Temperatures acceptable for equipment while flying.....?

[Tom Simes]

On Wed, 5 Jan 2005 07:05:19 -0600
"White, Chris" <chris at ssd.fsi.com> wrote:

> Hi,
>  
> Hey, I was out flying on Christmas Eve in OK and it was about 22
> degrees.....  I spent extra time warming the YS at idle, but thoughts
> were crossing my mind about how bad the cold weather is on our
> equipment(nylon components etc....) .  I'm sure the guys up North have
> limits on cold temps and I'd be interested to hear your concerns or
> special cares.

I'm a complete pattern newbie, but I live in Anchorage Alaska and I've
been practicing the sportsman sequence all winter long with my Somethin'
Extra on skis.  Probably half of the time the temperature has been in
the single digits (F).  My plane is built up balsa, so I can't speak to
the composite fuselage dimension changes but about the only effects I
have noticed on the equipment are the engine is harder to start
initially and both the idle and high speed mixtures needed to be
enriched a tad.  I'm running 6V 1100 mAh NiMH flight pack and a 700 mAh
TX pack and I haven't noticed any decrease in flying time per charge vs.
my summer flying - but I'm also not running digital servos, just the
old reliable Futaba 3004s.

Would I be flying a $800+ composite masterpiece off snow and ice on
skis?  Probably not.  However, I built the SE to have fun with this
winter and so far it's a complete blast plus I get the benefit of still
being able to fly 3-4 times a week (and I need all the practice I can
get!)

Just my experience.  If anyone wants to swap cold flying strategies and
tips, I'll be glad to share what I know - but the biggest trick is just
getting out there :-)

BTW, I normally don't go out below -10 F because I can't keep my fingers
warm enough to last through a flight and haven't gotten a tranmitter
mitt yet.  The 100% scale recip guys up here stop flying @ -30 F on the
ground as a general rule of thumb.  The turbines go a bit lower, but
they try to keep them running all day.

-- 
Tom

_____________________________________________________________________

       |  ,  |               Tom Simes
---------(@)---------        AMA 230068
        --|--                NSRCA 3830
          '                  nsrca at shinymetalass.com
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