I use a little pancake compressor and it does fine. You don't need a big compressor with a big storage tank because your goal is not to build up presure and blast the lines with a burst of air.
Volume is what you need and a small compressor that pumps air and forces out the water with air is your goal.
My deep end is 7 ft. so I figure my main drain line pipe is about 8 or 9 ft and my little pancake compressor that I bought at HD works fine.
Just turn it on , let it run , and within 2 min. My main drain starts to bubble with air.
Once that main drain bubbles, close off the valve on the main drain/ skimmer and create an air lock.
Sure there is still some water in the main drain pipe but you have just blow out a majority of the water and the little bit that is left in there is below the frost line anyway and will never freeze.
The people that report that a pancake compressor doesn't work, I bet they are the people that let the compressors tank fill up with air and then blast a burst of air through the line.
Let the little unit run and it will push air which pushes water out.
Look on utube, there are videos of a guy doing it this way . Works great.