Cold Weather Flying

There was lots of rain in the forecasts for next week so I decided to go flying today.  There was frost on the table when we got there but lots of sunshine and no wind so Dan and I got in several nice flights each before the wind started blowing.

I am pretty comfortable when flying with the bubble wrap insulation around and the propane heater under my chair.

This is how Mt Rainier looked most of the day.

Mt St Helens was covered with clouds and I see it has some snow on it now.

The Skylane is the only plane I got out today and I got lots of flights with it.

As I was getting ready to load up I noticed the moon was showing in the Western sky and I got a pretty good picture of it.

Just before we left I put a test flight on Joel's PC-9 with new retracts in it.  It flew great but when I lowered the landing gear the right main didn't come down.  I cycled the gear again and it came down but fell off when the plane bounced on landing.  I went around again and made a landing with just the two gear down and there was only minor damage.

We stopped at the South Lewis county park on the way home to finish our lunch.  Right away this muscovy duck waddled over and begged by my window the whole time I was eating my sandwich.

I have been assembling and testing this heater to put in the water compartment of the motor home for the last couple of days.  After we got home I hooked it all up because the forecast is for freezing weather the next few nights.  Since I was dressed for the cold weather I had a great day of flying.