Jay Honeck wrote:
When we opened the
hangar I immediately noticed a white chunk of ice, about 3 inches tall, on
the astroturf floor of our hangar, right under the leaking tip tank.

Up on the quick drain, some 40 inches above the "snow ball," was a smaller
matching "stalactite" of ice. I picked the "snow ball" up off the floor,
and it appeared (by the smell, and what it melted into) to be pure gasoline.

Is it possible for this to be pure gasoline? It had been extremely cold
the night before (5 above zero), but I wonder what the freezing temperature
of gasoline is?

The melting point of pure octane is -57C (-71F) and gasoline is a
mixture of similar compounds so should be somewhat lower.

My guess is that the snowball was almost pure water with
just enough impurity to give it a scent. If the
gasoline was slowly dripping out and evaporating it
would pick up some condensing water vapor from the air.
The gasoline then evaporates and leaves behind the
water that freezes.