On
www.ipilot.com this week there are a couple of good articles on both cold weather flying and icing.
I ran a big bore TCM in Ottawa for 15 years and my SOP was not to fly when it was below -20 C as it is too hard on engine, airframe and pilot. Digging the plane out of a snow drift was just not worth it unless the weather was gong to warm up and be nice. I was parking outside then.
When I was going to fly, I always tried to get hangar space and always preheated as soon as temperature went below freezing. Those winter flights were always extremely nice and worth the extra effort if the circumstances were right.
I currently use a pair of small electric fan heaters that fit under the engines by way of the cowl flaps, but it is never that cold here in England. They do work and warm everything up in about 20 to 30 minutes at low settings.
I supervised some construction projects south of Kenora a long time ago and I can appreciate how cold it can get at times. We used to think Winnipeg was a warmer place to go on the weekends.
Regards - Dave