Sweat obscuring vision before takeoff on hot days....

cowman

cowman

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So I've run into this issue a time or two and it's come up again on some recent flights. Baking in the sun in an airplane with no AC and sweating between the ramp and runway- or waiting for takeoff clearance starts getting into my eyes and causing stinging/obscured vision which is obviously not ideal right before takeoff. Once airborne with some air moving through the cabin it's no longer an issue but it is occurring at a fairly critical time. Thinking about getting a sweatband and keeping it in the plane- maybe even getting a customized one with some kinda airplane clipart or my tail number on it or something.

Am I the only one who runs into this? Any better ideas to solve the problem?
 
My flying club has two DA40s. These are bubble canopy airplanes with very little sun protection. It's bad enough with the canopy open, but closed, it's a bad sauna. I have had exactly your issue. My solution was to purchase an in-ear headset. Unlike domes, with an in-ear, you can wear a floppy sun protection hat. It makes more difference than you might think. The inside headband helps a with sweating, but the biggest effect is increased shade which lowers the perceived temperature by about 10°.

PS. I'm in North Carolina. Nice cool mid-90s today. Not a cloud in the sky. I flew. I was actually comfortable.
 
You are not the only one. I've had that many, many times. On a day like today, mid 90s, it would be miserable if I'm stuck on the ground waiting for takeoff and baking in the heat.

I normally leave the door open and my pilot side window until just before takeoff so I get a cross breeze. That, and I wipe my forehead early and often! Might use the hat idea MidlifeFlyer mentioned and see if it helps.
 
ArrowFlyer86 said:
I normally leave the door open and my pilot side window until just before takeoff
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That's my solution. Jaime has been flying pipers for a minute, so I assume he's doing that too, but if not, there's your answer. With the door open and the engine running and the wind deflector 3000 extreme in the max cool position, there's enough air movement that I've never really been too uncomfortable. That first/last couple thousand feet on a hot day is worse, to me.
 
NC resident here, too. I am sorta dreading my plan to fly a fair bit over the next week during a "just burn some PTO / staycation" time. I think I'll keep some gym towels handy. :D
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I carry a small towel - easy enough to keep the sweat wiped until you're in the air. But even at 3000 or so, it's just still going to be hot and sweaty. Only on X Country at 7,000 - 9,000 does it get reasonable.

Which is also why for summer lower altitude flying I have an ice chest AC I load up in the back seat.
 
midlifeflyer said:
My flying club has two DA40s. These are bubble canopy airplanes with very little sun protection. It's bad enough with the canopy open, but closed, it's a bad sauna. I have had exactly your issue.
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The DA40 does have that secondary canopy position available when on the ground. I find that effective enough prior to takeoff. Once the fan is turned up, those vents are big enough to continue the cooling process. Heck, those vents are so big that I almost never have them all the way open because of the noise.

Almost all other planes, keeping the door/window/canopy open is good enough, I think.
 
asicer said:
The DA40 does have that secondary canopy position available when on the ground. I find that effective enough prior to takeoff. Once the fan is turned up, those vents are big enough to continue the cooling process. Heck, those vents are so big that I almost never have them all the way open because of the noise.
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Noisy, yes (side benefit of my in-ears is being quieter in that airplane than my Lightspeeds).

Effective for cooling, not so much. Still the hottest cabin of all those I fly and teach in (tied with other bubbles). My worst sweat in eyes in the DA40 was in flight. I was worried about landing because I could barely keep my eyes open.
 
OIP-2530438995.jpg

We asked 100 people 'How do you keep sweat out of your eyes' and the top 3 answers are on the board:

1. Hat 80
2. Sweatband 15
3. Non-flying pilot 5

The people have spoken.
 
Do you still have a Cigarette Lighter Plug in your plane? If so, do a quick Google search for "cigarette lighter plug in fans" and pick one you like. Right before Take off when you close the door/canopy, unplug the fan and toss it in the back.
UPDATE: Or obviously fans with a USB plug if you have that installed or want to take a battery pack with you.

The other option, if you have the little Pilot Window is (Google again) a "pilot window air scoop." You flip it out and you get air from the prop blowing in on you.
 
