I saw this in one of the pilot mags, and it caught my eye as 'proper' industry product that would save time scraping ice off wings.
Having looked on Transair, they label the product as 'aircraft de-icing and anti-icing' but the product packaging suggests it is more to to deal with ground de-icing. I would be concerned that something that is designed for the ground isnt really very good for aircraft wings, although it does say it is non-corrosive.
Has anyone used this, or know of other alternatives for getting ice of wings? I see some people using car de-icer but other people say it can damage the lacquer on the wings. We dont have a hanger, or wing covers, and spraying it off with warm water can re-freeze.
So at Faroe, we were given a good suggestion by the ATC. Air temp was plus but ice was still on wings and tail. She said get a plastic bag full of warm water and drag over wings. Given temp no chance of refreezing. It worked. After a while we just poured hot water over wing.
Dont do if temp below zero but for us it saved 2 hours melting time!
Water can be dodgy, because if some gets trapped in the airframe, it will freeze as soon as you climb to altitude.
A friend (who is probably reading this 
) had a horrid experience when he departed from a +20C airport, following a night of extremely heavy rain which put a lot of water into his tail section, climbed to FL250 and found the controls frozen. I guess some drain holes were blocked...
I had a frozen elevator trim myself, FL140. That was caused by wrong lube, though the firm which did the Annual just before the flight denied putting anything in there.
I would not now use pure water in any volume.
Not sure how it is different from rain. Worked fine for us. But was literally just on the surfaces and we made sure there was none left. And your elevator problem seems to have nothing to do with water.
The sure fire ways of de-icing are to keep the aircraft in a hangar, or to de-ice with the genuine de-icing fluid applied by a de-icing truck. That really is expensive, and as it is charged by the litre it is heartbreaking to see hundreds of dollars/euros/pounds worth of overspray de-icing the apron.
In a SEP type if ground de-icing is needed I would stay on the ground and use a fraction of the money saved to pay for a good hotel and a meal.
Although nothing to do with water I once had the same problem as Peter, in a piston twin. There are no end to the ways maintenance people can cause problems. After maintenance I always spend ages making sure the CB's and switches are where you expect them to be.
Although nothing to do with water I once had the same problem as Peter, in a piston twin. There are no end to the ways maintenance people can cause problems.
There is a story... a true story... about a light jet (single pilot) departing the UK for Spain. At FL300, when they wanted to level off, they found the elevator trim frozen stiff. Luckily there was another bloke aboard, and a suitcase. The suitcase was jammed between the pilot's yoke and the pilot's belly, for the next 2hrs
In a SEP type if ground de-icing is needed I would stay on the ground and use a fraction of the money saved to pay for a good hotel and a meal.
Well OK but of course that may not always be possible and the person concerned may prefer another option. The cost of actual deicing remains a fraction of the cost of owning and flying a plane. We couldn't use it as there was no commercial outfit that could do it quickly and as temps were well above zero we were good to come up with an alternative method. There is nothing wrong with deicing a SEP plane however beyond cost.
I suppose we are coming at it from different angles. You are talking about getting rid of the previous night's frost, I am thinking about taking off in bad weather, for example at temperatures around zero when it is snowing.
I am sure you were right in the Faroes, it sounds perfectly sensible to me and I guess overnight hangarage was not an option.
I am sure you were right in the Faroes, it sounds perfectly sensible to me and I guess overnight hangarage was not an option.
Sadly hangarage was apparently possible but because we arrived so late it wasn't offered. Agree that would have been best.
In your scenario of snowing of course the other thing to be careful of is warm fuel in wings causing snow to melt.
As I understand it the product linked to in the first post is for removing ice from the ground. I wouldn't use it on an aircraft.
Kilfrost do another product for de-icing aircraft on the ground. Rapid Deicing Fluid
I can't comment on it personally as I've never used it (delivery charges to Ireland just make it too expensive for the very occasional use I'd get from it, and it's not available locally).
Might be of interest to you being UK based.
