Frost Removal using a Red Dragon Preheater?

[KevinS]

Merry Christmas all!

We are now full swing into winter and preheating and frost removal are common place if you want to fly. In my case, I do not have access to a hanger so I have been struggling trying to come up with an efficient way to remove the frost from my wings?

I preheat using a Red Dragon forced air heater. I was thinking about opening up some of my wing inspection plates and directing the hot air up into the wing, thus melting the frost on top (and potentially underneath)?

Has anyone tried this and if so what were the results.

Comments and opinions welcome

Thank You

Kevin
Northern BC

[GAHorn]

Beware of melting ice and it running back into control surfaces and re-freezing. Especially be aware of ailerons and elevators collecting ice in their counterweight areas as well as internally when water runs into them and refreezes.
Inspect the aileron, lower-forward edges below the hinges where the counterweights are.

Some wing-covers and tail covers might be beneficial for you. YOu can buy them or you can make them yourself out of old bedsheets, etc..

[hilltop170]

Beware of using a Red Dragon to heat your wings. It is a direct-fired heater that will fill your wings with acid-rich condensation that will do all sorts of bad things. It's ok to use it to pre-heat the engine as long as you use it long enough to heat the oil in the pan and dry out all the condensation, usually takes a couple of hours.

The biggest mistake in using a Red Dragon is to shut it off when the cylinder fins are just getting warm, leaving the oil and engine internals still at ambient. The cylinders will fire and there won't be sufficient lubrication at the main and rod bearings allowing metal-to-metal contact that at worst will wipe out the bearings after a few repeats or in the least will reduce the life of the engine.

Since your plane is already covered with ice/snow, thoroughly heat soak it in a heated hangar until it is dry then get a good set of wing/tail/prop covers and use them. That will prevent the build-up in the first place and you'll be assured of clean wings instead of hoping you got enough off to allow safe flight.

Alaska Wing Covers (907) 696-7172 or Bruce's Covers, http://www.aircraftcovers.com/, both supply excellent products. It's cheap insurance.

One caution, do not use a windshield cover if the wind is going to blow, it will ruin the windshield.

[Bruce Fenstermacher]

Richard makes a good point about filling your wing with acid rich air that I hadn't thought of. On probably two occasions I assisted the sun in melting ice and frost by simply pointing a kerosene fired torpedo heater at the underside of my wings. I did not open them up and I made sure the heater was far enough away not to hurt my potential award winning Rat paint. It doesn't take much to heat the wing panel which in turn heats the inside and top of the wing. Of course I was doing this in PA which is probably a bit warmer than where you are located

[futr_alaskaflyer]

Wing and stabilizer covers. Required equipment in your neighborhood as much as mine. I once flew my 170 through FSJ on my way to Alaska in December. Learned a lot about cold weather flying on that trip

[pdb]

While they are not without their own set of problems, wing and tail covers are a must if you keep your plane outside all winter as I do. http://www.merrillwebcam.org/cams/cs22/index.html (my 170 is on the right, facing the camera.)

I have a set of Kennon mesh covers with the spoilers. The advantage the mesh covers have is that they are much less susceptible to winds. Every year here in Anchorage, we have wing surfaces destroyed by plain fabric covers are left on when big winds come up.

Kennon makes good mesh covers as does Linda Drummond at http://www.alaskawingcovers.com/WingCovers.html . The advantage of using Linda is that if you have some sort of unusual wing (that would be unusual in Peoria anyway) such as a C-170 with a Sportsmen's kit, vg's, drooped tips, etc, she has probably already done a set or can drive down to Birchwood in 10 minutes to measure a 170 similarly equipped if she has to.

The bigger problem for me is winter canopy care. I have seen too many canopies with covers ruined by wind, especially in areas that are dusty or sandy, ie. gravel strips, proximity to glaciers, construction sites, whatever, such that I do not use a canopy cover. The grit gets under the cover and the wind motion grinds the grit into your expensive canopy. They might be a good idea if you keep them clean and can readily get them off your plane if the winds come up. I can't always do that as I travel on business regularly.

I am not sure what the best way is to deal with canopy snow and ice. I try to brush away snow with my bare fingers. Finger prints wash off and don't scratch. The downside is obvious when it's cold. When all else fails, I use a credit card to scrape the ice off. The credit card plastic appears to be softer than my canopy but this can't be a good long term solution. So far, my 12 year old canopy looks nearly new. I am fortunate that I now have electricity at my tie down so I use two electric heaters, one to warm the interior (Canadian Tire Pyroil ) and the other to warm the engine under the engine cover. The interior heater seems to warm the ice off enough to get the worst of the ice off. However, if anyone has a better idea, please let me know.

Don't leave the heaters on all the time, you may well burn up your plane. A timer works well but I only set the timer the day before I intend to fly. I do not allow it to cycle every day.

If anyone has a better idea, please let me know.

[N171Q]

I use this. http://www.reiffpreheat.com/Beeper%20Box%20pg%201.htm

You stick the cheapest pager money can buy inside the box, and then just call your plane to get it warming up an hour or so before you fly. It costs quite a bit, but I figure I fly 100% more in the winter than I would be able to without it. With a enrgine heater/blanket and a ceramic space heater in the cabin, the ice and frost have usually melted off the windsheild, the gyros are warmed up, the engine/battery/starter are ready to go, and the cabin temp is downright plesant.

It will also turn the heat off remotely with a second phone call, or you can set it to time out on its own.