dmccormack
Touchdown! Greaser!
- Joined
- May 11, 2007
- Messages
- 10,945
- Location
- Lancaster County, Pennsylvania
- Display Name
Display name:
Dan Mc
This morning I planned an early flight.
Wx was 20 F and clear with light southerly winds.
The Airplane is a Cessna 205 (IO-470) stored in a hangar with a space heater in the cabin set to 65 F and a new Aerotherm Engine heater with inlet and outlet and temperature setting. It was set to 80. The heavy insulated blanket over the cowl was nice an toasty, and the oil flowed freely and all fuel drians (there are 5) flowed freely with no water (as usual).
After clearing the snow and ice from in front of the hangar, I pulled it out solo (no easy feat -- this is a heavy bird and there was a bump of ice to push over).
I clsoed up the hangar, double-checked all a/c doors, and got in.
The engine heater had been off for maybe 5 minutes.
I tried to start using normal POH start technique (Mixture rich, throttle 1/2" in, fuel pump on low).
It turned over fine (as it would on a sumemr day) but never caught.
I waited and tried a few more times (including mixture lean and no fuel pump) and nothing -- not even a hint of firing.
This is the first time I've tried starting this airplane in these conditions (extensive preheat -- days -- and cold ambient temperatires), and this is the first time it hasn't started.
All otehr indications were good -- this airplane flew last about a month ago with no start problems (the pre-heater wasn't used -- ambinet temps were mid-40s then).
Can the change from toasty warm 80 degrees to 20 degrees cause this behavior?
I'm stumped...
Wx was 20 F and clear with light southerly winds.
The Airplane is a Cessna 205 (IO-470) stored in a hangar with a space heater in the cabin set to 65 F and a new Aerotherm Engine heater with inlet and outlet and temperature setting. It was set to 80. The heavy insulated blanket over the cowl was nice an toasty, and the oil flowed freely and all fuel drians (there are 5) flowed freely with no water (as usual).
After clearing the snow and ice from in front of the hangar, I pulled it out solo (no easy feat -- this is a heavy bird and there was a bump of ice to push over).
I clsoed up the hangar, double-checked all a/c doors, and got in.
The engine heater had been off for maybe 5 minutes.
I tried to start using normal POH start technique (Mixture rich, throttle 1/2" in, fuel pump on low).
It turned over fine (as it would on a sumemr day) but never caught.
I waited and tried a few more times (including mixture lean and no fuel pump) and nothing -- not even a hint of firing.
This is the first time I've tried starting this airplane in these conditions (extensive preheat -- days -- and cold ambient temperatires), and this is the first time it hasn't started.
All otehr indications were good -- this airplane flew last about a month ago with no start problems (the pre-heater wasn't used -- ambinet temps were mid-40s then).
Can the change from toasty warm 80 degrees to 20 degrees cause this behavior?
I'm stumped...