Flight Today
 

I had not flown my Skymaster in more than a month! So when the skies cleared I went for it. Hear are some pics.

_travis

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nice photos travis

Nice Photos
 

Nice shots Travis. I noticed the Job Joney in your photo. Is that a filler up, and empty it out station. That is what I always need. Your photos look warmer than were I just flew. I flew to Seneca Fall "0G7"in New York. It was 5 degree above zero and the runway was covered in ice and I had 90 degree cross winds at 10 knots. Little hairy on landing. I had to pick up a xray unit for my son-in-law. The ride from the airport was more dangerous than the flight. The crazy dentist I was buying this unit from drove like a maniac. He drove way to fast on snow covered roads and passed a salt truck on a curve when he could not see. I was glad to get back in my ship and head home. Dale

Re: Nice Photos
 

I have some left over Prozac samples in my clinic. I can have it mailed if you want!!

I know this is a creep from the thread, but have you ever had to scare off a drunken person from the runway (while taking a p... on the centrline) before you could land?

I had similar thoughts as Dale when I saw Travis' pictures. The weather also "broke" here in western New York over the weekend which required some mindless, go nowhere fast aviation to be committed. I'm sure I don't have to remind those "Michigan Flyers" but lest the rest of the country think all winter flying looks like Fort Worth, Texas I will attach a couple of photos. The weather was 28015G25 5-8SM -SN FEW015 OVC020 T119125. In Fahrenheit & Statute that equates to -2 degrees with 17-28 MPH winds producing wind chill temps in the -20's. With sump heaters running for 24 hrs. in an unheated hangar cylinder head and oil temps rose to 50 degrees +/- 5. Preflight chores were, of course, performed inside the hangar including preheating the cabin with a kerosene torpedo heater. Pulling out of the hangar first required the use of a snow blower to remove 24" of wind packed snow from in front of the doors then the use of an all wheel drive ATV with studded chains on all four corners to pull out onto the ramp. Then run back inside with the tug and close the doors. Quickly change out of heavy insulated boots, insulated overalls and down filled parka to lighter boots and jacket then sprint back to the aircraft before all the preheating work was lost. At 1200' MSL in those temps density altitude was approximately 2000' below sea level resulting in a takeoff distance of maybe 800' off hard packed snow with scattered 4"-6" snow drifts and a 1200 FPM climbout at 130 MPH, lightly loaded. Just another nice mid-winter day for those of us living above 42 degrees N. Lat.

On the ground between snow showers.

Winter Flying
 

You got it Steve,
Sounds like my start to a winter flight. I put 2 ceramic heaters on timers to pre-heat my ship for 8 hours before flight. When I arrive at hanger, I also use a 250,000 btu torpedo heater to heat cabin and hanger, while I go outside to plow snow from ramp and If runway is not plowed, I spend the next hour plowing a path to runway and also do 1900 foot runway 50 feet wide. By the time I get back to hanger the plane is nice and warm. All that just to go flying for a couple of hours. We must be die hard flyers. How does your engines stay warm on these cold flights. My flight to Seneca Falls, I could not get my oil temp above 150 degrees and the head temp just stayed at the bottom of green line. That is not good for engines. I also have a plate over oil cooler on front engine to block air. It is just to damn cold. Dale

Hi Dale, I also use an aluminum plate to cover the front oil cooler. On that last flight at only 2000' AGL the OAT was -15F. Leaned to peak EGT the front oil temp stabilized at 125F and the rear at 150F with CHT's running from 250F to 300F. Except for a few months in the summer, at altitude and without the restrictor plate, I'm most always running with oil temps lower than the 180F I would like to see. I have not found any good solution. A restrictor plate with sufficient area to produce 180F oil in cruise at altitude is to great for use on takeoff or if heading south what works for the first 500 miles is to great thereafter. I suspect that as a result the engines retain more moisture than desireable but hopefully any moisture that condenses out on cool down only beads up on the oil film surface rather than coming into contact with any bare steel parts.

Cold Weather flying
 

I noticed on those cold days when I can not get up to 180 degree on oil temp, the next flight I will see a lot of water on the inside of oil filler cap. So, after putting plane in hanger, I remove both filler caps and let some of that moisture out as engine cools down.
Going back to hanger the next day and put caps back on, when cold , eliminates the rust forming on filler cap and maybe gets some of the moisture out of engine. I have the M-20 oil-air seperators on both engines so I do not get oil all over aircraft in flight. I also have the M-20 and plumbing covered in foam insulation to keep them warm to keep moisture problem to a minimium. Every little bit helps. Dale

Well I guess I’m just lucky. All I had to do was let her idle for about 5 minutes to let the oil temps wakeup then it was off to beat the concrete. That john is at the local fuel farm and seems to be the focus of the photo but that’s not what I intended! For the moats part we have had a pretty bad winter in a relative since. Last year everyday looked like this. Standard high pressure 1000SM vis 45* winds at 12 gusting 24 and bumpy to beat the band. I wont complain though it has provided me more time to work on my project plane at home in the garage.

One more, you can kind of make out the parallel grass strip to the left.

Dale, The M-20's may be contributing to your moisture problem. Tom Carr, Mike Busch and others have written commentaries concerning their use and have been quite negative in their opinions of same. You might want to research that topic and reconsider if the convenience is actually worth their use. I have found keeping the oil sumps between the 7-8 quart level provides more than adaquate oil cooling while keeping the oiled belly syndrome within manageable limits without any seperators dumping back into the crankcases. If you're still blowing significant quantities of oil overboard at the seven quart level you might want to investigate the possibility of the seperators merely masking some other problem.

M-20 Seperators
 

I had oil on belly and tail after spending a large amount of money getting all leaks taken care of problem. And nothing worked until I put on M-20 seperators. I had the oil temp problem and water forming before and that never changed. I try not to fly when it is below 10 degree F and I watch the oil for water forming. I change it every 25 hours so what I am doing seem to work well. I do like the oil seperators because the tail only gets a little white film now from exhaust. My oil consumption is at its lowest and I am happy with the way my bird is operating. Dale