The average january has only 7 clear days/month, and 7 partly cloudy days. As contract #158, I cringe at flying IFR out of Duluth back to the west coast, but I trust our golden gopher brothers to help us start out safely in the right direction. For historical weather data on rain/winds/clouds/temperatures/etc click on to www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/weather/longterm/historical/data/duluth_minn.htm. It’s sobering as a low-time IFR pilot.
Fear not. The cold weather of MN is not that bad as long as your heater works and the engine starts. As someone that now lives on the West Coast (Monterey) and lived and flew in MN for nearly 20 years, the cold winter weather has some benefits. When the air is colder the cloud tops tend to be lower and somewhat easy to get on top of. Clearly, there are hazzards related to icing, which is something to be very careful of. Typically, I used to watch pilot reports for cloud tops, estimate the cloud cover thickness, and time to climb. Another major benefit is performance. Engines love the cold thicker air. What is not so nice is doing preflights and getting and/or keeping the engine warm and ready to attempt to start. Hope that helps …
Fear not. The cold weather of MN is not that bad as long as your heater works and the engine starts. As someone that now lives on the West Coast (Monterey) and lived and flew in MN for nearly 20 years, the cold winter weather has some benefits. When the air is colder the cloud tops tend to be lower and somewhat easy to get on top of. Clearly, there are hazzards related to icing, which is something to be very careful of. Typically, I used to watch pilot reports for cloud tops, estimate the cloud cover thickness, and time to climb. Another major benefit is performance. Engines love the cold thicker air. What is not so nice is doing preflights and getting and/or keeping the engine warm and ready to attempt to start. Hope that helps …
It all helps, Walt. I like the concept of getting on top and staying there. Now regarding the estimation of time to climb… how much time in the clouds during icing situations still leaves you with dry shorts? I am curious as to how quickly ice precips onto the wings, and the impact on climb. Only you guys up in the weather know these things. aa
Clearly, there are hazzards related to icing, which is something to be very careful of. Typically, I used to watch pilot reports for cloud tops, estimate the cloud cover thickness, and time to climb.
It’s interesting to hear this kind of stuff. Here in Oz any aircraft that is not certificated for icing conditions is prohibited from flying in cloud above the freezing level. This can get kind of interesting in winter around the mountains. This weekend I’m planning a trip to an airfield that has an elevation of only 960ft, but is only 12nm from Australia’s highest peak, at 7300ft, so I’m hoping for not too much cloud.
The thing that I used to pay the most attention to were pilot reports Â… particularly cloud tops. FSS can tell us cloud bases, but we need to know what is “on top” AND were there any reports of icing. However, not all clouds produce ice. Ideally, I always wanted to have thin layer to climb through (500 to 3,000 feet) with no reports of ice. I also wanted to know what the weather was like enroute (would I be on top of the clouds). At my destination I wanted to know clouds bases and tops. If I had to shoot a “hairy” approach at my destination with freezing temps … no thanks. The good news is that many times in the Winter the cloud tops are lower and a SEL can easily be on top and make the trip. Just be careful and always have on “out”.