Cold, too brrr cold

This morning bout 630 a cold front has come through and with a vengance. It is minus - 24* C, which is minus -11 F. Its just bitter cold and was such a change, I skied on Sunday and other than a some wind it was pleasant, sunny and almost 40, and that is above. I sure am not skiing today and sure not going flying either. I wonder if a piston engine plane would even start now without preheat. The cockpit would feel like ice. I carry sleeping bags and fire starter, extra gloves and parka, etc. but in reality if one went down and had to spend the night out there, it would be bad, gloves can only do so much. So many nights when I go to sleep its about 20* F, cold but not what I'd call bitter. You can walk from your car to the store or bar with a good parka ok. This is not like that. It will warm up when the sun fully rises, but this time of year the sun is low on the horizon and doesn't do that much.

11 below zero? Hmmm, probably time for some Chicagoans to put away the cargo shorts and put on some thin running pants - lol.

[Smiling from Alabama]

We only have to deal with tornadoes this time of year.

:)

Learned to fly in North Dakota, used pre-heat a lot. Don't recall what the coldest temperature I ever flew in was. The ol' Citabria didn't have much of a heater.

What I *did* like about flying in the winter was the horizon. No haze, the horizon line looked like it had been cut by a razor blade.

Our CAP cadet group did camp out one night when it got to 23 below. That was an experience. We were crammed into a tent with straw on the floor, trying to sleep in mummy bags where only our faces were exposed. One of the guys in the middle had a nightmare and started thrashing around. We tried to get out of our bags, to discover our breath had frozen onto the zippers and they were stuck.

One of our Canadian Fly Baby crew puts skis on his airplane in the winter....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vFx3ahk0WnM
Not sure what the temperature in this video is, other than Celsius. :-)

Ron Wanttaja

It was -3º F at my house this morning (north side of Denver metro) but is up to 25º F here now. Thankfully there's little wind. It was 74º F* here Sun., 20's and snow on Mon, teens and snow Tue, so it's quite variable.

---

* Tied a record high.

Speaking of too cold.... I'm researching accidents related to pilot incapacitation, and this gyro accident came up:

"On the downwind leg of the flight the aircraft was observed by witnesses to depart controlled flight, tumble, and impact the terrain. Witnesses stated that during an attempt to revive the pilot he had an accumulation of one quarter inch of ice over his eyes and face." (CHI91DEP03)

Yow.

Ron "Where are my eyebrows" Wanttaja