It's been pretty cold in the NE also. Last takeoff was with OAT around 0°F
and -25°C at altitude.

I just saw that our HIGH temperatures are going to be below zero over
the weekend. Gosh, I can't wait for that MidAmerican Energy bill next
month! (Heating three 3-story buildings is always an adventure, at
this time of year...)

Very stiff elevator trim (well, in the Mooney it really trims the tail).

Yeah, our electric trim doesn't work at all below about 10 degrees.
After the cabin warms up, it starts to work again, sluggishly.

Very stiff Mixture Control -- that thawed out with flight. I did have the
cable lubed, but if there's water in there, that probably won't work for
long. We'll see.

We used to have that on our Warrior, but never on the Pathfinder. I
don't know why -- probably newer control cables.

I used to be able to see my breath in the cabin in these temps. But last
year I added an extra heat muff to the system; and the past few months
we've been tearing things apart and trying to seal up all the holes and
adding insulation. So we were comfortable; although there are still a few
small air leaks to be located and patched.

Thankfully, Atlas is tight as a drum, and warms up quickly. We fly in
shirtsleeves most of the winter, but you can't sit in shirtsleeves
waiting for heat at these temperatures. After about 20 minutes,
though, we're trying to remove parkas and scarves -- always fun in the
tight quarters of your standard GA cockpit!

Oh -- and for the same RPM/MP settings, our TAS was about 7 knots faster;
our climb rate much more spiffy

Oh, yeah! The performance at this time of year is just fantastic. I
think about climbing out at the end of July -- and now -- and it's
like two entirely different aircraft. Sometimes it feels like we've
got JATO tubes strapped to the fuselage, we're climbing so steeply!
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"