Getting cold outside!

[Jpravi8tor]

Theres nothing worse than working out on the ramp in 95 degree heat with the sun beating down on you! tools baking in the sun hitting 150 degress F too hot to handle!

.....Oh wait laying on the ground in a frozen puddle with the wind whipping snow around your frozen ears whilst your finger tips turn to ice trying to get that last screw in!!!

These are the tales of the tie down mechanic oh to be inside a warm toasty hangar this time of year.

Heres a PSA " bring your pets in on a cold winters night" With that being said now that the weather has turned cold here in Georgia I will be bring my expensive 

CONCORDE RG-35AXC PLATINUM SERIES SEALED LEAD ACID AIRCRAFT BATTERY IN FOR THE NIGHT!

With battery prices sky high and availability close to NIL I'm going to be extra nice to my battery this winter!

What tips do you have for cold weather storage of your Mooney? what can we do to prolong the lives of the damned who sleep outside on tiedown?

Happy Holidays!

[N201MKTurbo]

I would take working on a cool 95 degree day over a frozen windy day any time, but I’m an Arizona boy and was bread for the heat.

[Jpravi8tor]

20 minutes ago, N201MKTurbo said:

I would take working on a cool 95 degree day over a frozen windy day any time, but I’m an Arizona boy and was bread for the heat.

I was working on a Honeywell engine in Phoenix outside one January, I foolishly left my wrenches lying in the sun, I believe I got second degree burns when I tried to pick up that wrench!  95 degrees and 95% humidity is nothing like Arizona!

[N201MKTurbo]

Just now, Jpravi8tor said:

I was working on a Honeywell engine in Phoenix outside one January, I foolishly left my wrenches lying in the sun, I believe I got second degree burns when I tried to pick up that wrench!  95 degrees and 95% humidity is nothing like Arizona!

We develop instinctive skills about not setting tools in the sun. 
 

I used to work on car telephones in the 70s. We had to measure the temperature of the radios in the trunk before we set the frequency. The hottest one I remember was 225 F

[Ragsf15e]

1 hour ago, Jpravi8tor said:

Theres nothing worse than working out on the ramp in 95 degree heat with the sun beating down on you! tools baking in the sun hitting 150 degress F too hot to handle!

.....Oh wait laying on the ground in a frozen puddle with the wind whipping snow around your frozen ears whilst your finger tips turn to ice trying to get that last screw in!!!

These are the tales of the tie down mechanic oh to be inside a warm toasty hangar this time of year.

Heres a PSA " bring your pets in on a cold winters night" With that being said now that the weather has turned cold here in Georgia I will be bring my expensive 

CONCORDE RG-35AXC PLATINUM SERIES SEALED LEAD ACID AIRCRAFT BATTERY IN FOR THE NIGHT!

With battery prices sky high and availability close to NIL I'm going to be extra nice to my battery this winter!

What tips do you have for cold weather storage of your Mooney? what can we do to prolong the lives of the damned who sleep outside on tiedown?

Happy Holidays!

I have the same battery. Im in Spokane.  Haven’t been above 35 since early November.  Highs in the 20s recently.  Battery is on a battery minder and it’s doing fine.  
 

Preheating the engine and possibly gyro avionics is probably worth it though.  I use a gsm switch, small space heater and a dryer vent into the cowling.  The entire engine is typically 50+ before starting.  I have a hanger though.  Can you preheat on a ramp?

[A64Pilot]

Really no need to pull the battery, it doesn’t get nearly cold enough in Ga for that. 

Flew to Crystal River for breakfast this morning, someone had been working on a Super Cruiser in the tie down area, had a brand new Concorde battery under it and the paper work for it an a scotch brite pad, a bucket of two and a gas can, paper work in a zip loc bag and something else had blown some distance away so I gathered it and put it under the bucket that was there.

I figure something must have happened as stuff was just left out unsecured. Hopefully they didn’t get hurt.

[A64Pilot]

1 hour ago, N201MKTurbo said:

We develop instinctive skills about not setting tools in the sun. 
 

I used to work on car telephones in the 70s. We had to measure the temperature of the radios in the trunk before we set the frequency. The hottest one I remember was 225 F

In the Desert we had to put “temp a dot” stickers on all our avionics boxes as they wanted to see how hot they got in Kuwait sun in Summer.

Every temp a dot was maxed out, I think over 250F, if you touched the aircraft skin or especially the rotor blades in Summer you literally got second degree burns. So we wore our gloves to pre-flight.

If we parked on asphalt we had to put 2 ft square plywood under the wheels or they would sink into the asphalt deep enough that it was unsafe to fly out of the holes, took a jack to get out.

 

[N201MKTurbo]

1 hour ago, A64Pilot said:

In the Desert we had to put “temp a dot” stickers on all our avionics boxes as they wanted to see how hot they got in Kuwait sun in Summer.

Every temp a dot was maxed out, I think over 250F, if you touched the aircraft skin or especially the rotor blades in Summer you literally got second degree burns. So we wore our gloves to pre-flight.

If we parked on asphalt we had to put 2 ft square plywood under the wheels or they would sink into the asphalt deep enough that it was unsafe to fly out of the holes, took a jack to get out.

 

Sounds like home…

I welded a 2” square pad onto my motorcycle kick stand so it wouldn’t sink into the asphalt. I tell people it gets so hot here the streets melt. They think I’m kidding.

[Jpravi8tor]

forecast for friday saturday and sunday is 10 degrees so yeah it gets cold here

[hammdo]

Low of 11 for us here in Carrollton. Glad it’s only a couple of days…

-Don

[Guest]

11 hours ago, Jpravi8tor said:

Theres nothing worse than working out on the ramp in 95 degree heat with the sun beating down on you! tools baking in the sun hitting 150 degress F too hot to handle!

.....Oh wait laying on the ground in a frozen puddle with the wind whipping snow around your frozen ears whilst your finger tips turn to ice trying to get that last screw in!!!

These are the tales of the tie down mechanic oh to be inside a warm toasty hangar this time of year.

Heres a PSA " bring your pets in on a cold winters night" With that being said now that the weather has turned cold here in Georgia I will be bring my expensive 

CONCORDE RG-35AXC PLATINUM SERIES SEALED LEAD ACID AIRCRAFT BATTERY IN FOR THE NIGHT!

With battery prices sky high and availability close to NIL I'm going to be extra nice to my battery this winter!

What tips do you have for cold weather storage of your Mooney? what can we do to prolong the lives of the damned who sleep outside on tiedown?

Happy Holidays!

Solar water heater to keep the floor around 40-45* depending on how much sunshine we get, then a 140,000 BTU Jet A heater to make it shirt sleeve temperature inside. Got to love winter!