Small airport cold-weather starting - Tanis good enough?

OK, so you fly your 4-cylinder Lycoming to a small airport in cold
weather, and if your plane is like mine (Archer O-360), starting in
frigid weather without preheat or an hour in a warm hangar is nearly
impossible. I haven't ever flown to an airport where there was not an
FBO with a hangar or preheat to bail me out, but now I need to.

Question: Is it enough to wrap the blanket around the cowl and plug in
the Tanis even though the plane is sitting outside with the cold wind?
How often do airports offer this?

MV Gossman

On 30 Nov 2004 15:43:12 -0800, (Mitchel Gossman)
wrote:

OK, so you fly your 4-cylinder Lycoming to a small airport in cold
weather, and if your plane is like mine (Archer O-360), starting in
frigid weather without preheat or an hour in a warm hangar is nearly
impossible. I haven't ever flown to an airport where there was not an
FBO with a hangar or preheat to bail me out, but now I need to.

Question: Is it enough to wrap the blanket around the cowl and plug in
the Tanis even though the plane is sitting outside with the cold wind?
How often do airports offer this?

MV Gossman

Tanis with an insulated wrap will be fine, so long as electricity is
available. Also, if you will only be at the airport for a few hours, the
blanket should be enough even in frigid weather.

For many years, my airplane was at an outdoor tiedown at KASH with nearby
electricity. OAT's down to 0°F were not unusual. I did have an insulated
blanket. CHT's 80-100°F and oil temp 60-70°F were the norm. (My Tanis has
both cylinder and oil heaters).

BUT, you will need to call to assess the availability of electricity; and
you may have to carry a long extension cord.


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

Do a google search of this group.
Honeck did what you are asking last winter in Wisconsin.

Mitchel Gossman wrote:
OK, so you fly your 4-cylinder Lycoming to a small airport in cold
weather, and if your plane is like mine (Archer O-360), starting in
frigid weather without preheat or an hour in a warm hangar is nearly
impossible. I haven't ever flown to an airport where there was not an
FBO with a hangar or preheat to bail me out, but now I need to.

Question: Is it enough to wrap the blanket around the cowl and plug in
the Tanis even though the plane is sitting outside with the cold wind?
How often do airports offer this?

MV Gossman

Depending on "how" cold it is, and if the wind is blowing, it could be
enough. I've done it several times without a blanket and without cowl plugs
at 20 degrees with out any problems. I would try to park the plane near or
in as much shelter as I could find, even pushing it nose first up close to a
building to keep the wind out of the cowling or at least facing the plane
away from the wind.

The blankets will give you the most "bang for your buck". Put a blanket on
the cowl, plug up the openings in the cowl and plug in the heater. If you
have access to a "trouble light", in addition to the tanis, you could lay
the trouble light in the bottom of the cowl for extra heat, just keep it
away from the carburetor. (but you mentioned you had an Archer, so unless
you feel like removing the entire top half of the cowl, this doesn't seem
reasonable)

If it's seriously cold, (drastic measures coming soon....) you have the
option of draining the oil and taking it with you, heating it up and keeping
it warm, then pouring it back in the engine before you leave.

There is also a method of carrying a short piece of 3" diameter stove pipe
and a large propane torch. Insert the stove pipe over the exhaust pipe,
light the torch and insert it in the lower end of the stove pipe, let the
heat rise up the pipe through the exhaust system. I think FE Potts used a
gasoline blow torch for this method as there was always gasoline available
from the tanks. I think he also had a method of using a small Weber grill
and some charcoal, setting it under the spinner then draping a blanket clear
over the entire cowl to catch all the heat. Drastic but effective and no
doubt a bit smelly.

I would try to think about what is available at your destination
(electricity? propane? fuel oil?) and take what ever kind of heater I could
use along with me, then obtain what ever kind of fuel it took at my
destination. A piece of scat tube or flexible clothes dryer tube or FE
Potts stove pipe can be used to route the heat up through the bottom of the
cowl. You could carry a 1500 watt ceramic heater or one of those hot air
paint strippers along with you for this purpose, it would also allow you to
pre-heat the cabin before you depart.

After you get it started, just take it easy and let everything come up to
temperature before pushing it to the firewall.

Jim



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MV,

Suggestion: go to AVweb (www.avweb.com) click on "columns" and then
on "The Pilot's Lounge", scroll down to the piece on cold weather
operations. In a nutshell, if you can run an extension cord to the
airplane and put a blanket or sleeping bag over the cowl, you should
be fine. Most cold weather FBOs will help you if you bring at least
100 feet of extension cord. Allow several hours for the Tanis system
to heat things up and use bungees or rope to hold the sleeping bag in
place on the cowling and find something to plug the cooling intakes.
If possible, because you have an extension cord running to the
airplane, set up some sort of heater in the cabin (even a drop cord
lightbulb helps and something to heat the battery so it will provide
some cranking power. I've used a long extension cord with a three
prong plug so that I can plug in the Tanis, a light bulb heater in the
cabin (your gyros aren't necessarily accurate if the cabin temp is
under 40 degress F, and a lightbulb heater at the battery and master
switch solenoid area.

