Getting Ready For Winter

Geico266

Geico266

Touchdown! Greaser!
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Husker Nation, NE
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Geico
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KCEK
I burn mogas in my IO540. One of the things I do when I am going into winter months where I normally don't fly as much is to fill up with 100ll and go flying to clean out the mogas for storage. I still fly in the winter, but not as much.

I also pull out the old pre heater and take a look at it to make sure it works fine. I also have a few blankets I throw in the back for passenger comfort.

What do you do to get ready for winter?
 
I also switch from mogas to 100ll, wing and tail covers, change my survival kit to winter sleeping bags, I also cover the air intake over my oil cooler during coldest months. I keep two pairs of snowshoes and a small snow shovel in back. Get my preheaters ready.

That was in Alaska. Down here ill be in a hangar for winter months so I can skip the wing covers and preheaters most of the time. Looking forward to that.
 
Larry I sometimes fly an Archer that takes Mogas, I'll have to ask the owner his policy. Do you flush the mogas so it doesn't go to varnish? Will 100LL go to varnish?

Also the guy who rents the mogas Archer tells me you know when the MoGas is totally gone when it runs blue again. Do you fly it until you get the blue in the 100LL showing or just dilute it out?
 
100LL has more additives, not fewer. It's not "better" fuel; it's more resistant to detonation, and that's it.

To prevent varnish, I wonder if you can put a charcoal filter on the vents to slow down evaporation.

FWIW, a bigger issue is oxidation of the internal steel parts that aren't getting lubricated for months. When storing a car, it's not unusual to pull the spark plugs and fill the cylinders with oil or ATF or some other preservative. Just don't try to crank the engine before you remove it.... But most of us who store vehicles for a long time don't do anything in particular, except perhaps pull the spark plugs and disable fuel and spark and crank the engine several rotations (with no compression) after a particularly long storage time (more than a year).

But frankly, I think your airplane would do A LOT better if you just hauled it out and ran it up once a month or so, and did nothing special at all to the engine. You can do that even if the weather is terrible.
 
Figure out where the snow shovel got buried in the back of the hangar, make sure the propane tank is full, fill the heater with diesel or kerosene, and find the winter coat in the closet. That's about it.

Toss the survival kit back in the airplane if it was removed in a huff of cockiness where someone thought they'd survive in the mountains in summer. (You'd still freeze.)

Maybe by about January, hunt down the gloves and skull cap. :)
 
Make sure the hangar heaters are on, go through the survival kits. Get the de-ice system on the twin checked, check the season pass at Mt. Bachelor and pray for snow.
 
I store all the summer-use engines with 100LL in the tanks. Boat, lawnmower, roto-tiller, motorcycle. No more varnish problems in the spring. Have to clean a spark plug here and there but it's a small price to pay.
 
close the hangar door, and turn on the heat at 65 degrees.

clear days go fly.
 
I usually keep a towel handy to wipe sweat. I also have a hand held battery operated fan handy. During winter I don't always keep these in the plane. Also I rarely go north past the Georgia border.
 
I suspect that this winter I will raise the plastic sides of the "cool room" I built inside my hangar. :D

Sent from my Nexus 7
 
Make sure I fly one of the Cessnas, instead of the Arrow. Much better for climbing in under a wing when it is raining. Oh, and we start using the cockpit heaters and plug in the engine heaters on a couple of the planes. Watch the weather so I don't fly into clouds below freezing, we have one of the best ice machines in the country.
 
Ghery said:
Make sure I fly one of the Cessnas, instead of the Arrow. Much better for climbing in under a wing when it is raining. Oh, and we start using the cockpit heaters and plug in the engine heaters on a couple of the planes. Watch the weather so I don't fly into clouds below freezing, we have one of the best ice machines in the country.
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Boy howdy. When I have to head for the valley in winter I use the V25/V112 route to keep a low MEA. V595 or V165 is a sure fire way to get icy over some very unforgiving terrain.
 
Block air to one of the two oil coolers. Dig out the AF issue winter flying jacket, black watch cap and winter flight boots. Winter flying gloves help too. No heater in the Pawnee.
 
JHW said:
I store all the summer-use engines with 100LL in the tanks. Boat, lawnmower, roto-tiller, motorcycle. No more varnish problems in the spring. Have to clean a spark plug here and there but it's a small price to pay.
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Why not just use Sta-bil? It's a heck of a lot cheaper. All the farmers up here use it not only for seasonal storage, but for engines on equipment that's rarely fired up but has to always be ready to use (generators, emergency pumps, and so forth). The trick, I'm told, is to mix it with the fuel at the higher bulk-storage dose, and run the engine for a bit so it coats the innards, before shutting it down for storage. Stories abound of equipment that was stored with Sta-bil in the fuel tank starting up on the first try after years of storage.

From personal experience, my car runs horribly on the winter blend gasoline. Last year, one of the farmers told me to add an ounce of Sta-bil for every ten gallons of gasoline on every fill-up. You wouldn't believe the difference the stuff made. It cleaned out the fuel system, the car runs much better, and the mileage increased measurably.

Sta-bil is also popular in the ultralight community. Rotax allows the use of mogas with up to 10 percent ethanol in at least the newer 4-stroke engines, and doesn't officially approve any additives that I know of. But every ultralight pilot I know around here adds Sta-bil to the gas and swears by it. It may as well be a checklist item.

-Rich
 
Plug in the Reiff heater the day before I want to fly.
 
RJM62 said:
Stories abound of equipment that was stored with Sta-bil in the fuel tank starting up on the first try after years of storage.
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Stories abound of equipment stored with absolutely nothing other that normal fuel and oil starting up on the first try after years of storage.

The limiting factors just aren't in the engine. Tires rot when in contact with water. Batteries go flat with storage, especially in cold weather. Critters make nests in intakes and other cozy locations. And so on.
 
RJM62 said:
Why not just use Sta-bil?
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Why mess with something that I have to add separately and just delays the onset of varnish, when I have a 1000gal tank sitting there of something (100LL) that will NEVER varnish ?
 
JHW said:
Why mess with something that I have to add separately and just delays the onset of varnish, when I have a 1000gal tank sitting there of something (100LL) that will NEVER varnish ?
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Because 100LL costs a lot more.
 
I make sure the pre-heaters work, the tug is on the charger, the Janitrol works, and that I have adequate extension cords, sleeping bags (for the engines and in case of a heater failure), etc.

Running your plane without flying it is a great way to build up moisture in the engine and lead to corrosion. If you can fly, that's best (don't forget to preheat). They will typically tolerate sitting for a good while without trouble.
 
jesse said:
Because 100LL costs a lot more.
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Does it ? non-ethanol (which is premium here) car gas has id 4.40/gal. Add cost of stabil. My tank of 100LL cost me $4.35. It would be $5.10 if I bought it today. A generator holds a gallon of fuel, a lawnmower holds a quart, a weedeater a few cc's. How tight do you want to pinch this penny ?
 
JHW said:
Does it ? non-ethanol (which is premium here) car gas has id 4.40/gal. Add cost of stabil. My tank of 100LL cost me $4.35. It would be $5.10 if I bought it today. A generator holds a gallon of fuel, a lawnmower holds a quart, a weedeater a few cc's. How tight do you want to pinch this penny ?
Click to expand...

Since I've never had trouble storing with stabil and there is at least a $3 difference per gallon in price...I think I'll pinch that penny, since it takes me no effort to do, plus I'd rather not coat all my small engines with a bunch of lead they didn't need. I really don't like 100LL.
 
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