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Is it ever too cold to fly?


NJMac

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Mooney has a written procedure for using alcohol to improve solubility of water in the fuel... aka antifreeze...

Use some caution with the alcohol selected to be water free..?

Expect to be able to find the procedure in the more modern POHs. Probably in the fueling section...

Pp thoughts, not a CFI or mechanic...

Best regards,

-a-

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16 minutes ago, carusoam said:

Use some caution with the alcohol selected to be water free..?

The easiest dosing method is generally to add a bottle of Heet to each tank, so long as the tank has at least 15 gal of 100LL.  Be sure to use the red label iso-Heet.  The yellow label Heet is a isopropyl & water solution and should not be used.

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7 minutes ago, carusoam said:

Mooney has a written procedure for using alcohol to improve solubility of water in the fuel... aka antifreeze...

Use some caution with the alcohol selected to be water free..?

Expect to be able to find the procedure in the more modern POHs. Probably in the fueling section...

Pp thoughts, not a CFI or mechanic...

Best regards,

-a-

For God's sake, don't buy the cheap drug store 50/50 IPA!

Isopropyl Alcohol (IPA) rapidly absorbs water, so it should be great for removing water from the system. 

Word to the wise:  IPA always has a percentage on the label. Common ones are 50% (cheap), 70% (common) and 98% (pricey, and not found at walmart). The rest if what's in the bottle is water. Leave a bottle of 98% open in an Alabama summer, it won't stay 98% very long, as it will absorb water from the humid air. Use the highest concentration you can find.

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Would love to see a packing list for this kit. And what size pelican case is that?

 Packed!

 

1e8e0d75a24555583a3c3f302a2e61a0.jpg

 

List of ingredients:

 

2 Person thermal tent

Thermal blankets

Compass

Rain ponchos

50’ parachord

Water purification kit

Collapsing cups

Sleeping bivvy

Glow sticks

LED strobe

Fire starter kits (flint and waterproof matches)

Carabiners (lightweight & climbing)

First Aid Kit

Signal mirror, whistle

Camping stove

Portable stove gas

Camping pots

Hunting knife

Collapsing shovel

Folding saw

Hatchet

 

Food is brought on day of flight

PLB, flashlights, VHF radio in flight bag

 

 

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3 minutes ago, MinneMooney said:

Actually, the yellow bottle heet contains methanol. Isoheet, the red bottle, is isopropanol. They both should have less than 0.1% water.

Rubbing alcohol found in the drug store is 70% isopropanol and 30% water. 

Yes, and methanol is not approved as a water scavenger in our Mooneys. Isopropylene is.

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13 hours ago, aviatoreb said:

So is there a fuel temp probe?

Yes.  There is.   I believe it measures from the right tank.     Some of the fuel to the engine runs through a heat exchanger with the oil and is return to both of the tanks.  The mechanism activates automatically below freezing.  

Brad

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I just flew back from Mpls to Indy last Fri. -28C at FL190.  I learned some tricks on this site a while ago to cover half of oil cooler and use closed cell foam on vents.  Big difference. I still flew in Ski Pants and Jacket.  I had two issues. 

One: even though I did a thorough pre heat, that doesn't touch the avionics compartment  in the back of the plane.  My auto pilot tried to kill me every time I attempted to turn it on.  It would throw me into a deep right hand dive.  I had to hand fly it home (I'm ASSUMING it was so cold it just didn't want to work) I was a little rusty and have been very spoiled.

Two:  Speed Brakes helped me keep temps up in the decent.  But I kept worrying about shock cooling and wondering how I'm going to keep this thing warm upon landing (around zero in Indy) buy the time I was on the ground, pretty much nothing was in the green.

Has a cold locked up auto pilot happened to anyone else?  I have only had one other exp.  The auto pilot worked but, had a strange wing wobble to it in similar temps.  I was able to stable by hand.

