Cold weather ops.

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CAPFlyer
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Re: Cold weather ops.

Post by CAPFlyer »

Oil Dilution is persistent so you don't need to save the flight, but it is always a good idea to save the flight anyway unless you know exactly what parking spot you're at. :)
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bobsk8
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Re: Cold weather ops.

Post by bobsk8 »

stephan.cote.1 wrote:
bobsk8 wrote: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


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I found out today that if I tried the normal start procedure ( throttle at 11%) and after two tries the engine usually would not start. The third time, while the engine was trying to start with prime engaged , I set the mixture control to cruise lean for about 0.5 seconds, and then quickly back to cutoff. Then I looked to see if engine was flooded with shift 8, which at that point it usually was flooded. Now I ran starter sequence once again ( inertia followed by engage and then mags on both) , but this time with mixture and prime both off, and it always started. As soon as it was running, mixture to rich and it was good to go.
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stephan.cote.1
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Re: Cold weather ops.

Post by stephan.cote.1 »

Awesome news! Happy winter flying!


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Cool
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Re: Cold weather ops.

Post by Cool »

stephan.cote.1 wrote: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....
shift 8 ?
Could you Steph post an image of your shift 8 panel?
If I remember well, my shift 8 shows the selected engines...
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Pascal
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gulredrel
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Re: Cold weather ops.

Post by gulredrel »

I think shift + 7 is the one you are looking for and the "8" was a typo.
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stephan.cote.1
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Re: Cold weather ops.

Post by stephan.cote.1 »

Yeah, Shift-7! Sorry, little brain fart....
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Cool
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Re: Cold weather ops.

Post by Cool »

Thanks :)
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ilya1502
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Re: Cold weather ops.

Post by ilya1502 »

Was that indication of flooded condition removed from the hangar? I can't seem to get it even when I prime it really a lot.

P*Funk
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Re: Cold weather ops.

Post by P*Funk »

With respect to oil dilution what would be the normal process in real life? Surely they didn't leave the passengers in the cabin for 20 minutes while the engines idled down to 40C on the oil temps. Would they just shut down the left side engines and disembark, restart them and dilute?

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CAPFlyer
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Re: Cold weather ops.

Post by CAPFlyer »

Depends. Back then, running the engines while boarding/deboarding wasn't the problem it tends to be today. Most likely, if it was really cold and shutting down wasn't advisable prior to starting the dilution procedure, then they'd just deboard everyone with the engines running. Most places that were in such cold climates had covered airstairs anyway, so the amount of "wind" the passengers would be affected by would be limited quite a bit.
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