0.5 Hours

The weather clock display showed zero degrees, frigid, sunny. The forecast promised it would get warmer. The winds were calm. My plan was to take Sally up for a brief flight to knock some rust off the pilot, check the status of her systems, and put some 100LL in her tanks.(I like to mix Avgas and Mogas in the winter to reduce the moisture content possibly absorbed by ethanol.) I wanted everything to be ready for a student's flight the following day.

I pulled up to the hangar by 10:30am. I ribbon of snow left by the plow blocked my door. My padlock was frozen, not allowing me to insert my key. I used the cigarette lighter from my car to warm the lock and some lock deice from a little spray tube I keep in the glove box. That worked after repeated applications. I finally got in to release the hangar door locking pins only to find the doors were frozen shut. I found my shovel and ice chipper and started to work.

We had a snowfall earlier in the week followed by a brief warming the following day. Some of the snow melted after the plow went through and the melt from the hangar roof dripped and puddled in front of the hangar. When the next Arctic Front came in it froze in the tracks of the doors. I started chipping. At 12:00pm I took a break and sat in the car to get warm.

By 1:00pm the doors were slid opened wide enough to free Sally. The thermometer I use to monitor the effectiveness of the engine warmer read 35°F. I gently pulled her out into the sun then went into the FBO for a cup of coffee. I was cold.

Preflight completed, I climbed into the seat at about 2:00pm. She started easily, engine temp read about 45°F and climbing. We taxied to the ramp area to let her warm up the rest of the way.

The sky was clear, winds slightly gusty and the visibility was simply fantastic. But it was cold. The cockpit heating system just couldn't beat the low outside air temperature. After a thorough systems check, including VOR tracking, I let Sally take us home, knowing we were ready for the student's flight the following day. We logged 0.5 hours, 1 landing.

I pulled up to the fuel pump and put 5 gallons in each side. ($49.40) We taxied back to the hangar and I carefully pushed her pack in. Post flight, plugs and covers and then I pushed the doors shut. It was about 4:30pm. 

The student canceled.

Video Notes: half hour
Virb Edit 2.9.2.0
Camtasia 8.5

Sync issues. The GPS data isn't aligned with the video. Virb Edit has a utility to correct this but I shouldn't have to manually do this.

First flight with Ipad mini and WingX. So far, so good. I like the Replay option. I did a minor video re-edit to include some WingX Pro7 replay data : half hour WingX