Our solution for winter preheating

[ArrowBerry]

I was at the hangar this past week and I took pictures of our set up for preheating. For those who are interested--this is what we came up with for this winter. Our plane has an EZ heat oil pan heater which works great, except the hangar is a 40 minute drive and we don't leave it plugged in unless we are flying. The issue of having to drive out the day before was just too much of a hassle and had to be planned ahead. The hangar has no wifi but we wanted to set something up to control it remotely. Originally we had looked at the SwitchBox and some of the premade solutions but they're a little pricy and we decided to try our own thing.

We had a spare iPhone 8 at home and got a $15/month phone plan with 250mbs of data, which was the cheapest we could find as a stand alone plan. We created a mobile hotspot in the hangar and paired it with a GlobeElectric wifi smart plug that has two, individually controlled outlets. Bonus it's also an outdoor plug so we can use this if we overnight outside on a trip. Initially we had problems with the hotspot randomly turning off when we tried it at home, but leaving the screen on the hotpot page seemed to force it to stay on. Whereas the Home Screen or anything else allowed it to turn itself off. Also make sure the screen won't go to sleep, and everything is turned off in the background so it doesn't suck data. 

One of the outlets is plugged into the EZ heat pan heater so we can turn that on the night before and give it 12+ hours to completely warm up. The second plug is for a forced air buddy heater that we run in through the baggage door to warm the cabin. I've found that about 60-90 minutes is a good amount of time to run this when the temperatures are cold, like -20C or 0F. An app on my phone allows us to turn on each plug separately, or preselect a time for them to come on. It's really handy to be able to control them separately, because 90 minutes isn't enough time for the EZ heat to work and having the buddy heater on all night is overkill. 

When we went flying last week the engine was toasty under the blanket, and the cabin was comfortably warm. Not just for the pilots, but the avionics especially and basically anything that moves in the cockpit. It makes everything so much smoother compared to having a frozen cabin. Total cost was $35 for the wifi plug, and $15/month for the phone plan. We already had a spare iPhone to use so that was free. 

Anyways, here are some pictures of the Mooneybird. 

 

[smwash02]

Awesome setup. The way you get cheaper data is by moving to an IoT plan. Check these out.

[Pinecone]

Hmm, cheaper hardware, but high data price.

$15 a month = $180 a year, versus $50 for the Switcheon.

[hypertech]

iSocket is $5 a month.  I have an older one that worked based on a prepaid SIM and I'm still running years later on my first $10 card.  It was a better deal but $5 is still pretty cheap.  Unsure if you can start / suspend services just for the winter months.  Maybe you can.

https://www.isocket.us/

[T. Peterson]

9 hours ago, ArrowBerry said:

I was at the hangar this past week and I took pictures of our set up for preheating. For those who are interested--this is what we came up with for this winter. Our plane has an EZ heat oil pan heater which works great, except the hangar is a 40 minute drive and we don't leave it plugged in unless we are flying. The issue of having to drive out the day before was just too much of a hassle and had to be planned ahead. The hangar has no wifi but we wanted to set something up to control it remotely. Originally we had looked at the SwitchBox and some of the premade solutions but they're a little pricy and we decided to try our own thing.

We had a spare iPhone 8 at home and got a $15/month phone plan with 250mbs of data, which was the cheapest we could find as a stand alone plan. We created a mobile hotspot in the hangar and paired it with a GlobeElectric wifi smart plug that has two, individually controlled outlets. Bonus it's also an outdoor plug so we can use this if we overnight outside on a trip. Initially we had problems with the hotspot randomly turning off when we tried it at home, but leaving the screen on the hotpot page seemed to force it to stay on. Whereas the Home Screen or anything else allowed it to turn itself off. Also make sure the screen won't go to sleep, and everything is turned off in the background so it doesn't suck data. 

One of the outlets is plugged into the EZ heat pan heater so we can turn that on the night before and give it 12+ hours to completely warm up. The second plug is for a forced air buddy heater that we run in through the baggage door to warm the cabin. I've found that about 60-90 minutes is a good amount of time to run this when the temperatures are cold, like -20C or 0F. An app on my phone allows us to turn on each plug separately, or preselect a time for them to come on. It's really handy to be able to control them separately, because 90 minutes isn't enough time for the EZ heat to work and having the buddy heater on all night is overkill. 

When we went flying last week the engine was toasty under the blanket, and the cabin was comfortably warm. Not just for the pilots, but the avionics especially and basically anything that moves in the cockpit. It makes everything so much smoother compared to having a frozen cabin. Total cost was $35 for the wifi plug, and $15/month for the phone plan. We already had a spare iPhone to use so that was free. 

