Cold Weather Flying

Roy Bourke MAAC 204L

(Paraphrased from a story about cold weather flying in Alberta as told by Simon Van Leeuwen)

You can find the dardest model aviation stories on the Internet! Here is a true story about some flying activities in the wilderness in far northern Alberta. A modeller named Dave Fowlow from Calgary tells about his adventure with some model flying activities in the middle of winter while on an oil-related business visit to Alberta’s northern oil fields.

The modellers who live and work in the oil fields are a real keen bunch. They don’t let a little thing like cold weather stop them from enjoying the hobby of R/C model aircraft. The temperature outside when Dave visited was –53 degrees C , (that’s –63.4 degrees F for the unconverted!) when one of the guys asked him if he would like to go flying models. Dave thought he was nuts, but decided to go along with the proposition and said “Sure, why not?”. So they all bundled up and went out into the frigid weather and to an aluminum- sided Quonset building. Inside the building, where the temperature was a balmy zero degrees Celsius, some typical 0.60-sized glow-powered aircraft and a few open-framework Old Timer types were hangared.

One of the guys grabbed an aircraft, filled the tank with glow fuel, and fired it up while still in the Quonset with the big main doors still shut. The needle valve was being set slobberingly rich and Dave couldn’t figure out why, but it looked as if it was going to be flown at that rich setting. All of a sudden two more guys throw open the big main doors of the Quonset, the sputtering aircraft is quickly launched out the open doors, and just as quickly the big doors are slammed shut again. In the meantime, the pilot with the transmitter runs over to a little frosted-up window, and proceeds to fly the plane in a big circle from inside the hangar.

In a very short time the engine in the plane outside starts to go lean, and leaner, starts screaming like a banshee, and finally quits completely. The aircraft, now dead stick, is flying back towards the Quonset and is headed straight for the hangar doors. All of a sudden, two guys throw open the big doors and the pilot lands the dead-stick airplane inside the Quonset just as the doors are quickly slammed shut behind the landing plane.

The pilot says to Dave “Watch this!” as he walks over and picks up the plane and attempts to pour remaining fuel out of the tank …the fuel is like jelly!. Going from 0 degrees in the hangar to –53 degrees within the first few seconds of flight has turned the fuel to porridge! No wonder the engine needed to be rich! Then as if on command, and as the pilot is holding the jellied fuel tank, the fuel turns back to liquid and pours out easily as it warms up. Dave was in awe over the whole experience.

For the next flight that day, one of the modellers had just finished a new aircraft of open framework construction, covered with Monokote, and decided to try its maiden flight. The same procedure was followed, the engine started rich, doors opened, plane launched, doors shut, with the pilot flying the airplane from the frosted window. Once again the engine leaned out and quit but this time the aircraft did not glide but fell quickly to the ground. Everyone raced outside to see what had gone wrong, and what they found was an airplane that was crushed completely FLAT! Apparently the builder had done a bang-up job of covering the model with Monokote but had sealed it up tight with no holes for ventilation. The almost immediate transition to the –53 degree temperature outside was too much for the frail construction. The air in all the sealed chambers in the aircraft contracted suddenly, and the ambient air pressure simply crushed all the ribs, stringers and bulkheads of the open frame structure into a flat pancake! As they finished the flying session, and were walking away from the Quonset building, Dave noticed a whole load of small pointy dents in the big doors and in the whole end of the building. When he inquired, he was told that there are occasions when they don’t get the big doors open in time for the landing!!