Please say it isn't so

azure

azure

Final Approach
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azure
I just saw the latest weather forecast and almost could not believe it. We've been nearly paralyzed by an 8 inch snowfall on New Year's Day. The city and county snow removal has been completely AWOL, the only clearing that's been done on the roads is by the cars themselves. No plows except on the side streets in one or two communities, and no salt at all. My car windows are squeaky clean, for the first time in January in years. At the airport, the parking lot was unplowed until late Thursday. My hangar ramp was buried in 18-inch drifts and in order to clear them, I had to plead with a snow removal driver to come and clear it all out. In the process, of course he packed some of it down so that now I cannot get the plane out without help. Urea is useless in these temperatures and sand doesn't provide enough traction... besides, the packed snow provides an upward slope that I just can't pull the bird up by myself.

Now they're forecasting another 6 to 12 inches between Saturday night and Monday morning. Please say it isn't so. I think I'm just going to give up on flying until all this melts. :( :(
 
azure said:
I just saw the latest weather forecast and almost could not believe it. We've been nearly paralyzed by an 8 inch snowfall on New Year's Day. The city and county snow removal has been completely AWOL, the only clearing that's been done on the roads is by the cars themselves. No plows except on the side streets in one or two communities, and no salt at all. My car windows are squeaky clean, for the first time in January in years. At the airport, the parking lot was unplowed until late Thursday. My hangar ramp was buried in 18-inch drifts and in order to clear them, I had to plead with a snow removal driver to come and clear it all out. In the process, of course he packed some of it down so that now I cannot get the plane out without help. Urea is useless in these temperatures and sand doesn't provide enough traction... besides, the packed snow provides an upward slope that I just can't pull the bird up by myself.

Now they're forecasting another 6 to 12 inches between Saturday night and Monday morning. Please say it isn't so. I think I'm just going to give up on flying until all this melts. :( :(
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Feeling for ya,, but you probably don't want to know our Daffodils are up about 1 inch.
 
I take a snowblower and shovel to the hangar. Seems to work.
 
EdFred said:
I take a snowblower and shovel to the hangar. Seems to work.
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My Airport insures that the drains are open, for the self shoveling snow to run down. :)
 
azure said:
I just saw the latest weather forecast and almost could not believe it. We've been nearly paralyzed by an 8 inch snowfall on New Year's Day. The city and county snow removal has been completely AWOL, the only clearing that's been done on the roads is by the cars themselves. No plows except on the side streets in one or two communities, and no salt at all. My car windows are squeaky clean, for the first time in January in years. At the airport, the parking lot was unplowed until late Thursday. My hangar ramp was buried in 18-inch drifts and in order to clear them, I had to plead with a snow removal driver to come and clear it all out. In the process, of course he packed some of it down so that now I cannot get the plane out without help. Urea is useless in these temperatures and sand doesn't provide enough traction... besides, the packed snow provides an upward slope that I just can't pull the bird up by myself.

Now they're forecasting another 6 to 12 inches between Saturday night and Monday morning. Please say it isn't so. I think I'm just going to give up on flying until all this melts. :( :(
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Cold front hit here as well, temps in the 60°s today, almost had to put a shirt on.
 
Doh! :crazy::sigh:


images
 
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Another thread destroyed by someone who can't figure out ho to properly size a picture for posting inline...:rolleyes2:
 
Just got back to FLA from New England. Going flying in the am ,temp only going to be in the 60's.
 
frfly172 said:
Just got back to FLA from New England. Going flying in the am ,temp only going to be in the 60's.
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Denver was in the 60s today. Tomorrow? Snow, maybe 20.

Welcome to Colorado.
 
Henning said:
Another thread destroyed by someone who can't figure out ho to properly size a picture for posting inline...:rolleyes2:
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Damn....... That plane had skis on it too.......:eek:..

Must have been some VERY powdery snow....:yes:
 
txflyer said:
Doh! :crazy::sigh:
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Don't miss being on a tiedown during the winter.

