Does anybody have any good ideas of cleaning the wings and flaps off after flying off a snow covered runway, seems like everytime I go flying I have to get my creeper out and clean off the bottom of my wings and clean the wheel wells. Any other tricks to preserve my wings during these winter months?
Snow covered runways?
- Thread starter joen6171b
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Dan Cullman
New member
OK, boys......... make sure that snow is dry and not much more than a couple inches thick. One of my buddies up the strip is still fixing his Cub after a flip over, last winter. The snow was wetter and deeper than planned. Let's see: rebuild one wing, replace struts, fix rudder and fuselage, replace prop, overhaul engine......on and on. Be careful out there! Dan
Gary Brink
New member
Yes, they can be interesting. Last week-end I was doing a mag check on the Cherokee and it proceeded to slide on as if the brakes weren't on. It wasn't a problem...just I'm not used to doing a mag check while taxing. 
Gary
Gary
alabamaflyboy
New member
One of the wildest rollouts that I ever had occurred when landing a Bonanza on a runway with snow back in 1970. Turns out that the snow on the left side of the runway was about two inches deeper than the snow on the right side of the runway, but that was not visible during the low pass that I made over the runway at the unattended airport. Set up for a soft field landing, touched down, and was suddenly heading for the left side runway lights.
Thankfully, my first hundred or so hours had been all in tailwheel aircraft (Cessna 140, Stinson and the like), in Kansas crosswinds, so my reaction was pure instinct - full right rudder which corrected the sudden heading shift, then gusty tailwheel type rudder application as the Bonanza main gear rolled through uneven height snow until the Bonanza finally rolled to a stop. Surprisingly, once stopped, it wasn't very difficult to taxi to the ramp - after I got my legs to quit shaking, that is.
So be careful out there.
Dave York
Thankfully, my first hundred or so hours had been all in tailwheel aircraft (Cessna 140, Stinson and the like), in Kansas crosswinds, so my reaction was pure instinct - full right rudder which corrected the sudden heading shift, then gusty tailwheel type rudder application as the Bonanza main gear rolled through uneven height snow until the Bonanza finally rolled to a stop. Surprisingly, once stopped, it wasn't very difficult to taxi to the ramp - after I got my legs to quit shaking, that is.
So be careful out there.
Dave York
cruiseair74372
New member
Thats why I live in Texas. When it snows I don't go to work. I have lived in Pa and Ohio I owned and drove an 18 wheeler cross country for 10 years. Snow is really pretty but you can have it. :lol: :lol:
alabamaflyboy
New member
I have to agree with you, Randy. I grew up and spent my first 30 years in Missouri and Illinois before I married a Southern Girl and moved to Mobile, Alabama.
The first snow of the season is pretty and usually kind of fun. After that, though, the rest of them are just a pain in the posterior. I don't miss them at all.
We have only had about 3-4 small snowstorms (maybe 2-3 inches) in Mobile in the last 25 years. For a former Yankee, they sometimes provide significant entertainment as I watch the natives attempt to cope with the unknown.
For example, some of the redneck pickup drivers can't seem to understand why they can't still go around that gentle curve at 65 mph. They've done it that way for years. Cars and trucks in the ditches everywhere, and accident rates triple as people discover that the laws of friction can temporarily be suspended.
By far, the funniest incident that I saw was video on the six o'clock local news of the county highway crews attempting to put sand on the ice that had accumulated on the high rise Interstate bridge over the river. The dump trucks would drive up to the bridge, accelerate up the slope until they ran past the previously sanded portion, skid on up as far as they could until they ran out of traction, then frantically throw sand down on the road as far as they could reach before backing back down off of the bridge and repeating the procedure. It never occurred to any of them to turn the truck around and BACK the truck up the bridge, throwing sand ahead them as they went. I was laughing so hard my wife initially thought I was having a seizure.
Of course, the kids all love it. Snowmen in every yard, as far as the eye can see. Two inches of snow on top of pine straw makes for pretty hairy looking snowmen, though.
Dave York
The first snow of the season is pretty and usually kind of fun. After that, though, the rest of them are just a pain in the posterior. I don't miss them at all.
We have only had about 3-4 small snowstorms (maybe 2-3 inches) in Mobile in the last 25 years. For a former Yankee, they sometimes provide significant entertainment as I watch the natives attempt to cope with the unknown.
For example, some of the redneck pickup drivers can't seem to understand why they can't still go around that gentle curve at 65 mph. They've done it that way for years. Cars and trucks in the ditches everywhere, and accident rates triple as people discover that the laws of friction can temporarily be suspended.
By far, the funniest incident that I saw was video on the six o'clock local news of the county highway crews attempting to put sand on the ice that had accumulated on the high rise Interstate bridge over the river. The dump trucks would drive up to the bridge, accelerate up the slope until they ran past the previously sanded portion, skid on up as far as they could until they ran out of traction, then frantically throw sand down on the road as far as they could reach before backing back down off of the bridge and repeating the procedure. It never occurred to any of them to turn the truck around and BACK the truck up the bridge, throwing sand ahead them as they went. I was laughing so hard my wife initially thought I was having a seizure.
Of course, the kids all love it. Snowmen in every yard, as far as the eye can see. Two inches of snow on top of pine straw makes for pretty hairy looking snowmen, though.
Dave York
Gary Brink
New member
My most humorous experience was twenty plus years ago I landed on a frozen lake and walked up to a friends place for coffee.
He happened to live near the boat ramp and when I went back out to the plane, several vehicles were pulling off the lake. One guy said to me, "Don't go out there unless you are legal. That is the game warden's plane!" I still wonder what they were doing that was so illegal. :lol:
Gary
He happened to live near the boat ramp and when I went back out to the plane, several vehicles were pulling off the lake. One guy said to me, "Don't go out there unless you are legal. That is the game warden's plane!" I still wonder what they were doing that was so illegal. :lol:
Gary