De Ice Literage

[javelin]

My mate flies a weeny Jetstream 41 and got a bill for 400 litres of de ice the other day.

Now I thought that a Jetstream would float in 400 litres of de ice fluid, and at £2 - 3 per litre was a little expensive.

What literage are you seeing this winter for little and big aeroplanes ?

I fly an A330 but haven't been de iced yet this winter - been a little slow ;)

[saggst]

We de-iced A 738-W and used about 180 - 200 litres !! only a light frost though

A B757-200 laden with snow / ice and frost we used 900 litres!!

[Swedish Steve]

Yes it really depends on the conditions. Light frost and no precipitation around 150-200 litres.
Aircraft covered in snow that has frozen on, and it is snowing, can go over 2000 litres.
Unless you are lucky and your deicer uses a hot air blower, or hot water. We use both here. Loose snow is blown off the wing first before deicing starts. The blower is part of the deice truck. Also frozen snow is removed by first using hot water until the wing is clean, the the aircraft is deiced normally. The deicing co charges a fixed charge per deicing plus a fee for each litre, but they are responsible for remoing the fluid from the ramp so using less fluid is actually a plus for them.