closed self service fueling (covid 19 related)

I wouldn't use avgas to wash hands due to the lead, nor regular gas due to the benzene content. Not wild about other lipophilic solvents, though something like paint thinner avoids the problems mentioned for gas.
I've noticed high-proof alcohol making it's way back into liquor stores. Anything from 151 proof rum up to 190 proof Everclear would work just fine, though a partial bottle on the passenger seat might raise questions in a ramp check. If they are doing those now.

Since hand sanitizer and the aloe vera gel recommended to mix with alcohol to make your own hand sanitizer have both vanished from stores, I've been mixing rubbing or drinking alcohol with a bit of hand lotion, making sure to keep the alcohol concentration in the finished product above 65%. The hand lotions I'm using won't dissolve in alcohol, so I just give the container a hard shake before applying, and I find that the presence of even a little hand lotion in the alcohol makes it much less drying on my skin than alcohol alone.
 
Just wondering ... is self service actually better than full service?

It seemed that way to me.

Last couple of time I refueled self service, it was an airport where nobody was there. The last customer used the pump the day before (I could tell, because he didn't tear off his receipt, and mine printed next.) After fueling, I washed my hands inside, and used a paper towel from the restroom to open the doors on the way out.
 
NoHeat said:
Just wondering ... is self service actually better than full service?
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Depends on if the line guy is sick, eh? LOL.

He fuels, you stay away, screw the receipt it’ll be on the card on file if at home base, or whatever...

The variables are all about who got near whom and who touched what. And whether you wipe it off. And that 99.9% hand sanitizer doing the 0.1% thing. And ... and... and...

LOL. Ain’t no real way to win with this thing. Sooner or later you go to the grocery store and stick your finger in your eye. Ha.

My wife was wiping off individual Coke cans that came out of the carton two nights ago. I laughed and said the machine probably didn’t have the ‘Rona that put them in there. And if Coke had an outbreak in the last week, we’d have heard about it.

There’s only so far you can take the paranoia. She laughed and agreed.

Then I sipped from one and tasted the nasty chemical she’d gotten on it and was like, “Good lord, that’ll probably kill me first!” And washed all the cans off with water. LOL LOL LOL.

Nurses and their constant bleaching of everything in sight... I’ve been living with THAT for decades. :)
 
Everclear 150 proof is like $40. I can get 100 proof rot gut vodka for $11 per 1.75 Litre. Mix it overnight with some 3A molecular sieve and it’ll bump up the ethyl alcohol concentration from 50 to at least 65%. You can run it again with fresh sieve beads to dewater it some more. The sieve beads are “recharged” by drying them on a pan in an oven. Isopropyl alcohol is impossible to find. Only recently the TP supply has rebounded to prewar levels. I give credit to the big box stores limiting two per purchase “per day”.
 
GaryM said:
Anything from 151 proof rum up to 190 proof Everclear would work just fine.
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Actually, it doesn't take high alcohol to kill COV-SARS-2. This is the problem with a bunch of rapidly disseminated bullpoop. Tests with actual SARS-COV-2 (the COVID-19 causing virus) show that alcohol down to around 40% works well to kill the virus. The admonitions to use higher concentrations were based on either "bacteria" in the WHO initial recommendations and in other later papers based on other coronaviruses (specifically MERS and the original SARS) that there had been prior availability on. Turns out cov-2 isn't quite as robust in this regard as the earlier ones.

The same thing holds true on the "how long does it persist" on surfaces studies. Almost none of the ones out there cited by the press are ones based on cov-2.

There is also indications that pure (or nearly pure) alcohol isn't effective because it evaporates before fully killing the virus present on the surface.

And as for carrying it in the plane, be careful, while I don't think the FAA regs specifically prohibit it, many state's open container law (such as here in North Carolina), is not limited to cars. It's a crime here to carry one in the airplane.
 
flyingron said:
And as for carrying it in the plane, be careful, while I don't think the FAA regs specifically prohibit it, many state's open container law (such as here in North Carolina), is not limited to cars. It's a crime here to carry one in the airplane.
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So how do biz jets and airliners get away with it then? :confused2:
 
chemgeek said:
Gasoline or other organic solvents are probably too hydrophobic to be effective disinfectants for lipid-coated viruses. Alcohols are better. Plus, I would be worried about lead ingestion from use 100LL indoors or where you are likely to be in contact with residues. Tetraethyllead is highly toxic.
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Actually, gasoline is a perfect substance for dissolving the lipid coating.
 
I was told by a scientist that too much alcohol content applied rapidly could possible form a “shell” around said virus thus possibly not work as intended. Regardless, my de-watering operation leads to more volume of concentrated solution that I can use to make potions for cleaning my CPAP and making hand sanitizer for family and friends.
 
YooperMooney said:
I was told by a scientist that too much alcohol content applied rapidly could possible form a “shell” around said virus thus possibly not work as intended. Regardless, my de-watering operation leads to more volume of concentrated solution that I can use to make potions for cleaning my CPAP and making hand sanitizer for family and friends.
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That would be naked viruses...CV is lipid coated. It can’t infect with that coating broken down. Presumably. Alcohol doesn’t kill everything, but works pretty dang good. When I met my wife, I poured isopropyl alc on my finger and a grinder wheel, tore out the old ex’s ring tattoo, then poured it again on the tissue...no infection :mad:. Come to think of it, alcohol is how I met her to begin with...what an amazingly versatile substance. Seems just throwing some gloves on as some others have mentioned is the easiest thing for someone who is worried about it.

Have to point out...the best way for anyone to protect themselves is to strengthen the internal systems - your body. Ya can’t control where the invisible little viral bullets come from, but you can armor up the body you’re carrying around.
 
From what I've heard, the simplest solution, and a highly effective one, is to wash your hands with soap and water for twenty seconds. According to chemists, that actually renders this coronavirus non-functional.
 
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