Microlighters

Minus 5 degrees this morning. Are there any special precautions to take? Danger of carb ice, cold seizure etc in the Rotax 582 blue top.

Any advice welcome.

By the way: I did not go up. Too many

I have flown in -10 degrees in bloemfontein. S$%$T cold, but your engine power output is increased a lot. Why are you scared of a cold seizure?? Just run your machine to opperating temps before take-off and that shouldn't be a problem. My knowledge on carb ice is too limited to comment on that.

Maak net seker jy het ñ knertsie naby nadat jy geland het. Jy weet, sonder eish . Help vir opwarm na die vlug.

cjkrit wrote:Minus 5 degrees this morning. Are there any special precautions to take? Danger of carb ice, cold seizure etc in the Rotax 582 blue top.

Any advice welcome.

By the way: I did not go up. Too many

The 582 blue top is not prone to cold seizure because of the way the plumbing is configured. That problem is associated with the 503 and 582 silver top.


Quote from this thread re. carb icing: viewtopic.php?f=13&t=7812

RV4ker wrote:Carb icing kan op enige temp gebeur, en gewoonlik is dit hoër as laer temp's... As Dew point and Ambient temp naby aan mekaar is. Pasop veral as dit "humid" is.... Die "moisture" in die lug is die "issue" Baie water (humidity) soos in KZN is moerse probleem, maar waar dit droog is kan dit -20 wees and daar sal nie carb icing wees nie want daar is nie "moisture" in die lug om in die carb te ice nie....

No problems flying even silver top in -20C. Just make sure you have good gloves and your head stays warm. Flew for for over an hour in last years snowy stuff and apart from a splitting headache and blisters on knuckles the 582 was at home. Drinking lots of liquid before takeoff can help you keep warm...

but as Duck says a Blue top even better

One extra thing, I remember when looking for gloves I went to a bike shop and the guy said "what! only 100km/h these gloves will keep you warm at 300km/h - if they warm enough for bikers they good enough for you".

After doing some research and those gloves NOT working, I found out that you get to a point where wild chill factor does not increase by much at all by higher speeds, but almost exponentially based on the ambient temp.

Something like say ambient is 10C and you doing 100km/h wind chill makes it 6C, now at 300km/h it around 4.8c BUT as you climb in a plane the temp is lower (normally) a 1C drop could put that same chill factor from a 6C to 3C so flying at 9C@100km is colder than 10C@300km/h. This is not the actual figures but just an example of what happens as the temp drops and the relationship between speed and ambient temp. Also the lower the temps the faster the windchill factor increases - it's not linear.

I tried about 5 dif gloves with various materials Primaloft, down, Thinsulate and other "lofts". The best at real cold temps are the battery powered or chemical gloves combined with Thinsulate (cheaper as it's older compared 70's?) - and a silk inner glove.

The best at real cold temps are the battery powered or chemical gloves combined with Thinsulate (cheaper as it's older compared 70's?) - and a silk inner glove.

Theres nothing I hate more than flying with cold hands...Where would you be able to find a pair of these?

http://www.powerletproducts.com/products/phg305.php
http://www.powerletproducts.com/product ... FQodAF-VUQ

I had Trappers order for me

Just remember that the material on your skin must be a good insulator and have good wicking properties - best is silk glove inner. My one set made my hands warm on the ground then by the time I got airborne the sweat made my hands frozen. Using a silk inner wicks the sweat away. Cotton is good insulator but when wet is hopeless.

not sure if you get these in SA but I have a pair of http://www.gerbing.com/Products/gloves.html heated gloves - not used them on a trike yet but they are phenomenally good on a motorbike.
I always suffer from cold hands on a bike and these are absolutely top as they heat the outside of your hand and form a warm barrier between your hands and the air. I am very sure that they will work well on a trike too provided you can plumb them in to the electrics.

Ek en Redroman het ook Saterdag die koue trotseer maar het nie te ver gekom nie en toe omgedraai want die wind het toe sterker gewaai maar erger as die wind was die koue op ons hande te veel, ons het die koffie maar by die hangers gesit en drink in die son .

I swear by bar mits. If its not cold you slide them to the side, if its cold you stick your hand in. Also leave your hands completely free for pushing buttons on the radio and GPS without restriction. I have flown where my feet are freezing through the boots and I have a numb patch on my cheek where there is a hole in the balaclava for the mike, but my hands were snug.

The ambient temperature will have little effect on an engine once its at operating temperatures, more power the colder it is because you have cold induction. Carb icing is more an issue in warm humid air.

I would be more careful about the flight profile in very cold temperatures. I hard climb followed by a low power decent might cause cold seizures?