2020 Mackay, Idaho Regatta

On Sunday, November 10, 2019 at 10:54:29 AM UTC-8, Matt Herron (Sr) wrote:
On Thursday, October 31, 2019 at 8:43:34 AM UTC-7, Dan Marotta wrote:
In the past, at another location, a friend and I on safari rented a
large O2 bottle from the local medical supplier.Â* Cost was $42 for a
month though we only needed it for a week.Â* We brought our own
trans-fill hose and, at the end of the week, offered free O2 for anyone
who wanted it.

On 10/31/2019 8:40 AM, Brian wrote:
On Thursday, October 31, 2019 at 6:41:46 AM UTC-6, John DeRosa OHM Ω http://aviation.derosaweb.net wrote:
I must ask about the lack of "nearby" oxygen refills.

The regatta is 10 days long. The field elevation is 5892ft. So oxygen use would be expected and refills would be needed.

The limiting factor is then how far away would one have to travel to get a quick turnaround refill?

Thanks, John
He is just saying that commercially available oxygen is not available close by, so don't plan on coming and then filling up your oxygen bottles because the supply is limited. If you are coming and can bring extra please do, If you need oxygen please coordinate with Tom, a number of us bring extra, But availability is a bit potluck, if you don't bring your own. So far we have always had enough, and just want to keep it that way.

--
Dan, 5J

Oxygen is Oxygen. There is no difference between aviation and commercial welding oxygen except for liability insurance. I once ran a welding business so I have a large bottle of welding Oxygen that I use to refill my glider bottle. Done it for years. no problem.
And it's easy to rent a welding bottle from any commercial supplier for far less bucks.
Matt Herron

I spoke to an O2 supplier about this once. He agreed that "oxygen is oxygen", but he said that there is a cleanliness standard for medical and PBO bottles. Contamination from a bottle may cause a system malfunction which in a welding application is no big deal, but in PBO or medical could be fatal..

It would seem to me that contaminated oxygen used to weld the airplane together could be Fatal also.

Brian wrote on 11/11/2019 9:13 PM:
It would seem to me that contaminated oxygen used to weld the airplane together could be Fatal also.

I was told many years ago by a gas supplier, that welding oxygen has strict
contamination requirements, and that we can safely breathe oxygen that a welder
would reject.

Concerns over water freezing in the regulator seem exaggerated: even if a bottle
had only humid air in it before filling, that air will be only 15psi/2000psi =
0.0075 = 0.75% of the bottle after filling, reducing the humidity by over a 100.
The dewpoint is then well below -30F, so it's not going to freeze in the regulator.

--
Eric Greenwell - Washington State, USA (change ".netto" to ".us" to email me)
- "A Guide to Self-Launching Sailplane Operation"
https://sites.google.com/site/motorg...ad-the-guide-1