Have the opportunity to ferry an open cockpit biplane from CA to MS next week, looking for any tips you guys might have for staying warm, and any idiosyncrasies of open cockpit flying in general. The plane does have kind of a wrap around windshield, and at this point not even sure it has a heater

The airplane is an experimental Kelly D biplane with a 115 horse Lycoming, I'm told it cruises around 87 MPH My plan is to take the most southern route possible, basically following I-10 through AZ and NM, then I-20 from around Dallas, TX to destination in MS. Route is approx 1700 NM.

I have an insulated leather flying helmet with my David Clarks installed. The only goggles I have are the ski goggle type which should work well but my shades don't fit very well under them...hopefully wont NEED to wear the goggles full time, but the mornings will be flying toward the sun, which will be the coldest, and also when the sun will be in my eyes... I'd rather use my Lightspeed Zulus but I've read that ANR doesnt perform well in an open cockpit situation, and won't have time to experiment prior to the trip.

What do you think??

Dress warm.... Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

Gump

I think you're a lucky SOB. A bad day freezing in that thing beats a good day working, in my book.

Doesn't look any worse than my Honda Gold Wing. Insulated coveralls or snowmobile suit. I would look for a giant winter hat that will go over your headset and leather helmet.

Never tried to pee in an open cockpit when it is cold. That might be a challenge. Might need the Lady J adapter

G'Day

http://www.warmnsafe.com/
This stuff works great in my buddies Stearman.

TomW wrote:http://www.warmnsafe.com/
This stuff works great in my buddies Stearman.

On that note, it looks like there are a few brands of electric heated long underwear that run off a 9V.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B009FNOPT0?dpm=1

However, as a skier who's endured some pretty nasty low temps and wind chill for sustained periods, I think you'd be fine with some good wood blend long undies and a good shell. Stop the wind from leaking in, and insulate with a base layer and maybe a little down.

Wear a scarf or the damned wind will blow down the back of your collar. Most uncomfortable.

That sounds like a lot of fun. But definitely dress warm. And stay low...unless you find a pleasantly warm inversion...

Many, many moons ago I 'ferried' an XK 120 Jag from SoCal to SAT at Christmas time during a big 'blu Northern' blow....
There was no top to put 'up'. It was so cold out, at the only open gas station in the middle of the night in Lordsburg, NM, the station attendant wouldn't come away from his full blast space heater in the office (that was b4 self service).
I wore about all the winter clothes (several sets of long johns plus sweats) I owned plus a very large set of fireman's turn out gear to fit around the heavily padded skinny me. I could hardly turn the steering wheel for all the clothes I had on. I got REAL cold because I was just sitting and not generating any good body heat from muscle movement.
My point of all this is to highly recommend the electric underwear (above) if you are just 'sitting'-which is what you will be doing. You can't get enough clothes on to be warm if you are just sitting for hours in below freezing temps with a big blast of moving air!

Trust me on this.....
lc

Oh, yeah, enjoy your flight-and be safe!

Some pictures and a little story about your trip and how you stayed warm would be great.

p.s you'll want to stop every 2 hours riding in and open cockpit

If you decide to take I-10 all the way, and if you need, stop in at 2F0 and get some grub, fuel or even a warm bed.

PM and I will give you my cell number.


Mercifully Free From the Ravages of Intelligence

exodus wrote:Wear a scarf or the damned wind will blow down the back of your collar. Most uncomfortable.

Best advice so far. In addition, your chin and cheeks will be exposed and get very cold. Whear a scarf you can wrap around a few times and secure well. Or one of those smart wool or fleece neckies that you can bury in your shirt/jacket and have it long enough that you can still pull it up over your mouth. Put your helmet on over top of it. Other than that lots of layers. LOTS!

Sort of like this, only with the helmet on. Me flying a Cub with no heat in January. I was happy as a clam.

I have no heater in my Kitfox and use one of these heated vests for winter flying. http://gerbing.com/Products/Liners/heatedVestLiner.php

The theory...and it works for me...is that if you keep your core warm your whole body stays warm. Even my feet stay warm. The vest fits snug over just a light shirt like a long underwear top or such and my winter coveralls over that.

