Gas Venting Stations (GVS)
Never really put much thought about them being a serious hazard, there is one about 3 miles off the departure end of my grass strip, I would give it a slight swerve and move on. As I have mentioned before most of my flying throughout the 90’s early 2000’s was done in the US southwest and I can’t recall seeing GVS’s marked on the sectionals or terminal charts if there was there was not many compared to the UK. I recently bought UK charts and the symbol tends to jump out at you. Last Sunday night in the pub I got talking to the maintenance guy from the GVS near me and he gave me a whole new appreciation of their dangers. The conversation started out with me saying “what’s the big deal if I am flying over the top at 1500 feet and you release a bit gas”, he responded with “ was 3 half mile lengths of 36 inch pipes pressurised to 80 bar my idea of “a bit gas”? I was astounded at the amount of gas that may be released during routine pipe maintenance. He also said that for it to be a danger it had to have a content of between 5 to 15% oxygen. I asked what altitude did he estimate during a average no wind day would the rising gas get to that threshold of oxygen, he was not sure but did say that if he was a pilot he would not be knobbing around directly above a station venting under the 5000 ft. level This gave me a whole new appreciation for the symbol on the chart !
Last edited by piperboy84; 16th Sep 2012 at 23:02.