Home Page   Meeting Notes   Club News   Club Photos   Calendar   Channel List  

Club Events

There are some model aircraft flyers who like to fly so much that cold winter weather won't discourage them from trying to fly.  Winter flying has it's difficulties because the weather can be poor as well as cold and the days are shorter than in summer.  However, there are many good weekend flying days that can be comfortably used if you go properly prepared for the conditions.

One of the most important things to consider is to wear the right clothing.  If you can stay warm and avoid getting chilled, winter flying can be a lot of fun.  Your feet, hands and ears are the most easily chilled body parts and it's best to try to over dress them. 

To keep your feet warm wear a thick pair of socks and warm boots.  These boots should be well insulated and tend to wick moisture away from your skin.  Damp feet will get chilled far easier than dry feet.  It's also best to use boots that have a layer of insulating material between the soles and your feet and socks.  The soles of the footwear can transmit the cold to your feet very directly if they aren't insulated.  The best boots to wear are snowmobile boots or moon boots.

Appropriate head gear should be available for winter flying.  It should at least cover your ears because cold ears can make flying miserable.  If it might rain or if the sun is bright, it's nice to have a hat with a bill and ear flaps.

The hands are a very important area to protect from the cold in winter flying.  Your hands are used for starting and tuning engines as well as operating transmitter controls.  If your hands get chilled it's easier for an accident or crash to occur. 

It's best to have two pairs of gloves available.  You can use one pair for handling, starting and tuning your model and another modified pair for flying.

Warning:
The prop wash can chill your hands fast however, it's best to avoid turning a needle valve near a spinning prop while wearing thick gloves because they could get caught in the prop and cause injury.

  The flying gloves can have holes cut in the thumbs (and fingers if you also hold the sticks with them) for handling the control sticks.  These gloves can keep your fingers warm and provide a good feel for the control sticks.  At the end of you flight you can stuff you flying gloves inside your coat to keep them warm for the next flight.

Flying gloves help however there are some insulated transmitter boxes available that work very well also.  These boxes can keep your hands warm and also protect your transmitter.

For the rest of your body, a pair of insulated coveralls will do a good job of keeping you from getting chilled.  Layers of warm cloths and long underwear will also work well.

Wearing a scarf will help to prevent you from loosing body heat around your neck and it can be pulled up to keep your face warm.

Some winter flyers don't dress appropriately because they think they will look funny being all bundled up.  Getting chilled tends to take the fun out of winter flying and you should keep in mind that you aren't in a fashion show.  Besides, the other guys are probably more interested in your models appearance than your own appearance.  To keep warm and have an appropriate appearance you might consider wearing a fleece lined leather flying coat, a scarf and a leather flying helmet with goggles.

Model aircraft and field equipment seems to suffer very little from cold weather.  You will probably need to re-tune your engine for the cold air however everything will operate normally even when the temperature drops down to the low teens.  Airframe and carburetor ice can be encountered if the air contains enough moisture.  Icing problems are usually not significant because our flights are usually only 10-15 minutes long and we don't fly in the fog or heavy rain.  During rain or snow showers your carburetor might inhale some moisture and dowse the glow plug.  Also, the leading edges of the wing and tail surfaces might accumulate some ice however small amounts won't degrade the flight performance too much.

One benefit of winter flying can be the opportunity of flying off of the snow.  Regular landing gear shouldn't be used it the snow is more than one inch deep because the snow drag can rip the gear out of the plane.  Flying a plane off the snow with skies or floats can be a lot of fun and open up another area of model flying fun.

When winter arrives, it doesn't mean our flying season needs to end.  There are many days in winter that are good for flying and if you are properly prepared it can be a lot of fun.