Anyways, here are some pictures of the Mooneybird. 

 

God bless good ole Yankee ingenuity!……..errr……CANADIAN ingenuity!!

Well done! Very cool solution……err…..warm solution to a cool problem!

[ArrowBerry]

3 hours ago, Pinecone said:

Hmm, cheaper hardware, but high data price.

$15 a month = $180 a year, versus $50 for the Switcheon.

We only have the plan from about November to March, 5 months. We’ll cancel it for the summer.

[redbaron1982]

That's sooo cool! I think I will give this a try whenever I get my aircraft. Even in Houston, on the cold weeks, it would be good to have.

The last freeze (we have temps in the twenties) I went flying at my school and the engine oil was soooo thick that if it would have been my aircraft I wouldn't even tried to start it. I'm sure the amount of wear you get the first minutes with such thick oil is worth many, many flight hours.

[PT20J]

Very clever

[ArrowBerry]

1 hour ago, redbaron1982 said:

That's sooo cool! I think I will give this a try whenever I get my aircraft. Even in Houston, on the cold weeks, it would be good to have.

The last freeze (we have temps in the twenties) I went flying at my school and the engine oil was soooo thick that if it would have been my aircraft I wouldn't even tried to start it. I'm sure the amount of wear you get the first minutes with such thick oil is worth many, many flight hours.

With a good insulated engine cover and the oil pan heater on overnight, the oil temperature registering on the gauge during start was around 130 degrees. It's ironic that even though we have to shovel out the hangar and show up to fly in a parka, preheating actually makes the engine significantly warmer for starting compared to the summer when we just jump in and go. So much so that if you prime too much and follow a usual cold start procedure, you'll probably end up flooding the engine! 

 

 

[Ragsf15e]

13 hours ago, smwash02 said:

Awesome setup. The way you get cheaper data is by moving to an IoT plan. Check these out.

Interesting, I have a Truephone prepaid plan I’m using on an old isocket (3g) and they said they’re no longer selling prepaid sims.  They’re about the only ones left with some 3g where i live though, so I’ll see how long my $5 lasts… maybe years?

[ArrowBerry]

4 hours ago, T. Peterson said:

God bless good ole Yankee ingenuity!……..errr……CANADIAN ingenuity!!

Well done! Very cool solution……err…..warm solution to a cool problem!

I suppose they don't call it "Winterpeg" for no reason! You have to think a little bit warm up here. The winter flying is fantastic though, for the little bit of extra effort it takes you get a lot of great weather flying days and fantastic performance. Although, we still like to point her south at least once a year to find the palm trees!

[rbp]

for $109 you can replace the iPhone with a 4G router

https://store.gl-inet.com/products/puli-gl-xe300-4g-lte-wireless-router

freezing wx might be an issue:
• Operating Temperature: 0 ~ 40°C (32 ~ 104°F)
• Storage Temperature: -20 ~ 45°C (-4 ~ 113°F)

 

and you can get a cheap plan for $10/month
 

 

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#1 Tello Economy Best Overall Plan 4.3   U.S. News Rating Monthly Cost $10  Plan Type Prepaid Network Type 4G LTE, 5G Nationwide Data 1 GB Hotspot From Monthly Data Allowance Talk Time Unlimited Text Unlimited

 

[T. Peterson]

3 hours ago, ArrowBerry said:

I suppose they don't call it "Winterpeg" for no reason! You have to think a little bit warm up here. The winter flying is fantastic though, for the little bit of extra effort it takes you get a lot of great weather flying days and fantastic performance. Although, we still like to point her south at least once a year to find the palm trees!

Very nice picture! I love the prairies. My grandfather homesteaded in North Dakota and my maternal grandparents are from Moosejaw Saskatchewan. My mother remembers watching Gordie Howe play in the open ice rink in Moosejaw. My grandfather was an avid hockey fan and would take mom and her brother to the games when they were just little tykes. Mom is now 93. I can’t imagine sitting in an outdoor rink watching a hockey game in that weather, but they did!

[LANCECASPER]

17 hours ago, ArrowBerry said:

I suppose they don't call it "Winterpeg" for no reason! You have to think a little bit warm up here. The winter flying is fantastic though, for the little bit of extra effort it takes you get a lot of great weather flying days and fantastic performance. Although, we still like to point her south at least once a year to find the palm trees!

I learned to fly about 140 mi. S. of there in Grand Forks ND, very similar terrain. Moving there from eastern Minnesota I was convinced that the state tree in North Dakota was the telephone pole. Winnipeg was the closest big city. I always went up there at least once a year to experience civilization . . lol.