Winter sets in
Family in Healy AK report recent snow and very cold temperatures with high winds. Just another day in paradise and normal for living that close to Denali National park. The locals report the tour...
Forum Discussion
On that caribou hunt, "back in the day" (of my long lost youth), two airplanes / 3 guys flew into a strip on the other side of the Alaska range and promptly landed on about a bazillion feet of fresh snow...had to swim out of the plane. At the time it was "only" about -10, but the most experienced guy said "Let's drain the oil, just in case". So, on the first day, the last 3 hours of daylight were spent compacting the space around the planes, draining the oil into buckets and carefully carrying it to the nearby quonset hut.
Good thing: it dropped to -35, then to circa -50 and stayed there for about 5 days. The quonset hut had good wood stove...good thing because at -50, it had become a survival expedition. The 3 of us spent those few days tromping down a packed "strip" for an eventual departure. After a while, lo and behold, it warmed up to -25...which was noticeably warmer after -50+. The tall young buck (me in those days) promptly starts roping the frost off the metal wings and sweeping it off the fabric wings while the experienced folks heat the oil on the wood stove, carry it carefully out, and even more carefully put it in the engine...some preheating, then all hands work to pop each airplane loose from the snow and back to los Anchorage just in time to call off the CAP.
Memorable event even after 40 years.
While I've avoided outside work as much as possible since then (:) ), at anything below -20, things are done very slowly, very carefully, and with much forethought. At -50, a mistake (presuming one's "out of town") is probably deadly.
Good thing: it dropped to -35, then to circa -50 and stayed there for about 5 days. The quonset hut had good wood stove...good thing because at -50, it had become a survival expedition. The 3 of us spent those few days tromping down a packed "strip" for an eventual departure. After a while, lo and behold, it warmed up to -25...which was noticeably warmer after -50+. The tall young buck (me in those days) promptly starts roping the frost off the metal wings and sweeping it off the fabric wings while the experienced folks heat the oil on the wood stove, carry it carefully out, and even more carefully put it in the engine...some preheating, then all hands work to pop each airplane loose from the snow and back to los Anchorage just in time to call off the CAP.
Memorable event even after 40 years.
While I've avoided outside work as much as possible since then (:) ), at anything below -20, things are done very slowly, very carefully, and with much forethought. At -50, a mistake (presuming one's "out of town") is probably deadly.
