cold weather storage
 

It's that time of year.[&o] I was concerned about storing my planes in the garage. It's not heated. Will warpage be a concern? It does get below 0 degrees F. in Maine. More often than not. Will things return to shape in the spring? I will remove batteries and cycle now and again.

RE: cold weather storage
 

I leave mine in the garage all winter, and I'll bet it gets colder here. :D

I just leave the batteries in them and recharge in the spring

RE: cold weather storage
 

Well Minnflyer just how cold does it get? have to laugh, sounds like "my dad can beat your dad"

RE: cold weather storage
 

I also live in MN and remove the RX batterries and leave the plane and the rest of the radio gear in the garage all winter long also, and have never noticed a problem.
bhady

RE: cold weather storage
 

I remember from my winters in Michigan and then in NY, laying up my boat for the winter. Fill the tank to the top for winter. Pump the head and bildge and add antifreeze to water system and drains. Batteries inside. Raidos and other electronics came home for the winter.

Not much of this applies to models but filling the tank and plugging the lines may. The boat batteries were like car batteries, lead/acid and if they went dead, they could freeze over and break. From Minflyers experience, it looks as if this isn't an issue.

Most electronics have a minimum storage temp and humidity. There is little that I can think of that would possibily be damaged from extreme cold. Moisture and freezing is another issue. As long as things are dry, all should be well. The engines should be gone over for storage though. I don't use after run on a day to day basis, but if I were putting an engine up for an outside winter, I would hose it full of after run.

One thing I haven't heard mentioned is mice. When I was a kid, I built a $1.00 Commet kit B29 bomber. I saved for months to get the price of the kit an a tube of glue. The only place I had to build was our garage and it had a gravel floor. After school hours were dedicated to building this model. I got it finished and the tisue paper on and wow what a sight. The next day, my uncle came to the house and I dragged him to the garage to see what I had built. You can't imagine how upset I was when I found the mice had eaten all of the covering off the plane and most of the stringers in the process. Fast forward to the winter of 1983-1984. I had decided to store my sailboat at home, not at the ship yard where it had spent the last couple winters. I did all of the winterizing stuff but one thing I didn't do was to take off all of the 1/2" lines holding the boat to the cradle and trailer for transport. Exactly eight gang planks for the mice. The spring of 1984 was a night mare as far as the boat went. I had mice all through the boat. Stink, nest, more stink, and throw in some more stink for good measure.

Don't leave you planes where the mice can find a way in. All of those tight little wings with little holes, make an execelent winter home for mice. YUCK. Hang them from some small bare wires that they can't climb. And make sure there is no way for a jump from a rafter to a wing or tail is possible. What ever winter can dish up, the mice can trump.

Don

RE: cold weather storage
 

One thing I should mention is that our winters, aside from being cold are also extremely dry. So moisture is not an issue.

And the temperature in my garage rarely goes down below the teens.

RE: cold weather storage
 

Colder than Maine?? I can remember a couple of times when I lived in the northern part of the state that the temp. got to -42 with wind chills aproaching -60. Now thats COLD!![X(] Sounds like it will be ok to store in the garage as long as I mouse proof.

RE: cold weather storage
 

I fly some of the planes most of the winter, but those that I don't I store in our home (3rd floor) I do make sure that the batteries in those planes are kept fresh. I even bought a Mango Mit to make winter flying more comfortable. Maybe this year I will hook up the big plane to a tow rope and go skiing behind it. Yea!!! Right!!! fall down, lose TX, watch plane go off in the sunset, try to explain to my wife why I didn't bring the plane home. (Look for new home).

RE: cold weather storage
 

Kid Stuff.

At 42 below, we just start thinking about putting on a light jacket :D

RE: cold weather storage
 

OK, you win! Let's agree that it does get very chilly in both states. Worst cold spell I remember was a January when our average HIGH temp for the month was -2. Wen through a bunch of fuel AND wood at the same time that month![:o]

RE: cold weather storage
 

I remember streches of -20°F in Saco, ME, and I lived less than 1/4 mile from the relativelly warm Atlantic.

Now I relish the damp, but relatively warm Seattle winters. Of course, since moving from one coast to another, my sense of direction is still screwed up.

If you want to compare cold with a mid-westerner, you'll need to head up North from Standish, maybe to Jackman. Brrrr!

Jack

RE: cold weather storage
 

Hey Minnflyer this is cold.

