By Alan Smith

When summer and fall have passed and the hard cold of winter has set in we have to be careful in setting up our airplanes for safe operation. Fuel, oil and flying surfaces need special care and preflight preparation will take a lot longer than it did in the days of warm sunshine. Flying through winter skies, whether gray or blue, also needs special care as cold temperatures get colder with altitude.

On preflight being careful with your fuel is important. Never park your airplane with partial or fully empty tanks. We all know that on a cool summer night condensation will occur in partially full tanks, but, in winter, you could have ice in the tanks that would not show up in a cursory drain check in preflight inspection. Drain each tank separately by at least a quart into a transparent container and look for any solid contamination along with water. In winter, storage tanks, even those underground, can acquire rust. Fuel delivery from them drops off during the cold season and the reduction of underground temperatures can cause a slight shrinkage in metal storage facilities and let internal surface corrosion work into stored fuel. These tanks can also acquire water through condensation.