The only things that stop me from flying are High winds and rain. We fly all year long. Our club has a warming shack with a wood burning snow so we have a place to warm up. Snow makes a great runway.

I fly once a week in the winter come hell or high water.....it's certainly not my favorite flying season....but I need to fly!!!
I have a WONDERFUL transmitter mitten that a flying buddy of mine got for me for xmas......it's the best winter gear you can have.
We normally can take off no problem on an asphalt strip with regular wheels with 1" or less of snow.....I think twice last year we had to "plow" the runway. In the summer we mainly fly from a grass field. This year we might try skis at the grass field.

Not if you stand at the door of the warm club house and fly. LOL[8D]

I've found that if you put those little hot packs (the ones that you open up and they stay warm for about 8 hours) by your toes in each boot and a couple in your pants or chest pockets - you'll be so warm you hardly need a coat. It's great. There was several times last winter that I was too warm flying that way.

- Drop a hot pack in [link=http://209.41.49.253/txmitten/]one of these[/link]

- Latex gloves will keep your fingers surprisingly toasty, especially when glow fuel is encountered.

- a few drops of lighter fluid in the carb is a good quick start

- give the plane some time to acclimatize so the radio equipment and engine won't be changing temperature as you fly. This is especially important if you have a gyro (eg. heli).

Our club has an enclosed shelter complete with woodstove and we keep a pot of chili and kettle of hot chocolate warmed on it.

Skis work great but hand launch aicraft (eg. combat wings) and helicopters are more convenient to my way of thinking, especially when the runway gets tromped by people retrieving planes.

HTH, Jim.

Come on winters only about three or four days long any way!!

You realize that the karmedic response to someone saying that is a tranfer to Alaska, don't you?

Not in MI!!
here in MI it drops to about 40 by the middle of october, somtimes snow by the end of october, always snow by the end of november and in dec/jan, the wind chill is like -10/-20 an will go through anything. feb is jan with light wind, march we might lose some snow, by april most of the snow is gone, but then we get freezing rain, by mid may it's about 40 agian, and by june it's almost warm enough to go to the field without a winter coat. gotta love MI

Thats ok, I plan to be flying a combat spad during the winter, so I should be alright.

Here in California weather is ok...the only thing is short daylights....

Geez, that's worse than up here in Toronto Canada. Folks are always praying for snow for Christmas but those prayers often go unanswered. Skiing/building season is generally from end of December to end of March. I get a real laugh seeing 'southerners' show up at the airport with skis and parkas in October.

Me, I just like it when it's cold enough to keep the runway hard enough that the local punks can't harm the runway with their ATVs.[:@]