Cold

DXR 151553Z 34012G25KT 10SM CLR M10/M24 A3034 RMK AO2 SLP282 T11001239

That is some cold. The temperature was -10.0C, or 14F, and the wind chill was brutal. I heard one airplane today overhead doing some training maneuvers. I sure hope that the airplane had been either in a heated hangar or they pre-heated the engine. But if it was a flight school airplane and the airplane was a "lease-back" (leased to the school by a private owner), then your guess is as good as mine whether or not they properly warmed the engine.

Airplane engines are not as robust as car engines. Cars tend to have iron engine blocks and often iron or steel cylinder barrels. You generally can't do that on a light aircraft, the weight is too prohibitive. The engines are aluminum and they don't take kindly to being started in very cold temperatures. If you start an airplane engine without preheating, the damn thing will want to climb out of the mounts to go find some oil. (Don't ask me how I know this.)

A really old trick was to drain the oil overnight and take it inside to warm up. The airlines had huge combustion heaters to warm those radial engines back in the day. Jet engines don't have reciprocating parts, they tend to tolerate cold starts much better.

The ignition problems that I blogged about last month were repaired. I did fly the airplane twice last weekend, when it was much nicer out.

Next up, the annual inspection.