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Verify your heat is working at full capacity too. My heat box was full of insulation and explained why I was experience hypothermia on long cross country’s.

c49dfb6f98a554ca241242bc723cedd2.jpg

Thread here: https://mooneyspace.com/topic/25636-cabin-heat-box-is-it-supposed-to-be-full-of-shredded-insulation/?tab=comments#comment-417153


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Verify your heat is working at full capacity too. My heat box was full of insulation and explained why I was experience hypothermia on long cross country’s.

c49dfb6f98a554ca241242bc723cedd2.jpg

Thread here: https://mooneyspace.com/topic/25636-cabin-heat-box-is-it-supposed-to-be-full-of-shredded-insulation/?tab=comments#comment-417153


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Wow!


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Well, I flew to Minnesota today. Didn’t really have any issues except my oil temp was high! Question out to you guys - what would cause high oil temp when the ambient temp is -20 to - 30 degrees? Temp was running about 230 degrees so I had to trail the cowl flaps for a while. Around halfway into the trip, the temps were close to normal at around 160 - 170. An interesting thing I noticed is I had much less heat in the cabin when oil temp was at 160 than when it was at 230 regardless of the cowl flap position.

Do I have an issue to resolve or is this a result of the cold temps?


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Well, I flew to Minnesota today. Didn’t really have any issues except my oil temp was high! Question out to you guys - what would cause high oil temp when the ambient temp is -20 to - 30 degrees? Temp was running about 230 degrees so I had to trail the cowl flaps for a while. Around halfway into the trip, the temps were close to normal at around 160 - 170. An interesting thing I noticed is I had much less heat in the cabin when oil temp was at 160 than when it was at 230 regardless of the cowl flap position.

Do I have an issue to resolve or is this a result of the cold temps?


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Oil cooler Frozen?

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Science trick of the day:

How to make 100% IPA,

Get some epsom salt. Bake it in the oven at 450 for a couple of hours. After it cools add it to your IPA and shake vigorously. Let soak for a few hours then filter out the salt.

It will be better than 99.9%.

If it is less than 90% to start with, add table salt to the IPA and shake it up. Let it stand for a few hours and skim off the brine layer.

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2 minutes ago, N201MKTurbo said:

Science trick of the day:

How to make 100% IPA,

Get some epsom salt. Bake it in the oven at 450 for a couple of hours. After it cools add it to your IPA and shake vigorously. Let soak for a few hours then filter out the salt.

It will be better than 99.9%.

If it is less than 90% to start with, add table salt to the IPA and shake it up. Let it stand for a few hours and skim off the brine layer.

Sorry, I prefer my IPA in a nice glass straight out of a tap.  If I'm feeling adventurous, maybe some coffee porter layered on top to make a Black and Tan.  Oh, no wait, you're talking about a different IPA :D

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Science trick of the day:
How to make 100% IPA,
Get some epsom salt. Bake it in the oven at 450 for a couple of hours. After it cools add it to your IPA and shake vigorously. Let soak for a few hours then filter out the salt.
It will be better than 99.9%.
If it is less than 90% to start with, add table salt to the IPA and shake it up. Let it stand for a few hours and skim off the brine layer.

I guess I need an explanation. What do you mean with IPA ? Clearly you are not talking about India Pale Ale. How does IPA relate to this thread?


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3 minutes ago, warren.huisman said:


I guess I need an explanation. What do you mean with IPA ? Clearly you are not talking about India Pale Ale. How does IPA relate to this thread?


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I know, that's where my brain went to first :D He's talking about isopropyl alcohol.  You can use it as deicer and add some to your fuel to prevent ice crystals.

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13 minutes ago, warren.huisman said:


I guess I need an explanation. What do you mean with IPA ? Clearly you are not talking about India Pale Ale. How does IPA relate to this thread?


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It helps if you are drinking an IPA while you are dehydrating your IPA!

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14 minutes ago, N201MKTurbo said:

It helps if you are drinking an IPA while you are dehydrating your IPA!

Just don't get them mixed up!  Although, I should point out, the treatment for isopropyl alcohol poisoning is ethanol ingestion, so maybe you'd be ok :P

Edit: Oops!  I was thinking of methanol poisoning!  Good thing I don't work in the ER!

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