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For the stinging in your eyes, do you use sunscreen? That can sting like crazy. There are different formulations that don't do that.
 
The sweatband in a hat isn’t adequate for me. If I really need to keep the sweat out of my eyes, I wear a bandanna under my hat.

I also quit using the 1st gen Bose headset after it electrocuted my ear on takeoff.
 
M20K said:
Do you still have a Cigarette Lighter Plug in your plane? If so, do a quick Google search for "cigarette lighter plug in fans" and pick one you like. Right before Take off when you close the door/canopy, unplug the fan and toss it in the back.

The other option, if you have the little Pilot Window is (Google again) a "pilot window air scoop." You flip it out and you get air from the prop blowing in on you.
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There are USB powered fans as well for airplanes with a USB port.

The Kool Scoop or whatever the current brand is, is about the best money I ever spent in aviation!
 
I sweated through 2 hot summers during training years ago. I took a small sweat towel with me.
My first women instructor flew with her window open for me in a 172.
Then we would fly high to find me cooler air.
The most brutal time was spent on a hot, hot ramp waiting 2 minutes for the starter to cool. Sometimes it took 3-4 try's to get that IO-360 to start. Meanwhile we were baking.
 
RussR said:
There are USB powered fans as well for airplanes with a USB port.

The Kool Scoop or whatever the current brand is, is about the best money I ever spent in aviation!
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Well if we're going to resort to gadgetry...
ab52abc4-69ee-4cc8-ae07-e81d94d29129.png
 
M20K said:
The other option, if you have the little Pilot Window is (Google again) a "pilot window air scoop." You flip it out and you get air from the prop blowing in on you.
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Once on the ground, these are awesome. First time I saw one was maybe 20 years ago in a friend's Archer. Summer, he landed, popped it, and voila! It was suddenly air conditioned (relatively speaking). Put one into a Comanche I used to fly.
 
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Cessna. The doors popping open help cool the cabin…


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A small towel might not be a terrible idea.

As for keeping the door open... I've got a wide cabin and not particularly long arms. Also... here's a story which is totally a work of fiction and any resemblance to persons living or dead is purely coincidental and this definitely doesn't happen every flight when the right seat is occupied.

The airplane's door is slammed closed, the right seat passenger pulls down the bottom latch but it doesn't engage.
"No," says the pilot, "slamming it doesn't do anything you have to pull it closed and then-"
The door is slammed again and the latch pulled down without engaging for the second time.
"You have to pull it tight with one hand and while holding it engage the latch," the pilot explains again calmly.
Inexplicably the door is once again slammed shut but this time the passenger gently tugs at it, almost successfully closing the door. Almost.
"Ok," says the pilot. "Let me just..." he reaches over the resistant passenger, pulls the door shut, engages the lower latch, then the upper.
 
cowman said:
A small towel might not be a terrible idea.

As for keeping the door open... I've got a wide cabin and not particularly long arms. Also... here's a story which is totally a work of fiction and any resemblance to persons living or dead is purely coincidental and this definitely doesn't happen every flight when the right seat is occupied.

The airplane's door is slammed closed, the right seat passenger pulls down the bottom latch but it doesn't engage.
"No," says the pilot, "slamming it doesn't do anything you have to pull it closed and then-"
The door is slammed again and the latch pulled down without engaging for the second time.
"You have to pull it tight with one hand and while holding it engage the latch," the pilot explains again calmly.
Inexplicably the door is once again slammed shut but this time the passenger gently tugs at it, almost successfully closing the door. Almost.
"Ok," says the pilot. "Let me just..." he reaches over the resistant passenger, pulls the door shut, engages the lower latch, then the upper.
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@Jim K , I’m curious how you handle closing the rear door on your airplane. Do you always do it, do you have the kids trained, or…?

When we were kids in the Cherokee Six, my dad ALWAYS closed the rear door from the outside…it had been sprung, so it was very difficult to engage the top latch properly from inside.

The last FBO I worked for got a Saratoga on leaseback, and I did the checkout for the first instructor in the airplane. The rear door wasn’t sprung, and I emphasized what needed to be done to keep it that way, and made the instructor promise to ensure every checkout included that information. Within two weeks the door was sprung. :(
 
MauleSkinner said:
@Jim K , I’m curious how you handle closing the rear door on your airplane. Do you always do it, do you have the kids trained, or…?

