into my car.
@Peter, how big is your BOC cylinder? overall length x width/radius, filled weight, capacity?
You can see a pic of the top of it here. It is the “W” size. Details here.
It is not easy to move about. I can just about move it, by rolling it on its bottom end with it nearly vertical. If it is on the ground horizontally, no way could I lift it into a van. So every couple of years I have to borrow somebody “large” to help me, and we drive it to the welding gas depot and swap it.
The advantage of the large composite cylinder I fly with is that it holds so much gas that even if there is only enough source pressure to half fill it, I can still fly to Greece and back with it. And I carry two of them on long trips.
