Winter Flying

Since we are well into winter and snow and ice, how are you coping with
it? What are you doing to pick out XC checkpoints now that the ground
is covered with snow and everything looks different? How are you going
to handle taxiing on slick or ice covered taxiways and runways? Have
you ever considered the humps left by snowplows, that freeze and lurk
to get your prop tips or wrinkle nose gears? Blown snow that can snag
your wing tips as you taxi down the "tunnel" to the runway..... What
are you doing to pre-heat your engine and cabin (and instruments)?
Are you equipped and prepared for an emergency landing when it may take
hours/days for help to get to you even if they know where you are? Do
you know how to prepare for a winter XC in terms of facilities where
you land? Do they have shelter or cover for your aircraft or heat and
snow removal equipment?
Can you determine how deep the new snow is on a runway and can you make
a soft field landing without disappearing in several feet of snow....if
you are wrong?
How about flying in light snow showers that suddenly get heavy and you
end up IFR and then hurting for alternate air when the engine air
filter gets clogged by snow. Are you prepared for a slippery runway
with fresh snow? No matter what you do, the airplane just reacts to
gravity and laws of physics while you sit and haplessly flop the
controls around and slide/slip off the runway/taxiway.
Yahoooooo....it's winter time and snow is on the ground. Lets go play
in the snow!!!
Ol Shy & Bashful - Hero CFII ( with the big stirring stick and having
fun

This is pretty normal stuff for those of us who fly in the frozen
north. Of more concern would be those venturing into areas
of winter weather who don't deal with it regularly.Your checklist
of things should give them a guideline.




wrote in message
ups.com...
Since we are well into winter and snow and ice, how are you coping with
it? What are you doing to pick out XC checkpoints now that the ground
is covered with snow and everything looks different? How are you going
to handle taxiing on slick or ice covered taxiways and runways? Have
you ever considered the humps left by snowplows, that freeze and lurk
to get your prop tips or wrinkle nose gears? Blown snow that can snag
your wing tips as you taxi down the "tunnel" to the runway..... What
are you doing to pre-heat your engine and cabin (and instruments)?
Are you equipped and prepared for an emergency landing when it may take
hours/days for help to get to you even if they know where you are? Do
you know how to prepare for a winter XC in terms of facilities where
you land? Do they have shelter or cover for your aircraft or heat and
snow removal equipment?
Can you determine how deep the new snow is on a runway and can you make
a soft field landing without disappearing in several feet of snow....if
you are wrong?
How about flying in light snow showers that suddenly get heavy and you
end up IFR and then hurting for alternate air when the engine air
filter gets clogged by snow. Are you prepared for a slippery runway
with fresh snow? No matter what you do, the airplane just reacts to
gravity and laws of physics while you sit and haplessly flop the
controls around and slide/slip off the runway/taxiway.
Yahoooooo....it's winter time and snow is on the ground. Lets go play
in the snow!!!
Ol Shy & Bashful - Hero CFII ( with the big stirring stick and having
fun

wrote:

Since we are well into winter and snow and ice, how are you coping with
it?

I bought a new furnace two years ago. It works real well. Got a few cords of
wood for the fireplace too. :-)

What are you doing to pick out XC checkpoints now that the ground
is covered with snow and everything looks different?

They all look the same to my LORAN.

How are you going
to handle taxiing on slick or ice covered taxiways and runways?

My taildragger is just as skittish on the ground when it's dry.

Have
you ever considered the humps left by snowplows, that freeze and lurk
to get your prop tips or wrinkle nose gears?

Not a problem for me.

Blown snow that can snag
your wing tips as you taxi down the "tunnel" to the runway.....

It would have to be nearly 6' deep to snag mine. So far, I've never flown into a
place with drifts that high.

What
are you doing to pre-heat your engine and cabin (and instruments)?

I have a portable propane heater. It does a good job on the engine. Puts out too
much moisture to use on the cabin (I tried it once).

Are you equipped and prepared for an emergency landing when it may take
hours/days for help to get to you even if they know where you are?

