Batteries and icing

[NigelOnDraft]

My cunning plan of priming the Pitts and then allowing *three* minutes for the fuel to evaporate initially worked a treat as it started immediately

You allowed about 30minutes chatting to us... because in your words "it delayed having to get in that damn thing" after a few months not flying it On Waltham's lovely "smooth" surfaces which are rather unforgivingly frozen right now

NoD

[eharding]

NOD - I will admit, our brief social at the pumps (lovely maps, those) was indeed because I wasn't entirely sure if I could even get back into the Pitts (it was a close run thing, but I opted for a Waltham bacon sarnie today, vs. the Full English With Fried Bread Option of yesterday) - the issue of starting it was entirely secondary.

Next weekend then.

I think the Pitts vs. RV tailchase is long overdue - but to make things fair, I'll revert to a Full English breakfast.

Ref: TheGorilla vs. my freezer: - obviously, when I ordered the new kitchen, I specified a large capacity accelerated beer cooler, which was duly fitted - it *does* look a lot like a freezer though, but for some reason cost £600 more.

[eharding]

Originally Posted by mm_flynn

An even better technique is to hit the REPLY button on the post which has 'boiled your wee' and you will get something like this in your browser address bar
http://www.pprune.org/newreply.php?d...7697&noquote=1


now just replace the noquote=1 with noquote=0, hit enter and voilą you have your quote!

Magnificent!

[TheGorrilla]

eharding. You heathen!! You should be drinking beer at room temperature!

Mind you that bacon sarnie looked good. Not as good as my breakfast bap though, but I guess you were in a hurry to deice the pitts.

[Pilot DAR]

It didn't take me quite that long - about 25 minutes with the 0-200

Hey, fellow pilots, take it easy on those starter motors okay? That much cranking time could be harmful, if long cooling periods are not being allowed in between start attempts. A rule of thumb (from my C310 days) 30s crank, 1 minute cool, 30s crank, 5 min cool, 30s crank, 30 minutes cool. It varies by engine type, but all starter motors can be over heated.

O-200's are generally a breeze to start cold, if the technique is correct. I often hand prop mine instead of startering it after preheating when it is cold out, and sometimes one swing does it.

I am cautious about percipitation around freezing, but regularly fly at temperatures as low as -20C in the winter. I have flown as low as -40C, but it's not so nice, and any kind of problem usually becomes a big problem. I certainly prefer winter flying to hot summer flying.

Pilot DAR

[DavidHoul52]

NASA has a multi-media course for pilots on icing.