Cold weather King Air ops

Cessnaflyer

Cessnaflyer

Wooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
It's going to be our first time taking the King Air overnight into -40 weather. Any advice on what to do with engines, battery and G1000?
 
Don't forget liquid stock or the lav.

What's the Garmin manual say about temperature for operation of the 1000?
 
SteveC said:
Which -40?

;)
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Both! Does vodka freeze at -40? I thought we could use that as fuel.

Not sure I haven't been able to have a look at the manuals yet. We were thinking about taking the battery out but we are unsure of a preheater on a short notice.
 
It's -31 here today(PASC). We keep ours in a hangar though. Remember the min oil temp for start is -40C. So you'll have an issue there if it's sitting for very long. Also, if the oil and fuel are both at that temp, you'll never achieve min oil temp for takeoff power. I forget off the top of my head the numbers but it's in the poh as far as fuel temp vs oil temp.(I'll go look at the poh here in a sec) I've never personally had an issue with starting a pt6 in the cold, but I've never let an airplane get that cold soaked. If we land somewhere and it's this cold and there's no hangar, I'll likely keep at least 1 spinning the whole time. The battery comes out really easy though. Just a bunch of screws on the top of the left wing between the nacelle and fuselage. I'd make sure that went inside with you for the night.
I can't recommend a hangar enough though. IMO, if you actually want to get that airplane out in the morning, I would drop the pax off, while leaving the right one spinning, then fly out to a place where it's warmer or a hangar is available, and come get them the next day.
Do you have brake heat on yours?
 
z987k said:
I can't recommend a hangar enough though. IMO, if you actually want to get that airplane out in the morning, I would drop the pax off, while leaving the right one spinning, then fly out to a place where it's warmer or a hangar is available, and come get them the next day.
Do you have brake heat on yours?
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This is REALLY solid advice, and I would do the same thing.
 
The chart on 2-7 in limitations has the Fuel vs oil temp for fuel icing at -40C/F at SL you need a min oil temp of 42C, so.... Prist. As far as what oil temp you will get with fuel at -40C there isn't a chart, but from experience, it will take you forever-never to get it from -40 to 0 at idle power with fuel at -40. The fuel-oil heater is actually working backwards and against you here. The fuel is cooling the oil too much and the bypass works the other way (shuts off at 90F iirc).

Edit... I just looked at the Thompson, MB wx, and I don't see anywhere in the forecast where it's going to be -40. With the temps forcasted I wouldn't really have a problem letting a king air sit there overnight, just be sure all liquids are removed from the airplane and you're ready to let it sit and warm up for awhile. High idle will be your friend. Looks like ice fog and chances of precip. Make sure you have a way to de-ice with hot glycol.
 
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I would recommend getting some portable heaters for the avionics that you can plug in somewhere and have run for an hour or so before start up. The G1000 isn't overly fond of excessively cold temperatures with no preheat. It'll do it, but it's hard on the equipment.

Also, be sure to observe your oil temperature limits for start and takeoff - and I don't know about your model of King Air, but there are lots of other PT6s out there that have minimum temperatures for operation with Jet-A (the Caravan is -35°C). Check the AFM to see if it's even legal to fly.
 
ppragman said:
I would recommend getting some portable heaters for the avionics that you can plug in somewhere and have run for an hour or so before start up. The G1000 isn't overly fond of excessively cold temperatures with no preheat. It'll do it, but it's hard on the equipment.

Also, be sure to observe your oil temperature limits for start and takeoff - and I don't know about your model of King Air, but there are lots of other PT6s out there that have minimum temperatures for operation with Jet-A (the Caravan is -35°C). Check the AFM to see if it's even legal to fly.
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The freezing point of Jet-A is -40C, Jet-A1 -47C and Jet-B is -51C.
 
I was told by a pt6 specialist to get it out of feather as soon as you get it started. You can use electric heat with a gpu to preheat the interior.
 
Thanks for the advice @z987k we will be heading up there in about two weeks and the workers told us to expect below -40 temperatures. Hopefully there may be a little room for us in a hangar. If not worst case would be to fly back to Winnipeg for the night in one of their hangars. We have the -61 engines and brake heat. I'll have to check the updated manual to see if they have any different numbers for those engines.
 
Cessnaflyer said:
Thanks for the advice @z987k we will be heading up there in about two weeks and the workers told us to expect below -40 temperatures. Hopefully there may be a little room for us in a hangar. If not worst case would be to fly back to Winnipeg for the night in one of their hangars. We have the -61 engines and brake heat. I'll have to check the updated manual to see if they have any different numbers for those engines.
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This airplane has -62s and iirc the -61s have different oil temp numbers.
 
ppragman said:
I would recommend getting some portable heaters for the avionics that you can plug in somewhere and have run for an hour or so before start up. The G1000 isn't overly fond of excessively cold temperatures with no preheat. It'll do it, but it's hard on the equipment.
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Definitely warm things up before throwing power on. The only trick would be the gizmos in the nose. Ours has the old Collins, but it does not like getting really cold and then being told it's time to work.
 
Been to Thompson MB and fly a 350 currently. It might be worth it to show a couple hours early and run the engines up to temp before the pax show as well as using the electric heat on a power cart to warm the cabin.
 
tiredcfi said:
Been to Thompson MB and fly a 350 currently. It might be worth it to show a couple hours early and run the engines up to temp before the pax show as well as using the electric heat on a power cart to warm the cabin.
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Do the radiant heat panels help that much or should we get a space heater as well?
 
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