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Does anyone remove wheel pants for winter ops?

D

Dean Pichon

Well Known Member
Today I had to scrub my "mission" due to the slush/ice/snow on the ramp near my hangar. I was concerned for my wheel pants. I always removed the pants from my Citabria for winter operations, but have concerns for some of the remaining parts if I were to do the same with my -4. I would rather not remove the gear leg fairings, but am not sure whether I should fly with gearleg fairings, but without wheel pants. Can anyone share good or bad experiences with wheel pant removal?

Dean Pichon
Bolton, MA
 
Maybe OK if only flying off of paved runways. Your flaps will suffer if there is any gravel...

Steve
N144SH
RV-4, Catto 2 blade
 
On my -3 I had a wheel "freeze up" after running though slush. When I landed it was slushy/ icey and it felt like the brake was on. When I hit dry pavement it broke free and turned fine. I don't know if it would have helped, but it is not be a bad idea to remove them.
 
flying with pants off

I took the pants and nose gear fairing off my -9a for the annual inspection, and left them off for the winter.
the backing plates for the main pants vibrated at low speed on the ground, but oddly this would stop when applying the brakes.
In any case, I then drilled some small holes in the outer tabs of the plates so that I could lockwire them to the axle. With this small tension on them, they no longer vibrate.
I too am a bit concerned about **** flying up into the flaps, but for the 30 second that they are down on rollout, I figure it's worth the risk.
A plus is....it's easy too see how the cooler temps affect tire pressure, and quicker to add a few pounds of air when needed.
 
Dean Pichon said:
Today I had to scrub my "mission" due to the slush/ice/snow on the ramp near my hangar...

Dean Pichon
Bolton, MA
Click to expand...

Well, I had to scrub the month of December and half of January because of snow and ice. For the January part, I had a clear taxi way but the snow bank on each side was too close and too tall.

I haven't tried operating on slushing surfaces yet. Not sure I will.

Karl
 
RV8N said:
Well, I had to scrub the month of December and half of January because of snow and ice. For the January part, I had a clear taxi way but the snow bank on each side was too close and too tall.

I haven't tried operating on slushing surfaces yet. Not sure I will.

Karl
Click to expand...

So....maybe there was ONE good thing about Houston....:rolleyes:
 
RV8N said:
For the January part, I had a clear taxi way but the snow bank on each side was too close and too tall.

I haven't tried operating on slushing surfaces yet. Not sure I will.

Karl
Click to expand...

Don't say that too loud, the high wingers will be all over it! ;)

Don't worry too much about slush and ice, just go flying. I fly VFR in a lot of different surface conditions and really have not met much that will keep me in the hanger. Obviously, you need to use caution and common sense, but winter is a good time to fly. No bugs, thick air, and less traffic. If you leave the wheel pants on just point a heater at them for an hour and the snow and ice will melt.

Some of the best flying is after a light snow of 1-2". It's fun to do T&G's and come around and try to land in your tracks. That is a challenge that is hard to do.
 
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I always fly without pants in winter now :D

During my first winter with the -8 I landed on a slushy day and taxied to the hangar. I pushed the airplane in and left. When I cam back the next day it was a LOT colder and the tires were frozen in the pants. When I got the pants off they were completely full of ice. In fact, you could see the tread pattern.

I'm glad it didn't happen in flight. That woulda sucked...

YMMV
 
ddurakovich said:
Besides Mama Ninfas, that is about all I could recall :D
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There's lots of good Mexican food in Houston but I don't really care for Ninfa's. Sure can't find much in North Idaho or Spokane. :(

Paul, Maybe Mexican food is what I really miss. :p I really enjoy the skiing... and hiking... and mountain biking! (but please don't tell anybody, I don't want it to get crowded up here like Houston)

Karl
 
I hate winter....

Dean,
If you're still flying THIS winter, my hat is off to you. This is the first year that I have just punted the winter entirely. To answer your question though, I try hard to avoid those conditions and have not removed the wheel pants in winter. But even in a "good" year, I don't fly much in Jan/Feb.

Looks like most of the fixed gear rentals that are flying right now are doing so without wheel pants FWIW.

John KLWM

P.S. I drove into the North ramp Sunday and the EAA hangar can not be seen from the taxiway behind all the snow piles......
 
Wheel pants in winter time

Yesterday I landed on 2 inches of loose snow, which slowed the RV6A like an arrestor cable. I then had to use considerable power to taxi off the runway and to my parking space.

This morning I removed the cone of the nose wheel pant, revealing very packed snow. I used my kerosene heater to free it up, which only took a few minutes.

It seems the nose pant acts like a scoop and rams the snow sufficiently to stop the nosewheel from rotating at all; did not seem to affect the mains.

Lesson: landing on hard snow or ice is not a problem, but loose snow certainly is.
 
Geico266 said:
... Some of the best flying is after a light snow of 1-2". It's fun to do T&G's and come around and try to land in your tracks. That is a challenge that is hard to do.
Click to expand...
Back when the 152 was a new airplane and I was getting my PPL my instructor used make me do that. Well, try to do that. Great practice and you immediately see how good you are.
 
Wheel pants RV-4

I removed mine for a while and am going to put them back on. The slush, dirt and ice thrown all over the wing was worrying me as to disrupting the air flow. I'm in a heated hangar so overnight freezes don't concern me. I do a soft field landing if I suspect there might be frozen wheel(s) from a wet take-off. - Ben
 
Wheel Pant OFF

voodoonav said:
Yesterday I landed on 2 inches of loose snow, which slowed the RV6A like an arrestor cable. I then had to use considerable power to taxi off the runway and to my parking space.

This morning I removed the cone of the nose wheel pant, revealing very packed snow. I used my kerosene heater to free it up, which only took a few minutes.

It seems the nose pant acts like a scoop and rams the snow sufficiently to stop the nosewheel from rotating at all; did not seem to affect the mains.

Lesson: landing on hard snow or ice is not a problem, but loose snow certainly is.
Click to expand...

This year, I took the wheel pants OFF. Last year, I left them ON as we didn't have much snow. This year, we've had six feet of snow since Christmas!
I went flying last weekend, after the hanger got plowed out. Nice to have short wings as the tips were quite close to the snow banks along the taxiways.
And it's snowingg again today - 8"-12" expected, followed by freezing rain tomorrow. 7B6 may not get cleaned up for the weekend....
 
Ethylene Glycol

When I lived in SD I flew year round "pants on". I kept a bucket of 50/50 antifreeze in the hangar and a spray bottle, just apply liberally pre and post flight squirted underneath. Snow and slush won't stick, at least while its wet!

Smokey
 
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