A Frigid Flight to Dixon

        Article and Pictures by Evan Wright
 

     January 24th, 2009. Outside temperature: 1 degree Fahrenheit, wind chill -13 Fahrenheit. My annual was up at the end of the month, and I need to get my plane to Dixon for its inspection. After several weather related postponements, I had a beautiful, if frigid day to fly. Unfortunately, just getting to fly was not going to be without problems. First, I had to get to the plane, no easy feat, considering the snow plow had buried me in.
 

     After clearing out my own private Ross Ice Shelf with a spade and shovel, I was ready for a preheat as recommended by the POH. Unfortunately, the battery on A&Ms preheater was cracked, which meant delays while a second one was found. Norbert, the lineman, warmed up the engine, and then we used the hot air to remove some ice from the horizontal stabilizer. Once the engine was warm and the plane ice free, I cranked the starter, and my O-235 engine fired right up. Problems solved? Nope. I taxied over to the gas pumps, only to have to wait for several other planes to be fueled, and a Cirrus to be parked. Normally, waiting would be no big deal, but my feet were freezing since the rudder pedals were as cold as the weather outside. Forunately, I had packed extra socks in my flight bag, and by changing them I was able to keep my feet warm. Eventually, I got topped off, and could depart.

     Once airborne, the flying weather more than made up for the hassles. The air was smooth and visibility excellent as I flew west to Dixon. Flying in the winter makes everything look so much different, that it is almost like flying in an unfamiliar area. Lakes that are easily identified in the summer end up just looking like fields. Still, railroad tracks, roads, and towns are still easily picked out. Despite having a Garmin 196 GPS, I still rely heavily old school pilotage, dead reckoning, and VOR tracking and triangulation to get around. Although GPS is a great tool, especially for handling mundane yet distracting calculations, I feel it allows pilots to become too passive. I find the older ways of navigating make flying more fun and involving.

     Shortly after take off, my attitude indicator decide to bite the dust. It showed a steep dive even though I was straight and level. The erroneous indication was extremely distracting, so I stuck an instrument cover over it.

     West of Aurora, I passed the wind mill farms, and something whose purpose I couldn’t figure out. It looked like several rifle and pistol ranges next to each other, but it could have been something totally different. I also took a photo of the OAT gauge, which showed a balmy 4 degrees Fahrenheit.

     Landing at Dixon was no problem. The flight had been smooth with exception of the attitude indicator, which I had already arranged to have overhauled anyway. The biggest hurdles had all involved just getting off the ground, which shows that sometime the hardest part of flying is just getting to fly in the first place.