As we round the corner past the U.S. Labor Day weekend, thoughts of cold-weather operation begin to make their unwelcome presence felt, especially among operators of unhangared aircraft. Cranking up a mechanically complex aircraft on a subzero morning can put lifetime-limiting stresses on drivetrains. This is especially true when it comes to rotorcraft, with their high number of crucial moving parts. When rapid dispatch times are critical, as they are with offshore oil and, even more so, emergency aeromedical services, operators and the people who depend on them cannot wait. But machines often wake up and get into action more slowly than human beings.
That’s where preheating systems, long a staple of arctic bush flying, come in. Beginning with dangerously improvised home-grown attempts at only keeping engine oil sumps above freezing, or warming engine compartments with risky, jury-rigged arrays of electric light bulbs, the techniques of keeping aircraft safely and effectively warm have become the mission of specialty equipment makers such as Tanis Aircraft Services of Glenwood, Minn. Beginning modestly some decades ago with a product line warming only the engines of the most common types of fixed-wing piston singles, Tanis now manufactures or can custom design thermal blankets, coils and related heating equipment for just about every make and model of helicopter, from the Robinson R22 to the Sikorsky S-76.
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