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Cold weather and flying

I lived and flew in Alaska for over 40 years, 18+ years in Fairbanks where -20F was my cutoff without a really good reason. I did do one multi day SAR in a T-34 where it was -55F and my lunch would be frozen 2 hours after take off unless I kept it inside my clothing. I had my C-206 out one day at -45F but that borders on sheer stupidity. Doors didn't want to close and plastic cracked but the real problem is survivability if you go down. In all likelihood you will be injured in the landing(crash) and in that country you will spend at least one night before rescue.

The reason for the -20F cutoff was that you would be looking at a long time between flights if you wait for anything much warmer. Winter flying in that country can be very rewarding with nearly unlimited visibility, outstanding aircraft performance and smooth air. And, there was usually an inversion so a couple of thousand feet up it would be significantly warmer. But, that won't help if you get to spend some unexpected time in the middle of nowhere.
 
FlyArmy said:
Speaking of cracked canopies, I had my plane on the ramp for a 2 nights at Angel Fire, NM, with the intent of bringing it in the hangar a night before I was to leave. I was pushing it in the hangar today and what do I find? I nice 4 inch crack straight up from the canopy locking handle that wasn't there when I parked her. Now, what to do. I am definitely not a builder, but I am assuming I can stop drill it and fly it home, maybe put some tape over it? How hard is it to replace a canopy, or have one replaced? Having never built I'm more inclined to either keep it as is, with a stop drill, or have someone replace it at next cond. inspection in July (I'll be deployed for a while so I don't mind the out of commission time...). Safe to fly until then? I'm wondering if there is a stress from the canopy handle that is the root of the problem? Thoughts? Thanks!
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I flew with a 12" crack (behind the passenger's head) that was stop-drilled and taped with clear packing tape for about a year and a half before I got around to installing the new canopy. It will definitely take some work, but it is not really what I would call hard. The frustrating part is not the canopy, it is that your skirt fit will most likely change, requiring fiberglass work and repainting.
 
49clipper said:
Schu,
I have since blocked off of 45% of my cowl exit area. Have not have the opportunity to fly since. In years past, with my Luscombe, I did the same thing you suggested and blocked off my inlets with plates and drilled one inch holes in them until I got my oil temps up (which it did), but had no way to no what the cylinders were doing at that time. I am reluctant to do that with the RV since it has such small inlets anyway. I would rather restrict the outlet so i do not screw up the airflow inside the cowl area above the cylinders. I did call Lycoming and they were pretty stumped. They want to see pictures of my oil cooler, hoses, and baffles, which I have already sent. They say, don't worry about the cyl temps till they get below 150f. But, the oil is another story of course. I also have removed a quart of oil (to five qts) which I know should bring the temp up some. The minimum on these lycs is 2 qts but recommended no less than four for normal use, so that will not hurt it. I have found that with less oil, the temps go up about 5-10f for each quart low which of course makes perfect sense to me.
I am an AP/IA and work on lots of aircraft, but have never run across this problem before (except J-3 cubs). Normally its a challenge to get them cool.
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From a purely scientific standpoint it shouldn't matter which end you block since it's the flow of air from one end to another that does the cooling. I would fly it and see how it works out.

Removing oil seems reasonable, as it's less mass to heat up, but then again, a single quart of oil shouldn't make enough difference to solve the root issue which is your engine isn't warming up.

I'm not an IA/AP and am hesitant to disagree with Lycoming, but I will say that I wouldn't feel comfortable with 150F cyls knowing what I know about air cooled engines. I would be looking for at least 250.

I do agree that this sounds rather odd in that it's way colder than it should be. What temps do you see in the summer? Did you do anything different with your baffles or intake outlet air vents? Is your RV built to plans in these areas?

schu
 
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