Cold Weather Flying

"David Megginson" wrote ..
"Nils Rostedt" writes:

Exactly. And when jumping into the plane after this workout
exercise, the body sweat promptly converts to ice on the windows ;(.

Try leaving the storm window open at first, until the defroster is
pumping out enough heat. That trick works to keep a car from frosting
or fogging up as well (just open the windows a bit).

Right, that's standard practice here in winter. The problem is, that the
defroster has very poor effect during the warm-up and slow taxi phase.
Sufficient warm air only starts to flow during the take-off run when full
power is applied.

At least this is the case in the two-seaters I've flown. Maybe the bigger
tin cans do better. Anyway I've found it's much more comfortable (and safe)
to go inside, or to my car, and quickly switch into a dry shirt before
boarding the cold airplane. Less frost on the canopy, and a much warmer
feeling until the plane's heater finally kicks in. Hey, every bushpilot has
a spare shirt anyway ;-)

/ Nils
Helsinki, Finland

"Nils Rostedt" writes:

Hey, every bushpilot has a spare shirt anyway ;-)

Bush pilots can afford spare shirts? You must be paying them too much
in Finland.


All the best,


David

In article GFThb.738459$uu5.125046@sccrnsc04, Jay Honeck wrote:
Mike, I'd check to make sure the passenger compartment is relatively
airtight. When we flew our Warrior at that temperature (I've not had the

Apparently the opposite can cause a problem as well. Somebody on
the Short-Wing Piper list recently was complaining about having sealed
up everything, and now it's cold in the winter. Apparently, if you
seal too much, once the cabin gets 'pressurized', the heater isn't moving
warm air into the cabin anymore.

But that's just what I hear. Alternately, you could move to Houston,
and then you'd never need your airplane heater again.

Tina Marie
--
http://www.tripacerdriver.com "...One of the main causes
of the fall of the Roman Empire was that, lacking zero, they had no way
to indicate successful termination of their C programs." (Robert Firth)

"David Megginson" wrote in message
...

At -10 degC, my PA-28-161 will usually turn over and fire just fine
without preheat (also copper cables), and I'm not sure how old the
battery is. At first I had the heater plugged in for any subzero
temperatures, but now I just do it when it's significantly cold out.

During my renter days in Montreal the flight school was adamant about
plugging in the aircraft below 0 degC. Their take was, warm oil spreads
itself around faster than colder oil and this would minimize start-up wear
and tear.

From my relatively inexperienced point of view, I'd suggest having
everything checked -- battery, wiring, starter, primer lines, mags,
etc. -- given that we have similar planes and your summer start is
already suboptimal. It won't be any fun being stuck at a little
country airport in the winter with a plane that won't start.

I will be talking to the mechanic sometime this week and ask him to work his
way forward from the battery to the starter. Hopefully it will be an
el-cheapo fix, like cleaning contact surfaces. I'll post the results.

By the way, my AME showed me a great trick for starting in general,
but one that's especially useful in the winter. Instead of opening
the throttle to get the engine to catch, keep the throttle almost
closed and pump the primer while cranking -- it seems to work much
better, and you don't end up surging the engine at 1200-1500 RPM (or
worse) when everything's still cold.

My instructor in Montreal used to do this, I just need to remember to do it
nex time.

Cheers!

Jose Vivanco

C-GPYH @ CYRO

On Tue, 14 Oct 2003 23:28:09 -0400, "Jose Vivanco"
wrote:

During my renter days in Montreal the flight school was adamant about
plugging in the aircraft below 0 degC. Their take was, warm oil spreads
itself around faster than colder oil and this would minimize start-up wear
and tear.

That also reduces the size difference between the various engine parts.

Although Lycoming recommends preheat for temps below 20°F (-7°C), I find
that my Lycoming IO360A1A starts much more briskly and easily if I preheat
below about 35°F.


Ron (EPM) (N5843Q, Mooney M20E) (CP, ASEL, ASES, IA)

Apparently the opposite can cause a problem as well. Somebody on
the Short-Wing Piper list recently was complaining about having sealed
up everything, and now it's cold in the winter. Apparently, if you
seal too much, once the cabin gets 'pressurized', the heater isn't moving
warm air into the cabin anymore.

Well, I sealed up every air leak I could find in my old Warrior, and only
made it warmer -- but I suppose you could reach a point of being TOO sealed.

All I know is I've sure never seen a plane that was too tightly sealed.
Most planes I've ridden in are at least 20 years old, and leak air like
sieves.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

Jay Honeck wrote:

All I know is I've sure never seen a plane that was too tightly sealed.
Most planes I've ridden in are at least 20 years old, and leak air like
sieves.

Hey let's not go giving sieves bad names. At least they stop *something*. :-)

Russell Kent

"Jay Honeck" wrote in message
news:qgijb.777606$YN5.761167@sccrnsc01...
All I know is I've sure never seen a plane that was too tightly sealed.
Most planes I've ridden in are at least 20 years old, and leak air like
sieves.

Mine doesn't help much by having a 1.5" gap between the back
of the canopy and the fuselage. :-) The heater's quite good though,
at least for temperatures I've flown in.

Paul