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Terry and got back late Saturday night from a week’s vacation in Daytona Beach. We had a place right on the beach, and went for a wonderful long walk every day except the last one, when the weather had deteriorated. The weather in Ottawa had been very cold - it was the coldest February ever recorded We missed what we hope was the last big snow storm of the year while we were basking in the wonderful warm Florida weather. The weather in Ottawa was much warmer upon our return, and today it hit +8°C (47°F) - yesterday and today were the first days with high temperatures above freezing since 23 January 2015. I’m ready for spring!

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Saturday was cold, but still the warmest day we’d had for awhile, so I trekked out to the hangar to install the new battery.

Heater hose into rear baggage areaNormally, when working in the cold, I use two electric radiant heaters to keep me warm. But, they would be useless when kneeled over in the aft baggage area, to remove and install the battery. I used a length of flexible plastic dryer duct to direct air from the 4800W engine preheater to the baggage area. It worked quite well.

The battery replacement went well. Normally the tricky part is reinstalling the aft baggage floor and back wall, but I got lucky this time and every screw lined up, and no screws escaped into the rear fuselage (which would mean I would have to take everything part to track them down).

 

Deep snow on the way from the side door to the front of the hangarMonday was clear, so I took some time off in the afternoon to get the aircraft flying. The first order of business was clearing the snow from Sunday’s storm. There was a four foot high snow drift at the corner of the hangar, and 18 inches of snow on the pavement between the hangar and the taxiway. I know we didn’t get 18 inches of snow from that storm, but the strong winds dumped it all in front of the hangar.

 

Not much clearance between snowbanks and the bottom of the wingsThere isn’t a lot of clearance between the left wing and the snow bank on that side hopefully we won’t get too much more snow, or I’ll have to do some snow bank surgery.

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The new battery I ordered arrived this week.

I was in Wichita all week, doing some Global Express flight testing.  It was strange to be in a land without snow.

The weather this weekend was fairly cold, so I didn't go out to the hangar to install the new battery.  I've got two electric radiant heaters that do a pretty good job of keeping me warm while I work, as long as I stand right in front of them.  But, they wouldn't be much use if I was kneeled over in the rear baggage bay, replacing the battery. 

Hopefully next weekend will be warmer.  If not, I'll cobble together some sort of extended air duct off the big electric heater I use to preheat the engine.  Perhaps that could get enough warm air in the baggage area to keep it habitable.

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I was on the road all week, for three days of meetings in Long Beach, CA. It was quite a let down to come back to cold and snow Friday night.

Winter Day at Smiths FallsI went out to the airport this afternoon to clear the snow from in front of the hangar and get a short flight off. But, despite a lengthy preheat, the engine did not crank strongly, and I never got it started before the battery expired. I fear that I have once again been afflicted by the recent woes that have caused many RV owners with Odyssey batteries to complain. The older Odysseys had a very good service record, with most users getting many good years of service. The newer ones seem to work for a year or so, then suddenly lose most of their capacity.

I don’t have time now to research other options, so I’ve ordered another Odyssey, which should arrive this week. I’ll look into other batteries that are physically compatible, and have good reviews, in case this happens again.

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I was scheduled to be on standby all day Saturday, which meant I would need to stick close to home. The weather was quite nice on Friday, so I took that day off to do the things I wouldn’t be able to do while on standby, such as go to the airport.

I had a great IFR practice flight in the RV–8 in the morning, then made more progress on the annual inspection. I found a couple of loose fasteners, and the tail navigation light is unserviceable. I only require that light if I’m night flying, which I avoid like the plague, given the difficulty of executing a successful forced landing at night, so I’ll defer sorting out that nav light until the weather is warmer. Hopefully it is just a burned out light bulb.

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I’m owed several days of compensatory leave to make up for overtime I’ve worked in the past year, and yesterday was forecast to be unseasonably warm, so I used one of those days. I got the repaired plenum chamber mounting flange reinstalled. I had hoped at one point to also get a flight off yesterday, but it snowed off and on all day, so that was not possible.

Today was forecast to be clear and cold, with very light winds, so I took another day off. The runway is almost 100% ice covered, from the freezing rain we got a couple of weeks ago, so I only dare fly when there is minimal crosswind. They were still clearing yesterday’s snow off the runway when I arrived, so I had to wait until after lunch. The first trick was getting the Mooney that was by the door of the hangar out of the way, which means pulling it out onto the taxiway.

Sitting Pretty in the Snow and Sun

 The Mooney is too heavy for me to push it around by hand, so I used the gas powered PowerTow tug that connects to the nose wheel. It usually works very well, but the combination of a bit of crown on the taxiway plus the ice was more than it could handle. All it would do was spin its wheel. James and Floyd spotted my struggle from the club house, and graciously drove down to lend a hand. The three of us pushing were just enough to get the Mooney in and out, so the RV–8 could escape the hangar. Thanks guys!

The delay while the runway was cleared and I fought with the ice meant that the engine had been preheated a lot longer than I anticipated. I failed to appreciate the implications as I attempted a start, and I primed the engine as if it was quite cold. I didn’t fire, so I primed it some more. I realize now that I had almost certainly overprimed it and flooded it, but I didn’t figure this out until I had ran the battery down. Back in the hangar for two hours on the battery charger, then it started right up (with a lot less priming). It was great to finally get flying.

The wind stayed down while I was flying, which was a relief. It slid around a bit during the landing roll, but a quick touch of rudder got the nose pointed back in the right direction again, and I was very happy when it finally rolled to a stop, still on the runway.