On Thu, 01 Feb 2007 08:37:36 -0500, Ron Rosenfeld
wrote:

On 31 Jan 2007 15:31:45 -0800, "Jay Honeck" wrote:

Baby, it's COLD out there!

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

My flight-before-last, it was about 28 degrees F on the ground. Not as cold,
yes, but I fly an open-cockpit airplane. I think I notice it more. :-)

No strut seals to leak in the Mooney, but:

Very stiff elevator trim (well, in the Mooney it really trims the tail).
Got worse in flight.
Cured by re-lubing with cold weather grease. I don't know why that
wasn't done at annual time two months ago.

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.

My elevator trim is very stiff, too, but when you consider it's just a bent
piece of aluminum screwed onto the trailing edge, it's understandable. My
throttle is affected the same way as your mixture, and does free up a bit once
the noisemaker in front warms up.

It did require some care when taxiing out for takeoff, as the (uncontrolled
municipal) airport had about 4" of fresh snow and the plows didn't show up for
another day or so. The pavement was indistinguishable from the grass, and with
a taxiway only 25' wide it took some concentration to keep from running off into
the soft ground. It was actually tougher on the runway...it's a lot wider, but
I didn't have any visual references to how straight I was running. When I came
back to the airport for some touch-and-goes later, I could see the weaving
tracks of my initial takeoff.

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.

When it gets blow freezing, I start wearing a spandex ski mask. The trouble is,
if I pull it up over my mouth, it redirects my breath upward. On the ground,
that causes my goggles to fog. It's OK once we get moving, as the turbulence
behind the windshield tends to push the condensation down.

The mask does inhibit my speaking on the radio (due to its drag on the lips),
but not as bad as NOT having it does. Without the mask, my cheeks and lips get
real stiff, and my articulation goes to heck ("Au-urn traffi, Eye Baby Ate Ower
Ate dow-win for uch-an-go").

Oh -- and for the same RPM/MP settings, our TAS was about 7 knots faster;
our climb rate much more spiffy; and our indicated altitude was about 800'
higher than the true altitude (at 8500' indicated).

Normally, the airport disappears *behind* me as I climb out, but on this day, it
went away *below*. It was like flying an F-16 or something... :-)

Ron Wanttaja