Roger Halstead writes:

Problem is...the Deb doesn't warm up till I'm at cruise, or duri8ng a
long climb to altitude.

You can actually stay comfortable in heavy slacks and a long sleeve
shirt, but that is *after* climb out. :-))

The heat in my Warrior is more than sufficient to keep the cockpit
warm enough for no coat or gloves at -30 degC OAT once I'm flying (I
have to turn it down quite a bit), but then, in the winter I'm always
wearing an extra layer of socks and thermal underwear just in case.
One of my favourite ways to fly in the winter is to open the overhead
vent a bit *and* pump the heater up to full, but that's probably just
strange.

Getting the Cub Cadet with snow blower out, cleaning the ramp and
maybe even part of the taxiway does not make the inside of the plane
feel any warmersigh It's kinda like working in an unfinished house
in the winter. Man, but it gets cold in there.

I pay more than some people (CAD 65/month =~ USD 47/month) for an
outside tiedown on the grass, but since my tiedown happens to be at a
major airport (CYOW), I have the benefit of its services, like two ILS
approaches and good snow removal.

Unlike the summer storms, you can fly over a blizzard at some where
between 3000 and 5000 AGL. The winter storms seldom get very high.
But I have been sitting "up there" and after hearing some of the
conversations on UNICOM thinking it'd be real nice to have one more
fan. That was when I realized it's a good idea to not only have a way
out, but have a way down when single engine.

This will be my first winter flying with my instrument rating, so I'll
have a lot of learning to do. Last winter, when I was doing the IFR
training, we couldn't find IMC no matter how hard we looked.


All the best,


David