When we were kids in the Cherokee Six, my dad ALWAYS closed the rear door from the outside…it had been sprung, so it was very difficult to engage the top latch properly from inside.

The last FBO I worked for got a Saratoga on leaseback, and I did the checkout for the first instructor in the airplane. The rear door wasn’t sprung, and I emphasized what needed to be done to keep it that way, and made the instructor promise to ensure every checkout included that information. Within two weeks the door was sprung. :(
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I really haven't had any issues, other than that time @eman1200 broke it ;)

Seriously though, the bigger kids sit back there, and have never had a problem. I even let the young eagles kids open it, although I do always close it, and I do yell at anyone who tries to use it as a handle. Having a step stool available helps prevent people from trying to use it to pull themselves up. Mine has always worked really well until the bottom door hinge ripped out of the fiberglass at Rough River a couple years ago if you remember. I repaired and reinforced it. Took a bit of effort to adjust it to make it work smoothly again, but it does, and I think with the reinforcement it should be good for another 50 years...
 
Nobody seems to have issue with my rear passenger door, partly because my wife and kid usually choose to ride back there. Everyone but me seems to struggle with the front copilot side door though.
 
cowman said:
Nobody seems to have issue with my rear passenger door, partly because my wife and kid usually choose to ride back there. Everyone but me seems to struggle with the front copilot side door though.
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My front door is super hard too. Teresa can do it, but it takes her both hands. Anyone under about 10 just doesn't have the hand strength to operate it. Something I think about when I'm taking young eagles. I don't have any trouble doing it from the left seat, but I never considered that might be because I'm tall. Aren't you supposed to be flying from the right seat anyway? :biggrin:
 
Jim K said:
My front door is super hard too. Teresa can do it, but it takes her both hands. Anyone under about 10 just doesn't have the hand strength to operate it. Something I think about when I'm taking young eagles. I don't have any trouble doing it from the left seat, but I never considered that might be because I'm tall. Aren't you supposed to be flying from the right seat anyway? :biggrin:
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Reaching over there to do the latch isn't a big problem, but I've had gusts of wind grab that door and sheer off the pin on the lower hinge arm, slamming it forward against the side of the plane before. I'm not terribly comfortable letting it hang open in any wind/propwash without a hand on it to make sure that doesn't happen again.
 
Jim K said:
My front door is super hard too. Teresa can do it, but it takes her both hands.
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What happens if you keep pulling on the door with one hand as you close the latch with the other? I've found to keep pulling hard helps a lot with a tight door.
 
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M20K said:
What happens if you keep pulling on the door with one had as you close the latch with the other? I've found to keep pulling hard helps a lot with a tight door.
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That's exactly how I do it.
 
M20K said:
What happens if you keep pulling on the door with one had as you close the latch with the other? I've found to keep pulling hard helps a lot with a tight door.
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I...don't know. Never occurred to me lol. I'll have to try that; thanks. I'm sure you're right, it's hard because it's camming closed against the seal.
 
Ah, memories... learning to fly the T-38 in Arizona, we'd be drenched in sweat while waiting for takeoff clearance. A towel wouldn't help - we were wearing helmets and visors and oxygen masks and long-sleeved flight suits with only a small patch of skin exposed at the base of our neck above the zipper. The airplane has air conditioning, but it doesn't work until you are flying. Then, you take off and start climbing at a high angle, supposed to maintain 300 knots, when the AC kicks in and fills the cockpit with cold fog, obscuring your view of the instruments and the outside world. Taking it out of afterburners back to military power, the fog stopped and we could find our bearings.

This really sucked during formation takeoffs.
 
Llewtrah381 said:
And battery powered ones that recharge via USB. I have something like this. It’ll run overnight on Low, several hours on High. Can clip on the glare shield.

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I ordered this fan without even thinking twice. I got roasted in a Seneca this week. The vision obscuration is worse if you wear glasses. Now you will have gummed up lenses, and stinging eyes from the sweat which you can't quite reach. The 182's I fly normally are not nearly as bad.
 
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