IFR decisions... one more tale

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ememic99
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Re: IFR decisions... one more tale

Post by ememic99 »

CFIDave wrote:As an aside, I bought an adapter/regulator from Mountain High for about $250 that permits the portable Mountain High O2D2 pulse-demand "black box" (which I previously used with our DA40) to attach to any of the 4 built-in O2 outlets of the DA42; 2 people can then attach the Mountain High cannulas or masks to the O2D2 box.
Does this mean that 2 O2D2 (or 4 O2D1) boxes and 4 adapters (In-line Stabilizing Regulator) are needed for 4 seats if you want to use MH pulse demand system?

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Re: IFR decisions... one more tale

Post by BRS »

ememic99 wrote:
CFIDave wrote:As an aside, I bought an adapter/regulator from Mountain High for about $250 that permits the portable Mountain High O2D2 pulse-demand "black box" (which I previously used with our DA40) to attach to any of the 4 built-in O2 outlets of the DA42; 2 people can then attach the Mountain High cannulas or masks to the O2D2 box.
Does this mean that 2 O2D2 (or 4 O2D1) boxes and 4 adapters (In-line Stabilizing Regulator) are needed for 4 seats if you want to use MH pulse demand system?

Emir

Yes & No. If you mostly fly with only two people or less then you only need one O2D2 and a four place manifold. Two of your your flight can breath continuous for the occational high altitude flight. On the other hand if you fly with 3 or more often then the price of a second O2D2 makes sense depending upon how long your flights are and how much O2 costs.
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tonylee
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Re: IFR decisions... one more tale

Post by tonylee »

Aart wrote:Antoine,

As to oxygen, check scuba-diving outfits, although I don't know if there are any at Lac Leman..
Better yet, go to a local blacksmith. I am fortunate to know one in my village and I really have to make an effort to pay him. O2 in a welding bottle costs really very little he tells me, and I don't think that 'medical' O2 brings anything. Else I guess I would have noticed by now..
Scuba outfits don't use oxygen tanks. They use air tanks. Home health companies can supply the oxygen tanks. $110 for a small bottle seems awfully expensive.
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Re: IFR decisions... one more tale

Post by Steve »

tonylee wrote:
Aart wrote:Antoine,

As to oxygen, check scuba-diving outfits, although I don't know if there are any at Lac Leman..
Better yet, go to a local blacksmith. I am fortunate to know one in my village and I really have to make an effort to pay him. O2 in a welding bottle costs really very little he tells me, and I don't think that 'medical' O2 brings anything. Else I guess I would have noticed by now..
Scuba outfits don't use oxygen tanks. They use air tanks. Home health companies can supply the oxygen tanks. $110 for a small bottle seems awfully expensive.
I believe that Aart is suggesting SCUBA shops as a source of breathing oxygen, which they are. NITROX is a breathing mixture of nitrogen and oxygen (typically 32% or 36% O2) that is mixed at the SCUBA shop and used to fill tanks. They can fill tanks with 100% O2 (for rebreathers) as well...

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Re: IFR decisions... one more tale

Post by CFIDave »

ememic99 wrote:
CFIDave wrote:As an aside, I bought an adapter/regulator from Mountain High for about $250 that permits the portable Mountain High O2D2 pulse-demand "black box" (which I previously used with our DA40) to attach to any of the 4 built-in O2 outlets of the DA42; 2 people can then attach the Mountain High cannulas or masks to the O2D2 box.
Does this mean that 2 O2D2 (or 4 O2D1) boxes and 4 adapters (In-line Stabilizing Regulator) are needed for 4 seats if you want to use MH pulse demand system?

Emir
Emir: welcome to DAN.

You would need 2 In-line stabilizing regulators and 2 O2D2 black box units for 3 or 4 people in a DA42 using Mountain High gear. There would need to be one stabilizing regulator per O2D2 box. Each regulator and associated O2D2 box can be connected to any of the 4 built-in O2 outlets of the DA42. Each connection would be as follows:

DA42 built-in outlet --> In-line Stabilizing Regulator --> O2D2 box --> 2 cannulas (or masks).

We usually plug our system into either of the two overhead built-in outlets intended for rear seat passengers. This keeps the tubing behind the front seat crew and out of the way.
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ememic99
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Re: IFR decisions... one more tale

Post by ememic99 »

CFIDave wrote:DA42 built-in outlet --> In-line Stabilizing Regulator --> O2D2 box --> 2 cannulas (or masks).

We usually plug our system into either of the two overhead built-in outlets intended for rear seat passengers. This keeps the tubing behind the front seat crew and out of the way.
Thanks for the clarification and thanks for the welcome.

I'm new to the forum and I didn't know whether it was usual to make some introductory post, so I started with qeustions :)
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Re: IFR decisions... one more tale

Post by Antoine »

(welcome Emir)

I guess Kai is going to come back soon from wherever he is now, apply "après Sun" liberally on his skin and... split this thread in 2.

So here some more about the oxygen thingy. Asking for opinions and advice:

I found a soldering supplies specialist right next to my home. One can rent from them an oxygen bottle and have it refilled as/when needed, The rental costs $ 80 per year and the refill (5 liter bottle / 200 bar) is $ 40.

This bottle is good for maybe 3 refills of my SkyOx bottle which holds 9 cu. ft / 250 liters per manufacturer specs.
If we start using O2 all the time (I would like to because most of our flying is @ 9K and I know I need it) 1-2 refills of the steel bottle per year should be enough. Very convenient. They also have 10 and 20 liter bottles in case my assumption turns out to be optimistic. But this is already cheap enough that I consider the problem fixed.

And then another idea occurred to me :
The welder's bottle which is made of steel weighs 11 Kg (25 lbs) full with 4x the capacity of my current SkyOx (1000 liters).
How about directly carrying this one on board when only the 2 of us are flying and keeping the SkyOx for flights with more than 2 on board?
The bottle is heavy, of course, but 25 lbs is still acceptable most of the time and here the benefits:
- fill pressure is 200 bar (about 4000 psi) versus 150 bar (3200 psi) for aviation bottles.
- can be used until empty (so I don't waste the last 30-40% of every refill which would be the case when transferring).

I would appreciate Pireps about
- how to transfer from one bottle to the other (any dangerous or tricky aspects?)
- where to source adapters ( US-standard 540 thread on my SkyOx bottle).

Thanks everyone!
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Re: IFR decisions... one more tale

Post by ememic99 »

Antoine wrote:- how to transfer from one bottle to the other (any dangerous or tricky aspects?)
From my scuba experience, transfilling equipment has to be oxygen compatible and you have to transfill slowly to avoid increased temperature.
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Re: IFR decisions... one more tale

Post by Antoine »

Yankee17 wrote:
Tommy wrote:What would the 42 have offered you that the 40 could not or did not?
Another thing the 42 offers is the GWX68 integrated weather radar. Would have been very useful to Antoine in this situation, of course. Confidence on where the embedded CBs actually are.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=quH7VCvCEgc
Sorry I have missed this post previously. The video is great. Obviously this is a different league in capability and weather tolerance.

Would weather radar show CBs that are not yet active?
These are places I dont want to visit in any plane...
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