It was necessary to keep a good supply of cannon balls near the cannon on
old war ships. But how to prevent them from rolling about the deck was the
problem.
The best storage method devised was to stack them as a square based
pyramid, with one ball on top, resting on four, resting on nine, which
rested on sixteen.
Thus,
a supply of 30 cannon balls could be stacked in a small area right next
to the cannon. There was only one problem how to prevent the bottom
layer from sliding/rolling from under the others.
The solution was a
metal plate with 16 round indentations, called, for reasons unknown, a
Monkey. But if this plate were made of iron, the iron balls would
quickly rust to it. The solution to the rusting problem was to make
them of brass - hence, Brass Monkeys.
Few
landlubbers realize that brass contracts much more and much faster than
iron when chilled. Consequently, when the temperature dropped too far,
the brass indentations would shrink so much that the iron cannon balls
would come right off the monkey.
Thus, it was quite literally, cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass
monkey.
And all this time, you thought that was just a vulgar expression,
didn't you?

RE: cold weather storage
 

Ok... Now explain the "Witch's T_t"

:D

RE: cold weather storage
 

Only one bit of wisdom per day. Actually pretty nice here today.. Going flying about 4:30. Temp ought to be in the low 50's. I was bringing in one of my planes from the truck and the screen door closed before the plane was all the way in. Good-bye Stab and elevator. Seems like I have more than my share of Accidents that are not involved in flying. Well, I probably have some of those as well. Went to a big swap meet Sat and spent $.50. I truly am the last of the big spenders.

RE: cold weather storage
 

I was on my third fuselage on the Alpha 60 before I had a flying related incident. On the first the firewall separated 5 minutes into the maiden flight. Horizon replaced it. On the second I tripped over a small depression while walking back to the pits after a deadstick, and fell on the plane. Horizon didn't replace that one. :eek:

The club to which I belong sponsored a good size swap meet this weekend. Came home with a nearly finished but never flown H9 95" Cessna Skylane with an OS 160 in it. It's essentially ready to fly after installation of servos, RX and battery. (My wife was just thrilled. :D) This one is going to sit for awhile until I get a bit more experience. The Sig should be ready to fly this weekend if the weather cooperates.

RE: cold weather storage
 

It's kinda hard to sneak them big ones in the house. Yes, Dear it was just laying in a field, someone must have lost it. Hummm,,,, that don't work anymore.

RE: cold weather storage
 

I tried "Well, it just followed me home". That didn't work either.

RE: cold weather storage
 

-40 !!? -60!!? My Lord, guys!! I heard someone say one time, " Somebody must make those folks live in that kind of weather. Nobody would do it voluntarily! " I`ve lived in the Midwest before( Missouri and Illinois ) and had my fill of snow, ice and sub-zero temps. No more for me, thanks. My hat`s off to you guys!

RE: cold weather storage
 

Well one thing about it, we can keep putting on cloths, but you poor guys can only take off so much. Does Missouri get snow?

RE: cold weather storage
 

We moved to Lexington from Mobile, AL about 3 years ago, after about 25 years there. I can deal with the cold here a lot better than the heat there.

RE: cold weather storage
 

I don't do well in the heat. Like it about 72*. 50* as I type this. Going flying in about 2 hrs. My tiger 60 is yelling at me from the truck, saying
"don't you like me anymore"... Putting floats on some of the other planes getting them ready for the snow.

RE: cold weather storage
 

I am a Native New Yorker, temporarily mis-assigned to Minnesota. I have lived all over the country. In fact, this is the 6th state in which I have had a drivers license.

I don't like having to deal with snow, but I can leave my house and car unlocked and go away for the weekend.

In fact, during the winter months, it's not unusual for people to run into the grocery stores and leave their cars running in the parking lot to stay warm.

RE: cold weather storage
 

AH!!! sounds like where I live. I do enjoy the snow because I snow ski. Helps me tolerate the winter. We go west every year to go skiing. Take my grandson and granddaughter and just have a good time.

RE: cold weather storage
 

Minn - Native New Yorker here too. All of the above was true back then too. I remember leaving the cars running unattended in winter. FYI - I've held drivers licenses in 7 states. That's scary.


Move to Seattle. Virtually no snow at my home, but 350-450 inches 45 minutes away in the Cascades, where I am a Ski Patroller..

Jack

RE: cold weather storage
 

I was a member of the National Ski Patrol for a number of years, but like everything else, age got in the way. Now I am just a recreational skier.