I've had an oil pan heat pad that just sticks to the oil pan on my 3 previous planes (one in Montana) and they worked just fine. Don't have one on my Ercoupe but should work if you have electricity available. You need to plug it in overnight as they are only about 100 watts (with a thermostat) so it takes awhile to warm the whole engine. I also used to put a ceramic heater in the cockpit. Sure nice to get into a warm cockpit and I would think the lack of thermo shock to the instruments ought to be a plus.
Dan Caliendo Ercoupe Mach 0.14 3658H On Jan 5, 2010, at 11:33 AM, Ed Burkhead wrote: > > > > Allen wrote: > > > This little heater would have even better use if it were > > > plugged into your car and put in the engine compartment > > > to warm the engine before starting. What do you think? > > > > As it’s only 150 watts, it’ll take quite a long time to warm up the engine. > I’ve heard of people leaving a trouble light with a 100 watt light bulb in > the bottom of their (better be) clean engine compartment overnight so the > engine will be acceptably warm in the morning. (I don’t know if that’s a > good idea, but I’ve heard of it.) > > > > Leaving my car idling for an hour or four in front of the airplane so the > dinky heater can warm the engine doesn’t seem worthwhile to me. I’d rather > use the FBO’s preheater even if I have to pay for it. But, if you have no > hangar and have to tie down out in the boondocks, perhaps this is better than > nothing. > > > > What is the expert recommendation for the temperature below which preheating > should be done? > > > > If I were doing a lot of very cold flying, I’d look into one of the permanent > heater installations. Isn’t there one that wraps the oil tank and plugs into > the AC in the hangar? Is that good enough? What others are there? > > > > Ed > > >
