At work when down route we use Kilfrost RDF De-Icing Fluid to remove ice that may have formed while the plane is parked outside, It doesn’t provide holdover time so isn’t used during active frost conditions. We carry 20lt of it in a spray bottle. Unfortunately you can’t just spray it on as you’ll end up using 3x as much. You have to remove as much of the ice as possible first manually ( we use one of these scrapper things then apply the Killfrost to remove the last bit of ice. It’s still a pain to deice, takes between 45 mins and 1 hour to deice a plane the size of a Navajo.
Noe wrote:
Also wondering, given airports will have their own deice (the big one they spray onto airliners)- Estimated cost for a DA42?
- Are there adverse effects (other than on the wallet) when using on light planes? (is it going to stink the plane up / do some sort of contamination)?
No idea of cost, it depends on volume used. Usually (subject to your AFM) you can ask them just to spray the wings and stab. That reduces the amount used. It gets into every crack and crevasse on the plane and you should clean it off after the flight.
I would plan for several hundred Euros.
Also wondering, given airports will have their own deice (the big one they spray onto airliners)
- Estimated cost for a DA42?
- Are there adverse effects (other than on the wallet) when using on light planes? (is it going to stink the plane up / do some sort of contamination)?
From a well known aviation supplier not 100m walk from Peters Aircraft your can buy TKS fluid for £7.20/ Ltr or Kilfrost Type 1 de-icing fluid ( intended for removing ice from Aircraft on the ground ) for £3.20/ Ltr.
Why would you pay over twice the price for a fluid that is intended to do a different job when the fluid for the job in question is half the price ?
Type 1 de-ice fluid is not renowned for its long hold over time but it has to be safer than TKS because a hold over time is not published as it is not intended for ground de-icing.
Type 2 fluids do offer longer hold over times but are not suitable for most GA types as the fluid is not removed from the airframe at the speeds GA types reach before leaving the ground.
I would be asking if I really wanted to go flying in a GA aircraft in weather conditions that required the hold over time of a Type 1 fluid to become a factor.
@PetitCessnaVoyageur: deicing a Grumman Tiger with upward-facing surfaces covered with a thin crust (as opposed to a mere film) of ice took me less than one litre of screenwash concentrate. I did not have a sprayer, though, so had to use a rag instead – first to apply the fluid, then to wipe off the loosened ice. It didn’t work directly on thick ice, though – the technique was to start applying the fluid around the edges of the iced area and let it loosen up the thinnest ice and work itself under the thicker one by capillary action, get some ice off, apply the fluid around the new edge, repeat… Alternating between different areas, I think I got it clean and dry in about 40 minutes.
Aerosense 1 seems actually a more economical solution !
The question now is the sprayer capacity need. I’ve seen reports on this threads, from 1.25 to 5L here. I wonder what volume it takes to deice a small aircraft with a medium quantity of ice on it.
@Dave_Phillips #52: what are you able to do with 1.25L ? 
With garden sprayer, do you finally use plain TKS, TKS + water (50/50), or any other mix ?
Would it not be better to use a Kilfrost type 1 ground de-ice fluid ?
To me, the only possible reason for me to use aviation-grade deicing fluid for ground deicing of non-FIKI aircraft would be the airport security not letting you in with a bottle of automotive deicer or winter screenwash concentrate. Ethanol, isopropanol, ethylene glycol and propylene glycol all work sufficiently well (even unheated) and don’t damage paint, perspex, metals, rubber or plastics. Also, adding any of them to water even in small quantities changes the freezing behaviour – instead of forming a sheet of ice, the water freezes into a loose slush (do an experiment in your freezer).
I’m not sure that fluid for the TKS system is an economic way of de-icing an airframe.
Sure, but I think for most people this is OK because they won’t need it that often – maybe 1x or 2x a year, and if you keep the fluid normally in the original container and pour it into the pump dispenser only when actually needed, there is no wastage or contamination risk.
If you are constantly parking outdoors in the winter at Sion etc then you want a cheaper option. You also will need to carry a lot more of the stuff and it becomes a bigger hassle. Throw in some strong wind, and de-icing could be a really crappy job to be doing regularly.
20 litre containers of Aero-Sense Type1 Fluid are available online and cost around €120 including VAT delivered to the U.K. And you have some guidelines for holdover time as well for generic Type 1 fluids (pages 8-10):
[ local copy ]