If you want a very good book on cold weather ops, get Fred Potts' book
on bush flying available at www.fepco.com.

All the best,
Rick

(Mitchel Gossman) wrote in message . com...
OK, so you fly your 4-cylinder Lycoming to a small airport in cold
weather, and if your plane is like mine (Archer O-360), starting in
frigid weather without preheat or an hour in a warm hangar is nearly
impossible. I haven't ever flown to an airport where there was not an
FBO with a hangar or preheat to bail me out, but now I need to.

Question: Is it enough to wrap the blanket around the cowl and plug in
the Tanis even though the plane is sitting outside with the cold wind?
How often do airports offer this?

MV Gossman

I haven't ever flown to an airport where there was not an
FBO with a hangar or preheat to bail me out, but now I need to.

Question: Is it enough to wrap the blanket around the cowl and plug in
the Tanis even though the plane is sitting outside with the cold wind?
How often do airports offer this?

Depends on the airport. Call the airport manager per the AOPA
Directory.

For example, SSQ (Shell Lake WI) has a warm building, an outside
accessible outlet, but bring your own extension cords. We have a
posted list of local volunteers to help too.

SSQ manager

Question: Is it enough to wrap the blanket around the cowl and plug in
the Tanis even though the plane is sitting outside with the cold wind?

Sure. We do it all the time.

Last year I parked our plane in Wisconsin on the coldest weekend of the
year. The temperatures were below zero, and the wind was howling.

My oil temps were above 35 degrees at start-up -- considerably lower than
the 80 - 90 that the pan and cylinder heaters usually achieve in my hangar,
but certainly plenty warm compared to the ambient temperature. Here are
some pix from that trip: http://alexisparkinn.com/frigid_january.htm .

The blanket is the key. Without a form-fitting, well secured blanket, all
of your heat will just blow away. (And don't underestimate the wind. It
WILL remove your blanket unless it's velcro'd on securely.)

How often do airports offer this?

Most Midwestern airports have outside outlets -- but you can't always count
on having a long enough extension cord. We carry a 100 foot extension cord
whenever we fly in the winter.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

You've got a Tanis and the best it could do at zero degrees was a 35
degree oil temp? That's pathetic. Hard to tell by your pictures but it
looks like you've got a Kennon fitted nose mitten there. I have a
Kennon as well and at zero degrees my two 50 watt oil pan heaters from
Tractor Supply keep the oil at 100F and each CHT/EGT at 80F. Wind is
not a factor with the cover, although I always try to park facing into
the wind to help the controls. When I go to start the plane it thinks
it's the middle of July. Never understood why people **** away hundreds
of dollars on a Tanis and then you find out their oil temp is 35F on a
zero day.




Jay Honeck wrote:

Question: Is it enough to wrap the blanket around the cowl and plug in
the Tanis even though the plane is sitting outside with the cold wind?


Sure. We do it all the time.

Last year I parked our plane in Wisconsin on the coldest weekend of the
year. The temperatures were below zero, and the wind was howling.

My oil temps were above 35 degrees at start-up -- considerably lower than
the 80 - 90 that the pan and cylinder heaters usually achieve in my hangar,
but certainly plenty warm compared to the ambient temperature. Here are
some pix from that trip: http://alexisparkinn.com/frigid_january.htm .

The blanket is the key. Without a form-fitting, well secured blanket, all
of your heat will just blow away. (And don't underestimate the wind. It
WILL remove your blanket unless it's velcro'd on securely.)


How often do airports offer this?


Most Midwestern airports have outside outlets -- but you can't always count
on having a long enough extension cord. We carry a 100 foot extension cord
whenever we fly in the winter.

You've got a Tanis and the best it could do at zero degrees was a 35
degree oil temp? That's pathetic. Hard to tell by your pictures but it
looks like you've got a Kennon fitted nose mitten there. I have a Kennon
as well and at zero degrees my two 50 watt oil pan heaters from Tractor
Supply keep the oil at 100F and each CHT/EGT at 80F. Wind is not a factor
with the cover, although I always try to park facing into the wind to help
the controls. When I go to start the plane it thinks it's the middle of
July. Never understood why people **** away hundreds of dollars on a
Tanis and then you find out their oil temp is 35F on a zero day.

Actually, the nose cover is something Mary made from a cheap sleeping bag,
and a bunch of velcro. Cost about $15 bucks, and works great.

We were unable to park the plane into the wind, due to the snow, ice, and
the position of the one outlet that actually worked. As a result, the
sub-zero wind (and it was howling) was able to get under and inside the
cover all night long.

The fact that the oil was at least 45 degrees above ambient despite all this
was fairly remarkable, I thought. Under less severe wind conditions, it
easily keeps the engine in the 80s.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"