Finally it looked as though I would get a flight in this weekend to brush up on some airwork and navigation for my flight test. The sun was shining, the winds were holding steady around 10 kts, and something special was in the air.
Turns out that something special was ice crystals and a profound lack of heat. I quote from the cold weather operations section of my POH:
“In extremely cold (-18ºC and lower) weather, the use of an external pre-heater and an external power source are recommended whenever possible to obtain positive starting and to reduce wear and abuse to the engine and electrical system.”
Side note: I find it kind of funny how they word it as “positive starting”.
My school didn’t have the airplanes plugged in so no one was flying. They also have a company policy where no one is allowed to fly when the temperature is below -20ºC so we called up FSS and they gave us a live reading of -20.3ºC. Ouch.
Hurry up and wait. Life as a student pilot continues.
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