Not one bit.

A door on the hanger is nice too. Even if I do have to keep a prybar there to get it unstuck from the ice every once and a while.

And electricity. :goofy:

I keep thinking it might be fun to make a set of ski's, but I really need to get heat in the airplane first.
 
N801BH said:
Damn....... That plane had skis on it too.......:eek:..

Must have been some VERY powdery snow....:yes:
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My other love is mountain snowmobiling. I can absolutely relate to that picture being on a snowmobile but still, something about that makes me smile. :D I just love the deep snow in the mountains!!!

That landing would have made for an interesting video.
 
azure said:
I have a shovel in there... can't afford a snowblower hefty enough for this stuff. :mad:
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This stuff is light though. Even a cheapie should throw the stuff a mile.
 
frfly172 said:
Just got back to FLA from New England. Going flying in the am ,temp only going to be in the 60's.
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You left just in time. Daughter reported 1 ft of snow in Quincy MA, temp 8F, wind chill -20F today. :yikes: The "neck" was isolated for a while with sea water over the only access road.

Of course I'm here in the desert SW in shirt sleeves. :)
 
airguy said:
There's a reason I live in Texas...
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It was colder in Dallas today then we were, and next summer when your sweating your a$$ off, we won't be.
 
Sounds like you're based at an airport that relies on the city to remove the snow. If so, I'd get accustomed to not flying in the winter. A lot of smaller airports don't get plowed very often.

The last airport I was based at was like this. I hardly got to fly at all because the runway and taxiways typically got plowed out just in time for the next snowfall. Sometimes it sat untouched for over a week.
 
EdFred said:
I take a snowblower and shovel to the hangar. Seems to work.
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Exactly. If it snows a lot I even bring out my Bobcat. Hangar buddies love me! ;)


OP, the snow plow dude does you a favor and you complain that he packed the snow down on your ramp? :rofl: What did you expect to happen? :mad2:
 
mondtster said:
Sounds like you're based at an airport that relies on the city to remove the snow. If so, I'd get accustomed to not flying in the winter. A lot of smaller airports don't get plowed very often.
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The county, not the city, but otherwise that's pretty accurate. Still, this is the fourth winter I've owned my plane and the 6th that I've been based at this airport, and it's the first that I've considered just giving up on winter flying.
 
Geico266 said:
OP, the snow plow dude does you a favor and you complain that he packed the snow down on your ramp? :rofl: What did you expect to happen? :mad2:
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LOL! If you got out of my post that I'm complaining about the snowplow guy, then your reading comprehension is pretty poor. Of course I expected that to happen, just hoped I'd be able to get the packed down stuff melted and cleared with urea before the next snowfall. The real problem has been the temperatures and how relentless the snow machine has been.
 
As a Great Lakes area native, and after spending three years in Atlanta, I'm happy to be back where "real" winter happens.

Sure the cold spells come, the temp drops to below zero, and you get stuck somewhere indoors. But it's not going to stay that way for any length of time. I shovel some snow, enjoy the scenery, and it will be gone soon enough.

Hopefully next year I'll manage to have a snowmobile in the garage before it hits. :wink2:
 
Although it has snowed around here (it is snowing right now) we haven't gotten anything of significant depth yet this season. Maybe a few inches. I haven't shoveled yet.
 
