Winterization

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I did some light work on the Decathlon this evening. I wanted to have her in good flying condition for the cold winter temps we’ve had lately.

The first item was putting the oil cooler cover on. This little box in back of the engine serves to keep the engine oil from getting too hot. The oil cycles through and gets a nice little shock of cool air before heading back to the engine where it gets heated up all over again. Wash, rinse, repeat. The problem is that the outside air temperature can get so low we need to restrict the amount of cold air being run through the oil cooler. This is accomplished by screwing a metal plate over the cooler. I had taken a photo of the plate attached but my mega awesome camera phone didn’t actually take it. I didn’t realize it until the cowling was already back on.

The other item I wanted to address was the wheelpants. We all know that Decathlons are some of the ugliest airplanes ever made without their wheelpants on. I would rather have an ugly airplane than a broken one. At the suggestion of the legendary Brian Shippee, I removed the wheelpants while we have all this snow and slush lying around. The wheelpants can collect ice, snow, and water while we are taxiing around. All these gunk can collect in the wheel pant, freeze, and cause all sorts of bad stuff to happen. To combat the problem I just took the wheelpants out of the equation all together. I don’t like it but as I said, I’ll take ugly over broken.

So there you have it. A little TLC on the airplane and we are ready to go. Next decent day we get I am flying.