Warm A Chilly Cabin
[IMGCAP(1)]Winter flying in the northern tier is not for sissies. The ideal winter attire for occupants of my 1960s Bonanza is a pair of snowmobile pants and a t-shirt.
The stock heating system is woefully inadequate to warm a front seaters lower extremities during below-zero operations, while the greenhouse cockpit can create shoulder-high temperatures in 70s and 80s on a sunny winters flight. At night, the airplane is bone shatteringly cold, something thats not unusual for those of us who fly in extremely cold conditions.
Like all single-engine piston operators, I can warm up the cockpit a bit with a roll of Duct tape, masking wing root vents and air intakes. New gaskets for the…