Cold weather ops.

[Pedro737]

Hi!

I took this beautiful bird to Kittilä, Finland (EFKT) today for a cold weather test, as there's -38C degrees at the moment. I tried to fire up the engines but it just won't start. Is it too cold for her? How can you start those engines in extreme cold conditions?

[Potuslancer]

Hi!

I took this beautiful bird to Kittilä, Finland (EFKT) today for a cold weather test, as there's -38C degrees at the moment. I tried to fire up the engines but it just won't start. Is it too cold for her? How can you start those engines in extreme cold conditions?

I'm glad someone brought this up because I'm having the same issue. Although I haven't encountered temps as cold as what you experienced, when I'm anywhere where the temps are in the 20-30F range I'm definitely having a much harder time getting the old girl fired up if at all. Not quite sure what the recommendations are but would sure like to know.

[gulredrel]

You can use oil dilution befor shutdown, if the temps are that low. After that, save the flight. The procedure is described in the manual.

If you did not dilute the oil, you can go to shift + 4 load manager and change the oil. This will fill prewarmed oil to the engines which makes starting easier (have not tried it in the Connie, but it's in the B377 and should be the same).

Regards
Jens

[AKar]

Those conditions would definitely need pre-heated engines, you wouldn't have a chance of starting them up otherwise. Blankets and aircraft heaters on order!

-Esa

[ft]

Other procedures used for unhangared subarctic operations were to start the engines and warm them up every 30 minutes, around the clock, or to drain the oil while warm and keep it heated to refill just prior to starting. Simulate as desired. Or simulate a hangar!

I wonder if frosen grease in the wheel bearings is simulated?

Did I mention how much I love having moved south, to where it rarely hits -20°C? :p

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[joers182]

I managed to get her fired up at -20 when I took it up to Jackson hole. I primed each engine for about 10 seconds and kept the mixture to auto rich, then cranked it and she fired up. Previous to that I tried a few times using the regular method of priming and starting with mixture cut off but it's didn't want to know.

So do you have to save the flight if you dilute the oil? I'm guessing the systems such as oil dilution are not persistent after a sim restart?

[CAPFlyer]

Oil dilution is persistent. Once diluted from the prior flight, the next time you load it'll recognize this.

However, as was stated before, should you forget to do it, click the "OIL" box in the "Shift-4" window and you'll get warmed oil put in. That cold, you might want to do that anyway, even if you did dilute the prior flight. Then, the engines should start fairly normal.

[bobsk8]

I spent a year in Thule Greenland back in the late 50's as a radio announcer for AFRS. Flew back and forth in a C 118 ( MATS version of DC 6). When it landed in Thule Greenland, in the winter, they would immediately hook it up to a type of GPU that provided hot air to each of the 4 engines through big hoses. If they didn't do this, within about 30 minutes, the engines would not turn over because the oil would solidify.

[joers182]

Oil dilution is persistent. Once diluted from the prior flight, the next time you load it'll recognize this.

However, as was stated before, should you forget to do it, click the "OIL" box in the "Shift-4" window and you'll get warmed oil put in. That cold, you might want to do that anyway, even if you did dilute the prior flight. Then, the engines should start fairly normal.

That's good to know and explains why I was able to start my engines at -19 degrees, as I did do a 6 minute oil dilution before shutting it down on the previous flight.

[CAPFlyer]

I spent a year in Thule Greenland back in the late 50's as a radio announcer for AFRS. Flew back and forth in a C 118 ( MATS version of DC 6). When it landed in Thule Greenland, in the winter, they would immediately hook it up to a type of GPU that provided hot air to each of the 4 engines through big hoses. If they didn't do this, within about 30 minutes, the engines would not turn over because the oil would solidify.

Just so people know, there was a plan to put external heaters in the sim for the L-049. I'm not 100% sure why they didn't make it in, but I think it came down to performance/model size and it was what Scott had to cut. Scott recognized early on that the L-049 spent a LOT of time in very cold climates, especially on the Trans-Atlantic routes, so having this feature would be great, so it wasn't overlooked. We did a ton of research on heating units of the time and how they and the cowling covers were setup, so that's around should it ever be able to get worked in some day. However, because we don't have it, oil dilution and heated oil top-up (the systems available in the B-377 as well) was what we ended up with.

[cbramkamp]

Some cowling and canopy covers would be great for all Accusim models.

[bobsk8]

Tried starting the Connie in -19C at Bismark ND this morning, and finally gave up and used auto start after 20 minutes. Even tried changing the oil, still wouldn''t catch.

[stephan.cote.1]

Tried starting the Connie in -19C at Bismark ND this morning, and finally gave up and used auto start after 20 minutes. Even tried changing the oil, still wouldn''t catch.

Hey bobsk8
I managed to start it in similar temps by doing the following:
Press shift 8 to monitor if you are flooding the engine as you try to start it

Try to start the engine while priming with the throttle closed instead of cracked. After two attempts, if it haven't started but is not flooded, try a third time with primer and by setting mixture to auto lean for half a sec then back to cut off, if still cranking, but not flooded, give antithetical tap of mixture.

If you flood it, stop priming, make sure mixture is off, and keep cranking with throttle fully opened... until flooded status disappears ... one it catches up, go auto rich and set throttle to 900-1000 rpm and then turn primer off.


This worked for me at Alert at -27c... Hope this helps ... do not forget to dilute oil once it cooled off to 40-50c at the end of your flight when you plan on starting her in cold temps..

I'll try to post a video later on

Cheers
Steph


Envoyé de mon iPhone en utilisant Tapatalk

[bobsk8]

Tried starting the Connie in -19C at Bismark ND this morning, and finally gave up and used auto start after 20 minutes. Even tried changing the oil, still wouldn''t catch.

Hey bobsk8
I managed to start it in similar temps by doing the following:
Press shift 8 to monitor if you are flooding the engine as you try to start it

Try to start the engine while priming with the throttle closed instead of cracked. After two attempts, if it haven't started but is not flooded, try a third time with primer and by setting mixture to auto lean for half a sec then back to cut off, if still cranking, but not flooded, give antithetical tap of mixture.

If you flood it, stop priming, make sure mixture is off, and keep cranking with throttle fully opened... until flooded status disappears ... one it catches up, go auto rich and set throttle to 900-1000 rpm and then turn primer off.


This worked for me at Alert at -27c... Hope this helps ... do not forget to dilute oil once it cooled off to 40-50c at the end of your flight when you plan on starting her in cold temps..

I'll try to post a video later on

Cheers
Steph


Envoyé de mon iPhone en utilisant Tapatalk

I will try your method the next time I run into this. I just found the pages on oil dilution in the manual, and I have a question about it. After you run the procedure, do you have to save the flight and restart from that saved flight, since I never save my flights and always start from the begin scenario page?

[stephan.cote.1]

Well, I play safe and always save my flight after shutdown before leaving P3D... I think I read somewhere on this forum that it was persistant anyway but I wouldn't discovered in a bad way that it doesnt..

Sorry I cannot come up with a better answer.. Maybe CapFlyer could jump in here since he is well into the hoops and loops of this bird.