I dispatch an aircraft from a northwest gateway every Monday at about 1830 local. This aircraft (usually an A-300) is received on the previous Saturday AM. Since the aircarft is on the ground for 2 days, it goes through a couple of thaw freeze cycles, often daytime temps are above freezing and nightime temps plummet.
Our de-ice dispenser truck is relatively new. It holds 1500 gallons of type 1 de-ice fluid. I have seen the de-ice truck almost emptied from over an hour of solid de-icing, trying to remove contamination from an Airbus popsical. The station manager tells me that de-ice fluid costs $18/gallon, due to costs of materials, application and mtx on the truck. Let's say 1000gallons @$18= OMG!!!
I devised a plan to try to avoid this kind of expenditure. In co-operation with my gateway manager, we pre-emptively applied a coat of type 1 to our aircraft today. The weather forecast is for snow showers over the next 2 days. Daytime highs will be in the mid 30-s friend, so the freeze/thaw cycle will definitely occur. Before I left the gateway today, it was snowing, and the snow was a kind of sticky pellet that occurs in this area. Attaching itself to any exposed material, this snow is very difficult to remove during a quick turn, and if left for the weekend-well you know.
As a control for this experiment, the fuselage forward of the cabin door was left uncoated. The cost was 100 gallons of heated de-ice fluid type 1. I will report the results on Monday night, but it looks as if the base coat of de-ice fluid is going to make for an easy de-ice procedure on next Monday night.
Our de-ice dispenser truck is relatively new. It holds 1500 gallons of type 1 de-ice fluid. I have seen the de-ice truck almost emptied from over an hour of solid de-icing, trying to remove contamination from an Airbus popsical. The station manager tells me that de-ice fluid costs $18/gallon, due to costs of materials, application and mtx on the truck. Let's say 1000gallons @$18= OMG!!!
I devised a plan to try to avoid this kind of expenditure. In co-operation with my gateway manager, we pre-emptively applied a coat of type 1 to our aircraft today. The weather forecast is for snow showers over the next 2 days. Daytime highs will be in the mid 30-s friend, so the freeze/thaw cycle will definitely occur. Before I left the gateway today, it was snowing, and the snow was a kind of sticky pellet that occurs in this area. Attaching itself to any exposed material, this snow is very difficult to remove during a quick turn, and if left for the weekend-well you know.
As a control for this experiment, the fuselage forward of the cabin door was left uncoated. The cost was 100 gallons of heated de-ice fluid type 1. I will report the results on Monday night, but it looks as if the base coat of de-ice fluid is going to make for an easy de-ice procedure on next Monday night.