Winter flying

Greg S

I was just curious - Living "up nort", the lousy white stuff will be arriving soon, and was just wondering how much peoples flying is reduced by the cold weather? Do you find the plane is just sitting, waiting for warmer weather or is it still pretty easy to get out and fly? I know that myself, being the warm-blooded type, I have to force myself to get out in the winter (except for deer hunting, of course). I'm hoping that when the weather is nice, getting up in the air will be sufficient motivation to head to the airport, in spite of the snow. I've still got about 6 years before AZ becomes a wintertime option!

Greg S

Yup, I'll put those on my to-do list - right under finding the cure for the common cold. Sorry, I just hate the cold. Always have, always will. Hopefully the desire to fly will outweigh the desire to keep from freezing my cajones off.

vcollazo

Keep it in a warm hangar or buy a good preheater and it's really not much of a problem. Most days there's not a probability of icing at useful altitudes. Like someone said earlier, your aircraft performance is much improved. I've owned a 1958 Mooney, a 1965 Cherokee 235, and now a 1968 Navajo that doesn't have boots or heated props, and I've rarely had to delay or cancel a trip in the winter.

flyguydon

I live in Florida and Winter flying is no problem at all!

Kurt Knoth

Greg, I would agree with the comments above that winter flying can be some of the best! I don't mind night flying (and with the white stuff on the ground, the visibility is better), so that doesn't slow me down. The only thing around here (West Michigan) that is a hassle in the winter are the low ceilings that come from lake Michigan. Other than that, I plug in my block heater when it gets below 15 or 20 degrees and crank up the heat in the Warrior! Kurt PS: It's also a good idea to check all NOTAMS (we all do that anyway, right??) before charging out. Some airports (Like my 3GM) do not plow all runways in the winter. Found that out the hard way!

Greg S

Thanks a lot, Don! Well, I'm glad to see the favorable comments on winter flying in the frozen tundra. I was afraid everyone would come back and say that they just wrap up their plane till spring. Now I'm actually looking forward to it. Not for the love of winter, but just for another flying experience. I know that things like haze and bumpy wx are not much of a factor, and because I'm pretty much a fair weather flyer, if the proper steps are taken, it should be fun. I'd imagine landings on runways with light snow will probably be one reason to keep on your toes.

houston21481

I'll echo what the others said. On the one hand, preflight is less pleasant in the cold, but you make up for it postflight with no bugs to remove. From an engine perspective, you should become knowledgeable about preheating (lots of old threads on this board about that) and make sure to keep your oil temperature up in flight. Even with the oil cooler plate on my Warrior, I find that, below 20F, I need to cover the entire oil cooler. Your mileage may vary. All of my flying has been in southwest MI or upstate NY and, in both places, the main limiting factors on my flying are (1) ceilings, (2) whether the airport is plowed and open, and (3) whether I can get my airplane out of and back into my hangar singlehandedly on an icy ramp (Yak Trax work great, by the way, for foot traction on the ice when moving an airplane). I also don't tend to go far from home base in the winter because I want to avoid parking overnight someplace unless I can get access to preheating or a heated hangar. If stopping somewhere for a $100 hamburger, cowl plugs can do wonders for trapping residual heat in the engine compartment for when it's time to go (barring that, don't point the nose into the wind).

It probably goes without saying, but make sure you have a CO detector in the cabin. Important year round, but particularly so when you're using your heater.

Happy (winter) flying!

flyguydon

If your plane lives outside, be sure to get all the frost off the wings. Even light frost can alter flying qualities enough to be trouble. Before starting, get the oil flowing first. Do this by cranking the engine over about 5-10 seconds before you do any priming. Leave the electric pump off, leave the mixture at idle cut off, leave the throttle at the lowest place and crank for 5 to 10 seconds. This will begin to flow oil prior to any load being put on anything. Whatever you do, let the engine warm up enough that the oil pressure is not over the high limit at higher RPM. I have heard of folks blowing the oil filter wide open on takeoff.

houston21481

Kurt Knoth wrote:

Some airports (Like my 3GM) do not plow all runways in the winter.

Grand Haven! I used to be based at South Haven. Small world.

bradsdecks

I'm right there with ya Greg.... HATE cold weather. I once went flying when it was only 45 degrees out! Burrr!

