Monday! Monday! Monday!*

* blaring out of loud speaker system like a TV ad for a monster truck show.

The weather report for Monday is looking good enough to fly. Cloudy, high of 46 degrees...the afternoons the past few days have been pretty nice over the Vancouver/Metro area. Hopefully an early afternoon flight will be possible. Last Monday afternoon there was some beautiful weather prompting my instructor to e-mail me: "wanna fly?" but alas, Monday was the day BEFORE payday...so no flying.

With the overnight lows still in the mid-30's, morning flights will be difficult to schedule this time of year, due to the flying schools practice of not using the C-150's if they're covered with frost. An unfortunate engine design allows for significant ice buildup in the carburetor. The cure for which is to redirect some engine exhaust to melt the ice. Great cure, but it robs the C-150 of some horsepower, and the availability of full power at take-off is crucial to have for students like myself (you know...noobs).

While I'm on the subject of icing, the carburetor icing problem with the C-150 occurs in flight too. As you descend, there is a tendency for ice to build up in the carburetor throat. However, descending long enough for that to occur is usually at the same time your making an approach to an airfield. This makes a small loss of power irrelevant because you'll be decreasing the throttle anyway. Just one of the many little things you need to keep track of and remember while flying. There is no warning devise or alarm that sounds...if ice is allowed to build up too much...the engine dies, and it cannot usually be restarted in flight, because you need exhaust heat from a running engine to unfreeze things. So maybe not so little...upside: apparently the C-150 glides real good.

I think I'll go and reserve myself a plane right now.