Pilots!
Bitterly cold rain pelted us all day today, and with icy clouds haunting the airport from above, not a lot of flying going on around the ranch. We stayed dry, and I hope you did too. More importantly, I hope the goofballs on the freeways did not plague you -- but one more reason I'd rather be flying. :)
Some maintenance updates. Despite being able to see our breath in the hangar, maintenance is cranking out some hits.
Cessna 630 has a new oil access door. We will be re-painting it as time allows.
Cessna 68U has turned up some more water in her fuel tanks -- this time we have arched a skeptical eyebrow at the situation. We are re-gasketing the fuel tanks tomorrow as a precaution, so expect some downtime.
Cessna 20U has completed her 100hr. We did some corrosion treatment on her landing gear. The Corrosion-X chemical is also what you saw "weeping" through the aircraft's seams on the wings and fuselage at the last 100hr. It's like popeye's spinach, but for aluminum. All of our planes are Corrosion-proofed annually, except for 85Y, 1ES, and 17J, which were corrosion-proofed at the factory.
(the factory corrosion-proofing is a zinc-chromate paint baked onto the aluminum. It is what makes the innards of those 3 planes a greenish-yellow.)
Cessna 04H goes in for 100hr this week. She is limited to solo flight ONLY at this time. We normally do not do this, but our planes crunched on us all at once, so we figure there is no reason to penalize the solo pilots.
Cessna 1ES is back from her lightning-bug imitations. 3 starters, 3 batteries, 12 feet of new wiring, and 6 high-amperage relays later, she's behaving well. Welcome back, 1ES!
Cessna 17J completed her 100hr. We are having the scratchy intercom issue looked at again tomorrow (the third time). There is an elusive loose wire or bad ground making everyone crazy.
Piper 85Y has a new battery.
Cessna 25R has been flying just great. Thanks, 25R!
There are many pent-up checkrides trying to get through when our skies turn blue again. Please be patient if we ask you to wiggle around on the schedule a little bit, especially in 1ES who made many pilots postpone their rides.
==
Ice!
Many pilots know that the #1 mistake a VFR flier can make is the awful VFR-into-IMC maneuver. This particular little lapse in judgement accounts for nearly 25% of all aircraft accidents! But how bad can a cloud be?
Well today, the clouds were too much even for IFR-flown little planes -- the freezing level (ie the altitude at which the temperature is 0C outside) was down to 2,000 feet, simply unheard of in California! When an aircraft flies through clouds in sub-freezing weather, it is at risk of turning into a snow-cone, with disastrous results!
NASA has done extensive studies on airframe icing. Fascinating stuff, but dangerous! If you're going to pull the boneheaded VFR-into-IMC (and you're not, right?) -- it surely is double dumbbell points for doing it into an icy cloud and turning your plane into cocktail ice.
Check it out:
NASA's icing course
.JPG)
Ice is for dummies
==
Fly Safe, Drive Safe, Be warm! Great night for fireplaces, fuzzy slippers, and cocoa... mmmm!
See ya,
- Mike
