Cold Weather Connie

[gpadude]

I’ve got to say …I really love this machine.

If you’ve ever tried to start a single pin V twin in unfriendly cold weather and have flooded it …then you can truly appreciate the outstanding, scary accurate job of modeling that has been done on this A2A Connie. Wow folks, just wow.

I did my initial flight training in this Connie out of KMWH WA state. I’m running P3D with AS16 & Orbx Global. It was not fun trying to start her in the cold of Eastern WA. I figured it was …honestly …them, couldn’t be me. I parked her @ KLAS, watched the video, again, read the manual, again, attempted to fire her up, per the check list, again and …success. I’m not an auto start person. I didn’t by her for that but I will take help from the FE and Navigator …who rock by the way. …side note, Larry is a little, ummm, “soft”. He moans a lot. He lightens up when you hit the chop at a reasonable speed. I complained about him until my wife said “…ya know, he kinda sounds like you, does he have a bad back too?”

I returned her to Moses Lake the next day (the Connie, not my wife). It was snowing; she was cold and not being a nice lady to start. This is when I became floored by A2A’s design team.

I basically followed what I’d do for starting a big ass single pin V twin engine that was cold. First I spin her to move grease, no juice, no fire. Then I follow the procedures listed and shown in the video (actually I wait 25 seconds for inertia). If she lights I leave the primer on until a stable 1000 RPM is achieved then I introduce the mixture. If she fails I restart the inertia wheel, leave the mag ON and primer OFF then engage the direct drive (unburned fuel is still in the cylinder). She will usually light, then I follow the basic routine.

I’ve had her in -40C weather in Greenland (yesterday). I followed the dilution protocols at shut down. She was a little cranky when it came to starting in the morning. I did have to “Clear” one engine after my initial routine failed (spin, no fuel, no spark) then start her using ONLY the mixture, no primer.

I’m currently in Reykjavik, BIRK. I started my trip at KMWH. I’ve hit plenty of cold weather so far and she and her crew have performed flawlessly. Thanks
Scott (gPaDude)