Winter Flying

I have heard of thoughts and preferences on winter flying. All the replies on using heat tapes, nitrogen, hot water etc. I have still not found a way to keep the pressure up on those cold mornings. I have heat tapes on my tanks but am becoming more and more unsure about using them because of the feedback from other pilots. I am currently trying to get a suitable hookup to natural gas as I can see that as being the most safe and easiest. Heat tapes don't heat evenly and that may be not so good especially on oldr tanks. Nitrogen is not good as I have a vapour pilot light and maybe some of you think that is not a problem I am not willing to take a chance on that. I have not heard much feedback on keeping the basket and tanks in a heated garage but I do realize that it recomends not storing a basket in an enclosed area. ( how many of you leave your tanks out in the open). Does anyone keep your tanks and basket in a heated area untill just before flying? I do fly in the winter and sometimes up to -20 C. I prefer natural gas to pressurize my tanks as NG is not going to cause trouble with my pilot light and mixes with the propane. There are NG vehicles here and from what I understand is the pressure in their storage tanks is at 1500 psi.

Just for the record I have never flown with nitrogen, natural gas or a heated garage situation. I have flown with heat tapes on the tanks and also with pressure that has been on the borderline.

You can get mini worthington type cylinders (8lb I think) which will run your vapour pilot lights, these are about 6inches dia and 18 inches high. You can then pressure your flight cylinders with nitrogen

Glen

But I want to pressurize with Natural Gas. Everybody avoids that option.

At least around here, natural gas is available only at very low pressures - less than 0.5 psi. Pretty hard to get it into a tank that has at least 20 psi even when very cold.

From what I understand the NG vehicles that we have hook up to a .5 psi line and overnight they have a little pump that fills the tank to 1500psi(way more than you need.) At this rate you would be able to fill a cylander and use it to pressurize your propane tanks without ever a worry about pilot light failure. Does this make

What I want for pressurization is something that is safe, reliable, dependable, and portable.

Heat tapes are reliable, dependable, and portable, if you have electricity or a generator available. From a safety point of view, the only problem I have is making sure that the tank is not overheated.

Nitrogen is reliable, dependable, and portable. The pressure produced is good when the propane tank is full, but drops as the tank is emptied. You can carry a tank around in the chase truck. There is a huge fireball produced when first burning off a tank that has been nitrogen charged. There are the problems potentially associated with vapor pilot lights, but I think that you are overly cautious here.

Natural gas is safe at 0.5 psi. I don't know how safe it is at 1500 psi. It is NOT portable, at least not where I live.