From the NWS Forecast Discussion last night:
THIS WILL USHER IN THE NEXT PHASE OF THIS BUSY WINTER PATTERN AS A
STRONG ARCTIC COLD FRONT SHIFTS INTO THE AREA LATE SUNDAY NIGHT INTO MONDAY AND THEN PERSISTS THROUGH TUESDAY INTO WEDNESDAY. AS HAS BEEN ADVERTISED...THIS ARCTIC AIRMASS WILL BE THE COLDEST WEATHER THE AREA HAS EXPERIENCED IN A NUMBER OF YEARS. TEMPERATURES WILL FALL TO OR BELOW ZERO WITH TIME ON MONDAY AS THE BITTERLY COLD AIRMASS MOVES INTO THE AREA AND THEN PLUNGE WELL BELOW ZERO ON MONDAY NIGHT AS THE HEART OF THE COLD AIR PROGRESSES INTO THE AREA. TEMPERATURES WILL ONLY REBOUND TO AROUND ZERO ON TUESDAY AND FALL BACK WELL BELOW ZERO IN MANY AREAS TUESDAY NIGHT.
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A couple nights ago the "number of years" was better quantified at about 20. Yeah, winter happens around here, but this is way worse than usual for the southern part of the state. Traveler, I'd move down to Atlanta in a heartbeat if I could find a job there. Enjoy our old fashioned winter! We don't get them very often.
 
JasonM said:
My other love is mountain snowmobiling. I can absolutely relate to that picture being on a snowmobile but still, something about that makes me smile. :D I just love the deep snow in the mountains!!!

That landing would have made for an interesting video.
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Come on out to the ultimate place to ride sleds in the mountians....

Henning rode my ex's PolCat and had a fun time.... I should have fired up my Methanol buring, open mod PolTac hill climber for him... 0-100 mph in 4.9 seconds... Even he would have been impressed...:yesnod::eek:
 
BillTIZ said:
You left just in time. Daughter reported 1 ft of snow in Quincy MA, temp 8F, wind chill -20F today. :yikes: The "neck" was isolated for a while with sea water over the only access road.

Of course I'm here in the desert SW in shirt sleeves. :)
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Bill: We got nailed: first, snow; later, ice storm; then, fluffy snow; day later, 8 more inches of fluffy stuff -- all within a week. My Gravely tractor may be 40 years old but it throws a LOT of snow. The Feral Kitties don't have a problem finding the food in my 15 bales of hay shelter -- and note that, though it was -22°f here last night, the water bowl isn't frozen. (It has a fish tank heater in it.) At the moment we're up to 23°f; need to go to Wiscasset and check the hangar.

HR
 

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N801BH said:
Come on out to the ultimate place to ride sleds in the mountians....

Henning rode my ex's PolCat and had a fun time.... I should have fired up my Methanol buring, open mod PolTac hill climber for him... 0-100 mph in 4.9 seconds... Even he would have been impressed...:yesnod::eek:
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Yeah, you gave me the whimpy one, it barely would catch air off the snow bank.
 
Henning said:
Ugg, I tried Tap-a-Talk, what an annoying format.:rolleyes2:
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Speaking of that, how does everyone like Tap-a-Talk, other than this thread in particular?

For me there are some conveniences, but overall I've got a hard time getting used to it after becoming accustomed to using the forum in it's full functionality.

Anybody actually prefer it over just using the forum?
 
Lawreston said:
Bill: We got nailed: first, snow; later, ice storm; then, fluffy snow; day later, 8 more inches of fluffy stuff -- all within a week. My Gravely tractor may be 40 years old but it throws a LOT of snow. The Feral Kitties don't have a problem finding the food in my 15 bales of hay shelter -- and note that, though it was -22°f here last night, the water bowl isn't frozen. (It has a fish tank heater in it.) At the moment we're up to 23°f; need to go to Wiscasset and check the hangar.

HR
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It looks pretty, but the clean up part of that I don't miss.
 
Lawreston said:
Bill: We got nailed: first, snow; later, ice storm; then, fluffy snow; day later, 8 more inches of fluffy stuff -- all within a week. My Gravely tractor may be 40 years old but it throws a LOT of snow. The Feral Kitties don't have a problem finding the food in my 15 bales of hay shelter -- and note that, though it was -22°f here last night, the water bowl isn't frozen. (It has a fish tank heater in it.) At the moment we're up to 23°f; need to go to Wiscasset and check the hangar.

HR
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Gee, the driveway between your house and the garage didn't look like that when we visited. :D
 
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