Finally!

We finally got enough warm weather to melt the ice dam that has been blocking my hangar entrance for weeks now. I was able to get out to the practice area west of Bolton for about a half hour this morning - just long enough to heat the oil and charge the battery. Even after a couple of weeks of bitter cold weather, I still had a strong battery, and with two shots of prime the engine started on the second blade. This is soooo much better than what the Tampico was like in the winter. I also ended up turning off the heat in the RV this morning because I was too hot; that never happened in the frigid Tampico.

The fields are all still covered with snow/ice, and small Lake Madison looks like it's still frozen:



Having fun, though:



The apron in front of the hangar was still pretty icy, so taxiing out was a bit more challenging that usual when I hot ice patches and the tailwheel refused to provide assistance. Byt the time I got back, though, it was mostly melted. I had been worried that I wouldn't be able to push the plane back into the hangar if the ice hadn't melted, and there were a couple of icy places on the pavement that required me to push on a different part of the plane that usual just to get better footing.

Takeoff was a little shabby at first, but the landing was fine. I find it interesting that a technique that I've been practicing on the Microsoft flight simulator on my computer actually worked when I tried it in the RV today. Practicing on the computer seems to have helped me with one type of the different bouncing problems I have on landing, although it's probably too soon to tell for sure.

I have the week off between Xmas and New Years, so hopefully the nice weather will continue and I can get a longer flight in.