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Pearl Paint.....

petehowell

petehowell

Well Known Member
Yep - It was 0deg F in Minne, but clear, and gas is $2.50, so we figured we needed to fly a little. I took some A2A of Bernie Weiss' 7A with pearl paint. I still can't capture it it in the sun....... These shots were with the little Canon point and shoot, and if nothing else, they show Bernie's RV Grin!

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The alternative would be not flying in that cold weather. Cold and miserable vs. cold and happy... right? That paint scheme goes well with that terrain and weather, don't you think? Beautiful.
 
Nice shots Pete!

Looks guys are keeping the snow this year....and I, for one, am glad I don't have to pre-heat my engine oil on a stove before pouring it back in the engine to go flying (as we did when I was a kid) anymore!

Paul
 
TSwezey said:
I don't know how you guys go flying in that cold weather!
Click to expand...

We don't either. I couldn't get the dang gas caps off yesterday when I got back. Taxied back the hangar cussing and trying to get feeling back in my hands. Put four 5 gallon cans in the van, drove back to self serve and put 4 gallons in each. By now my hands didn't hurt any more, since frostbite had set in. I went back to the warm hangar and put the juice in the tanks.

Kind of sorts out the wimps. Or smart people. Hey!, there are no bugs to clean off!

But, honking back on the stick and climbing continuously at 80 knots is spectacular. It is truly startling to level off (under the class B) and look back at the airport, which seems impossibly close still. I get 2600 agl in under a minute, hardly outside the airport boundaries. The engine would roast in the summer doing this!

BTW - Pete Howell confirmed a theory we had on the gas cap o-rings. He had the same thing happen today at the pump - couldn't get the caps off. However, waiting a few minutes seemed to allow the o-rings to shrink back diametrically enough to allow the caps to pop right out.
 
The downside is....

I can't get the oil temp over 140 with a completely blocked oil cooler. Looks like I need tape on the intakes to the plenum.

Climbing is amazing, gas pumping is numbing. I tried to gas up yesterday with Kate as co-pilot. When I was hooking up the static ground wire, she yelled "Too Cold! Back to the hangar, NOW!"

I did not argue.

On the gas caps - I lubed them up well with tri-flo before the flight - that might be a requirement as well.
 
Cold flight.

I was wheels up at sunrise today in the Gopher C172. -7f. 1500fps and 90mph all day. At one point the VS needle got stuck at about 2k when I was climbing back up after some stall practice. Not sure it had ever been there!

ff
 
So, I guess..

You don't want to hear about our 75 degree weather, crystal clear and 70 mile visibility? Lots of flying going on. Yesterday, my neighbor brought home the Ford Tri-Motor he purchased last week at the Barrett-Jackson auction. It landed with Stearmans flying the wing. Oh yeah, watched this happen in shorts and T shirt.

Enjoy freezing your arse off. We are only going to get to 65 today. Brrrrrrr.......
 
Ahhh, you flatlanders! :rolleyes: Up here in the real Arizona we got snow last night and are due for a couple inches today/tonight. Low was only 15F, though.
 
Wisconsin Saturday

It was 0 Degs F in West Bend WI Saturday. Got my first flight in a friends Engstrom turbine helicopter and WOW was that great and very warm. Gave the RV time to preheat. Left ETB flew to Oshkosh for lunch. One other plane in the pattern. NICE! The Green Dot is still visiable on rwy 27, plenty of time and room to hit it now. Took off to Sheboygan to get fuel. The fuel cap was a bear to get off and then the fuel was leaking from the handle on the pump. You know how cold 100LL is on your hand at Way below freezing? Even the gloves didn't help. If you haven't experienced it, you don't want to know. I thought I had frost bite. Ran, yes ran over to the FBO (Burrows Aviation) to warm up and chow down a couple of the FREE chocolate chip cookies and coffee. Midwest Airlines worthy cookies I may add. Now I was ready to go back out for a sunset flight back home. When the skys are clear and you are all strapped in, it makes it is very very much tolerable. Just concider the alternative;)
 
Great pictures, as usual, Pete.

I am most interested in the lower cowl intake on Bernie's airplane.

Could you find out from Bernie the Vans scoop number for that intake. I do not see it in the catalog.

Thanks.
 
hey good looking

Pete,
Great looking photos. Without my RV village, the plane would never have flown. In addition ot the big grin note that I am only wearing a polar fleece and the outside air temp is -3F. The seat heater and muffler supplied cabin heat makes the environment very comfortable. I know that the performance is great but I still ask myself why we live here. Really, cleaning off bugs is not that bad of a job.
 
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