New Year's Flying

AlexPeterson · #1 01-01-2010, 06:00 PM

Other than the temperature being a bit nippy at 3F, it was a delightful afternoon to go fly. The sky was clear, but the sun was low and setting. I hadn't flown in two weeks, so I was itchy. The ramp outside the hangar was a sheet of ice, so I was glad I had the strap-on ice cleats for pulling the plane out.

I taxied to 27, avoiding the areas of the taxiway that were sanded. Once airborne, I raised the nose to maintain 90 knots, turning to north at about 600 agl. I passed through 2000 agl before I had even crossed the north end of rwy 36. Gotta love the cold for this! VSI showing about 2600 fpm.

I circled over a small lake just north of our airport, and took this picture of the fish houses, wondering how their luck was today. The low sun really makes their shadows long:

I headed NW a ways, doing the mandatory rolls and other goofing off, and found the following spectacular views. The sky was cloudless, but these are from a power plant, and the timing was fortuitous:

All in all, a delightful flight. Keep building, as the magic never wears off.

petehowell · #2 01-01-2010, 06:06 PM

nice pics alex!

Ironflight · #3 01-01-2010, 07:00 PM

I saw that same sunset here in Houston tonight Alex! No fish houses however....thank goodness!

aarvig · #4 01-01-2010, 09:09 PM

Nice pics Alex! Wish I were flying today as well. I'm a bit farther north than you...up by Langdon, ND (55D). The temp...a balmy -27F.

plehrke · #5 01-02-2010, 04:38 AM

Great shoots. No sunset here in STL but we had pop up snow showers.

I wonder if the guys in the ice houses look up when they heard you fly over and wonder if they could every be so lucky to fly their own plane and not be sitting on a cold lake trying to convince some fish to bit on a plastic worm.

AlexPeterson · #6 01-02-2010, 08:45 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by plehrke

Great shoots. No sunset here in STL but we had pop up snow showers.

I wonder if the guys in the ice houses look up when they heard you fly over and wonder if they could every be so lucky to fly their own plane and not be sitting on a cold lake trying to convince some fish to bit on a plastic worm.

Thanks!

I suspect they didn't even hear me, as I was at about 1000 agl, and they were inside their toasty warm houses, most likely drinking beer and not really caring if the fish were hungry...

gciampa · #7 01-02-2010, 09:21 AM

Great Flying the RV....

My son and I went up yesterday around sunset, short field takeoff, climb over the field to 3K, a couple of loops, rolls, spin, cuban eight and a few hammerheads for good measure. Two low-approaches and a soft wheelie.

Flight timer read "16:34" on landing roll-out...what a great machine...

David-aviator · #8 01-02-2010, 12:38 PM

No fish houses around here, Alex, that seems to be a Minnesota thing. (I spent a lot of time as a kid gazing down into cold water on the Minnesota River and local lakes around New Ulm as my dad had a fish house every winter. He was a construction worker and always had tons of time in the fish house during the long winter months. There always was a small stove, food and liquid refreshments.)

What I did see today was a lot of floating ice on the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers between here and St. Charles County airport. If this unusually cold weather persists, we may see these great rivers freeze over for the first time in more than a 100 years. The normal LOW around here for this time is 21F, we may get up to 15F this afternoon. Local OAT was 3F this morning.

I am in love with the Reiff preheat system. Oil temp was 87F at start and CHT was up to 340 by the time I got to our frozen turf runway. However, in flight the CHT backed off to 290 quick. No question, if we had a way to close down airflow through the engine compartment, things would be warmer, especially cabin heat. My feet were ok, but even with gloves my hands got cold in a little less than an hour. Maybe two heat muffs would help, at the moment there is one on #4 stack. Another could be squeezed in on #3.

pierre smith · #9 01-02-2010, 02:52 PM

I bought some really good paint stripper from an autobody supply house but this stuff won't touch the red Aerosport paint.

Reckon maybe MEK? I'd like to install my Reiff heater pads while the cowl is off.

Ideas?

Best,

AlexPeterson · #10 01-02-2010, 02:58 PM

Pierre - wrong thread, but I had to use sandpaper for that.
Alex