I have just reviewed the correspondence on cabin heat and following a
conversation with Andy Draper this week a few points seem worth making.
I also have the cooling duct off my aircraft at present and thought it
was a good idea to do something like this while I had it in bits.
I had a long talk with Andy Draper this week (now with the PFA). He has
been given the job of sorting out the mess of Standard Mod applications
that has built up due to the staff leaving the PFA. This is very good
news for us UK flyer/builders. With Andy's help I hope we can progress
the standard mods that have been sitting with the PFA for just on a
year. I, with Andy's help, will also look at other mods that should
become standard (or even Factory as with the tri gear springs) and a
standard mod for cabin heat seems a very good idea. As part of this we
will ensure that the mods are accessible, to all, via the PFA web site.
This was supposed to have been done month ago but again a PFA problem.
The 914 exhaust is a Rotax part so is not going to be involved in any
work CKT do with the 912 system they produce.
The idea of a heat exchanger off the exhaust strikes my as "spam can"
technology with the risks of CO and incoming air at temperatures far
higher than you really need.
(by the way Alan, an intercooler is used to reduce the temperature of
the incoming "charge" air not to keep engine temps down.)
The XS has a very suitable source of nicely warm (70 deg C) air behind
the water/oil radiators (Sorry Classic owners but this did start as an
XS topic)
As Rob Housman has said "What the Europa factory forgot was the
necessary ducting to get warmed air into the cockpit". Thanks for
posting the details via Matronics. It is not up as of now (Sat 10.00Z)
but I look forward to seeing them.
In particular the stainless steel "fire door" that will shut off the air
flow to the cockpit (at the firewall) if there is a fire within the
cowling (fusible link) seems like a very good feature. Yes to totally
eliminate the burst heat exchanger allowing hot liquid into the cabin
air stream is difficult. However the design of the intake to the SCAT
tube (and a vertical section of the SCAT tube) should minimize ingestion
of liquids into the cabin air. If you have some sort of air box in the
top of the foot well this could also be designed as a liquid trap.
Mike Parkin has pointed out "G-JULZ has a cockpit heater based on the
hot air behind the radiators being ducted, via bulkhead shutoff valves,
into the cockpit. All PFA approved". Mike could you please let me have
details of the mod or at least the Mod number so I can get it from the
PFA.
I have Paul McAllister's picture of his take off from the duct but a few
more details of the flap hinge duct etc would be greatly appreciated.
Gilles your details on the cooling duct research are great but do you
have any details on the ducting?
Does anyone else have a solution to this problem? All ideas are
welcome.
Ian Rickard #505 G-IANI XS Trigear
Europa Club Mods Rep (Trigear)
e-mail mods@europaclub.org.uk
or direct g-iani@ntlworld.com
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