Greg S

I sure appreciate the sympathy from the folks in Florida & Texas! We've got our eye on the Casa Grande,AZ area, but until then, I'll just keep a few pair of "long handles" handy. (and gloves, jackets, tooks, sorels, snow shovels, snowblowers, etc.)

Jeff S

flyguydon wrote:

If your plane lives outside, be sure to get all the frost off the wings. Even light frost can alter flying qualities enough to be trouble. Before starting, get the oil flowing first. Do this by cranking the engine over about 5-10 seconds before you do any priming. Leave the electric pump off, leave the mixture at idle cut off, leave the throttle at the lowest place and crank for 5 to 10 seconds. This will begin to flow oil prior to any load being put on anything. Whatever you do, let the engine warm up enough that the oil pressure is not over the high limit at higher RPM. I have heard of folks blowing the oil filter wide open on takeoff.

I generally don't disagree with Don's advice but on this one I've always heard the exact opposite. When I was first taking lessons, my CFI would hand rotate the prop a few turns on cooler days to "get the oil circulating." But when I became an owner and researched this some, most of the advice I saw from folks was that this can actually do more damage than good, because when all you're doing is turning the prop you're just scraping off what little oil is left on the parts without adding any more to it, since the oil pump isn't really active. So that when you DO finally start it up you've actually created a greater potential for metal-on-metal abrasion.

Can anyone point to a definitive procedure that's been recommended or approved by the engine manufacturer? I had the manual for my old O-320 but sold it with the Warrior, and haven't bought the one for my IO-360.

MurrayG

This is what I found

0320 start

Jeff S

So it seems that the most consistent advice is to preheat, about which there is little disagreement (except maybe at what temps it becomes really important). The question of turning the crankshaft without starting is secondary, but I suppose one would argue that doing so WITHOUT preheating is perhaps the most problematic, as in that case even if hand turning does activate the oil pump, the fact is the oil will not be moving as well so there is a stronger likelihood of scraping off the old before the new can be applied.

Let's switch gears a bit although on the same theme. I'm in Atlanta so temps seldom get below freezing. And unfortunately I do have to keep my plane outside because of a dearth of nearby hangar space. However, the plane I bought came with a nicely operating Tanis heater system installed, which requires 120v power. Has anyone come up with an easy-to-implement, economical approach to portable power that I could use on those few sub-freezing mornings when pre-heating would be prudent?

PropFan

That's a great question, Jeff. I hope someone has a good solution.

I realize I'm coming to this conversation a little late, but thought I would let you know that I emailed Lycoming several months ago about whether they recommend turning the prop over by hand before cold starting. Their answer was no. I'll try to find that email and paste the text into a post. Their Key Reprints section on Cold-weather Operations (see page 48) contains a number of helpful tips, but it does not mention turning the prop over prior to a cold start.

Piper Tech

That is correct. In fact you can blow off the jugs on a radial even in warm weather, and even if the engine doesnt fire up. It is called hyrolock and when the piston compresses the oil that is sitting in the bottom of the cylinder it has nowhere to go.

Jeff S

Guest wrote:

It would seem that a much better solution would be to get one of those little lightweight gen-sets you see for sale so cheap in Walmart etc. You could even plug it in with a predetermined amount of fuel to allow it to run just long enough to warm the engine so you can go for lunch or such without having to worry about how long it is running. My experience with inverters is that they need a heck of lot of battery to power something like a heater.

Thanks all. I've looked at both power inverters and generators, and either of those do seem the only option. The power inverter I would need only costs about $50, but then I'd be leaving my car engine on for the 1-3 hours necessary to get the temps up. Generators allow me to walk away for awhile, but I hadn't seen any for less than $500 or so. I'll check at Wal-Mart, though...didn't think about that as a source.

Piper Tech

Check Harbor Freights website too. I have bought quite a bit of stuff there with good results. In fact, I bought a Chicago Electric 3500 watt generator there about 3 years ago for $250 brand new and not reconditioned and runs/starts great. I can run it for 8+ hours @ half load (approx 1500 watts) and only use about 4 gallons of fuel. You might not need one that big either. You can look at the heater requirement to see how many watts you will need and then get just a little bigger wattage for the initial start up of the heater. To find how many watts you need, take the amprage of the heater and multipy the volts to get watts (9 amps x 120 volts = 1080 watts). So if this was your case, then I would go with a 1500 watt or larger generator.