F-F-F-F-Freezing in a F-F-Fruster

[Halibut]

Can you get heated suits? Of even a heater, perhaps, in a Thruster?

[Martin Watson]

Can you get heated suits? Of even a heater, perhaps, in a Thruster?

Ah, c'mon Halibut! You know the sort of response you're likely to get to a question like that...

... e g Real microlights don't have heaters, and the Thruster is a real microlight, so No you cant get a heater in one. Not that it would do any good, the cabin is too leaky

Heaters are for nesh wusses, of course. You want a heater, you need a CT, Eurostar or a C42. Or a Cessna...

Yeah, you can get heated clothing though. Look at motorcycle clothing suppliers.

[Peter Twissell]

Don't forget that you have a 200 watt heater on board - your own body.
As with motorcycling, the trick is to keep that heat where you want it. In the Thruster cabin (assuming it's an enclosed one), you have half the work done for you by keeping most of the wind off. The rest can be achieved with clothing. I use an 'army surplus' tank suit and pigskin gloves.

[jetlag]

I use a good ski suit in my flex and I'm OK for upto two and a half hours with a ground temp of -3°C, but then, I was reared in Yorkshire where men are men

[MadamBreakneck]

Wot Martin said!

I'm grown up enough to say that if it's freezing at ground level I don't fly. I said that even when people were offering me money to instruct them.

That said, if it's proper cold then I wear a motorbike heated jacket beneath a silk gilet under the wind-proof outer layers. A nice silk scarf does a good job too, as do gloves, thick socks and a woolly hat. 'Cos the TST doesn't have a battery, I use one of the modern portable jump starters to provide power - it weighs zilch and gives me over half an hour of toasty warmth; I have an on/off switch in circuit so I don't overheat and I get enough heat to keep me comfy for well over an hour.

In an enclosed pipe'n'slippers Thruster I never found it necessary. (Modification caution: you may need to go through the BMAA if you wish to beef up your aircraft wiring to supply 50 watts to your jacket ~ or 100 watt if your passenger has one too). Towards the end of their days, the Thruster factory did sell after-market heated seat covers, but you'd be lucky to find one now, I suspect.

The art is to keep your internal organs warm. An old-fashioned trick is to have a cup of warm soup just before flying and another one waiting in the flask for use on your return - wonderful central heating.

[Halibut]

An old-fashioned trick is to have a cup of warm soup just before flying

Cosy idea. Mind you, I might need to install a... ahem... comfort tube, too

[Peter Twissell]

If you have a nosewheel Thruster, the glide angle on approach is enough to allow any collected fluid on the cockpit floor to find its way out.
I am, of course, referring to spilt soup.

[Halibut]

If you have a nosewheel Thruster, the glide angle on approach is enough to allow any collected fluid on the cockpit floor to find its way out.
I am, of course, referring to spilt soup.

Ha! If it’s cold enough, of course, the... er... soup might freeze. Then it can be simply picked up and ejected from the aircraft in one lump. Does anyone know the freezing point of ‘soup’?

[Antoni]

Nope, air navigation order says only 'water' or fine sand.

Coarse sand, whatever that is, is therefore strictly verboten.

[Peter Twissell]

It was water, yer honour, it's just polluted with, er, soup.