Mark;

 

Everyone has their own idea about what’s safe and what isn’t; but to me a small, quality, silicone based heater hose through the firewall is preferable to a large air duct.  Even standard small diameter hoses (1/2 or 5/8) work in cars for 20 years.  (My ’83 van with 255K miles still has all the original heater hoses).

 

I went to NAPA and paged through their catalog of heater cores until I found what I wanted; 6” x 6” x 2” (I think goes to an old Ford van).  I built a housing for it, added a centrifugal fan from Lincoln Surplus.  It mounts in the back of the cabin on my Velocity, ducts going forward, and has a standard automotive cable control valve in the water circuit that I can adjust from up front.  Also has 2-speed blower. Hasn’t flown yet, but in tests it makes a LOT of heat. 

 

(It helps in making a housing if you are not fiberglass challenged).

 

Al

 

 

 

-----Original Message-----
From: Rotary motors in aircraft [mailto:flyrotary@lancaironline.net] On Behalf Of Mark Steitle
Sent: Tuesday, December 02, 2003 4:02 PM
To: Rotary motors in aircraft
Subject: [FlyRotary] Heaters/defrosters

 

Is there a "best practice" for cabin heat/defrost systems for rotary

a/c.  Those of you that are flying, how did you approach this item.  It

seems to me that with all that heat going out the tailpipe, it is a

no-brainer... except for the carbon-monoxide thing.  Then again, I don't

want to be scalded with hot ethylene-glycol either.  The exhaust muff seems

like the lighter and simpler solution.  On the other hand, with proper

ducting, the heater core could add extra cooling during climb-out.

 

Comments welcome,

Mark S. (hot oil exchanger is out of the question)

 

 

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