How it works http://gerbing.com/Technology/howItWorks.html

I didn't like the price of the temp-controler http://gerbing.com/Products/tempcontrols.php . I wired an on/off switch into the cord and just turn it off when it gets too hot.

Cool trip! I flew the Stearman from NJ to Ca in September a couple of years ago. I intended to head southwest to follow the lower terrain along I-10 but a big storm system pushing up from the gulf forced me along I-80 straight west. By the time I hit western Nebraska I realized I didn't have enough clothing - found a tractor supply store (which also had Marvel) and picked up some sweet white waffle long underwear for $20.

Temps across Wy were f'n cold - down just below freezing before sunrise. The long undies under a winter-weight flying jacket more or less did the trick for sustained flight in the 30s. Homestly it wasn't the temps that kicked my ass, it was the wind whipping. 38 hrs flying time over 8 (lost 2 days to wx in the middle) days, I was spent when I got home.

Highly recommend a tablet device for charts, paper products in an open cockpit are a pain in the butt.

Have fun, look forward to your trip report!

I've never flown an open cockpit aircraft, but I have ridden motorcycles in very cold weather (down to about +20F), as well as flown airplanes with anemic heaters in extreme cold (down to about -30F). If you do it for very long when you're grossly uncomfortable, your skill set will deteriorate so much that you can't function well at all--and you'll still have to get that bird on the ground.

When I rode in very cold weather, I seriously considered getting the full electric vest, leggings, gloves, etc., but after pricing all that stuff, just decided to quit riding for longer than an hour at a time. Most of my extreme cold flying was as a student or very low time private in Alaska, and almost all of those flights were no more than an hour or so at a time, so I could still function.

But when I first bought my LRB, I brought her back from Tulsa to Fort Collins in February 2004, and the ambient temp was -20F at any realistic altitude after dark--much warmer during the day, more like +20F. The last leg into Fort Collins in the dark was pretty damn cold! I didn't get rid of the shivers for several hours, after hot coffee, a hot shower, etc. I was wearing a down vest and a heavy leather insulated flight jacket, had good gloves and a watch cap over my headset, but I was still pretty cold.

You might recall that my engine threw a rod only 3 weeks later, and I landed in a field, so that the airplane was down for 3 months while the new engine was being built. That down time was used also to make a lot of mods and upgrades. You can bet that one of the mods my IA did to the airplane was to improve the heater!

So my advice is that you can't possibly wear too much to keep warm, limit your flight legs so that you don't try to fly too long before stopping to warm up, and fly during the day when it's a lot warmer than at night.

Cary

GERBIES
http://www.revzilla.com/gerbings-heated ... Qgod41kA6g
GT

GERBIES
http://www.revzilla.com/gerbings-heated ... Qgod41kA6g

See what I mean about the cost of all that stuff?

Cary

Quick/cheap options are chemical hand warmers and toe warmers - can be bought cheap at ski shops - one in each shoe and one in each pocket. Get a case - each one last 3-4 hours and they are light weight. Make sure your head is warm too. It has been shown that holding on to something warm with your hands (not so hot that it burns) is an effective way to warm your core - blood is close to your skin - capillary action - and the warmed blood goes straight to your heart and the rest of your body.

You can look into heated vests that run off 12V from motorcycle shops - you may even be able to rent to buy used off ebay. I have one made by BMW that plugs in to a 12V receptacle and a switch on/off gives you a good charge of heat. 9V batteries are going to be worthless - not enough charge density and energy for an extended period of time. If you are doing this on a regular basis - you might want to invest. It makes motorcycling in the winter really enjoyable - same concept -bigger market therefore more options. Go down to a motorcyle shop - harleys, or import honda/yamaha/bmw and they will have many options including entire systems driven off 12V - gloves/pants/vests. Vest is basic and most important. Core warm - everthing else is warm.

'soyAnarchisto

Mittens keep hands and fingers much warmer than gloves, wear some light gloves for when one needs to use fingers, put the mittens back on when done-tie the mittens together w/ a string across back or neck under jacket so they don't escape.

Nothing better for maintaining core temperature than a good "puffy" down coat under a shell. Mine always amazes me when I am motorcycling in the winter.