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#1
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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 |
#2
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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 |
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#4
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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" |
#5
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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 |
#6
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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 |
#7
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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). |
#8
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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 |
#9
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#10
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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 |
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