Yep. Got an extensive emergency kit in a "seat locker" hung on my seat. Given
the poor quality of what Maule calls a "heater", I'm always dressed for the
weather.

Do
you know how to prepare for a winter XC in terms of facilities where
you land? Do they have shelter or cover for your aircraft or heat and
snow removal equipment?

So far, yes.

Can you determine how deep the new snow is on a runway and can you make
a soft field landing without disappearing in several feet of snow....if
you are wrong?

Nope. So I haven't tried landing on new snow.

How about flying in light snow showers that suddenly get heavy and you
end up IFR and then hurting for alternate air when the engine air
filter gets clogged by snow.

I don't fly IFR, but my carb heat is also alternate air.

Are you prepared for a slippery runway
with fresh snow? No matter what you do, the airplane just reacts to
gravity and laws of physics while you sit and haplessly flop the
controls around and slide/slip off the runway/taxiway.

Sounds like one of my normal landings. :-)

George Patterson
The desire for safety stands against every great and noble enterprise.

In article , G.R. Patterson III wrote:
What are you doing to pick out XC checkpoints now that the ground
is covered with snow and everything looks different?

They all look the same to my LORAN.

Some checkpoints are easier to find if the snow isn't brand new and the
snow ploughs have been out. Roads stand out really well against the
white.

The interesting thing I thought about flying through a snow shower was
how the "Hyperspace effect" snow appeared to be coming from a point just
below the nose.

--
Dylan Smith, Castletown, Isle of Man
Flying: http://www.dylansmith.net
Frontier Elite Universe: http://www.alioth.net
"Maintain thine airspeed, lest the ground come up and smite thee"

Otis
Pretty much what I intended when I posted this. There are those things
that are strange to the pilots from up north who come to the areas
where jungle is normal! I had hoped to start posting things that make
pilots think a little no matter where they normally fly, or what they
fly.
Best Christmas regards
Ol Shy & Bashful

How are you going to handle taxiing on slick or ice covered taxiways
and runways?

My suggestion is STOP before turning! You can always add power to get
going, but unless you have a reversing prop... If you can't stop, you
probably aren't going to turn very well.

If you act like it's no big deal, wait until you have to explain how
you bent an airplane when you turned left/right "n" degrees and the
plane slid into ____ at the (end of the runway, end of the taxi-way)?
Later,
Steve.T
PP ASEL/Instrument

wrote in message
ups.com...
....snip...
How about flying in light snow showers that suddenly get heavy and you
end up IFR and then hurting for alternate air when the engine air
filter gets clogged by snow. ...

Watch out for that "not-quite-frozen" stuff. At the correct temperature,
just a fraction of a degree above freezing, snow will react more like
freezing rain, rather than "normal" cold snow.

That is to say, it does not follow the airstream, but will splat and stick.
So a suggestion not to fly too close to the freezing level in snow. Either
stay well down in the above-freezing temperatures.... or go right up into
the cold (where you now have to remain clear of ICGIC, of course).

All well and good, but you missed the most important one: How do you
keep the PILOT warm? Once you figger that out, all the rest of the
stuff you bring up looks *easy*.
Mind you, I'm flying a Stearman these days... :-)


Dave Russell
N2S-3

writes:

Since we are well into winter and snow and ice, how are you coping with
it?

"Snow" and "ice"? I cope by living in California :-)

Bob
I appreciate your tongue in cheek but Alturas CA is one damned cold
place in winter and I had to get some moving van pads to toss over my
engines, then get some heat flowing under them after my engines got
cold soaked at about -10f on a goose hunting charter!
Lots of places there get some nasty winter weather....lemme see....as I
recall there was a pretty good snow storm there in Julian just outside
San Diego a few weeks ago? And up in the Grapevine area there are a few
strips I used to fly into that get regular snow.
Still, CA has some nice weather for the most part unless you forget the
Tule fog in the San Joaquin right about now.....ggg
BTW, I based in CA for about 20 years.
Ol Shy & Bashful