Flight in rain

Tropical storm Dennis is dumping a lot of much needed rain in the St. Louis area (we went up there for the Muni Opera and it got rained out). We flew back to Fayetteville, Arkansas in 1:42 this morning through rain most of the way. The slider cockpit stayed dry except where my little rear track hole seal plug is missing some rubber and two or three drips around the handle at the latch. Anticipated the need for a rag to wipe things off during taxi - essential. The defroster venting through the avionic stack heat vent worked well but the heat can be a problem to the humans if the ambient temperature is high. Altrak and Pictorial Pilot worked perfectly.

Bob Axsom

Defrosting

Bob,
Glad you had no leaks. I hope I'm half as lucky. Can you describe your defroster setup? In my IFR RV-8 (not flying, thus the question), I have planned on putting 3/8" dia. holes around the periphery inboard of the windshield to allow avionics heat from behind the panel to rise and defog the windshield. I'm wondering if that's all you did or have you installed a fan to augment airflow?

In my store bought plane, there is a defroster that runs off of cabin heat (no blower) and I rarely see any fog on the windshield, unless it's very humid and raining, or I've been in wet IMC for an hour or so.

Art

Defrost System

I put one of the box valves on the firewall with a control cable terminated at a "Heater" control knob on the right side of the instrument panel. The large hose from the heat muff is connected to the input and the two outputs are (1) dumped overboard in the cowl outlet and (2) routed into a "Y" in the cabin behind the panel then the control knob is "in" and "out" respectively. The output from the right side of the "Y" goes down the right side to the passenger's foot area. The left "Y" output hose goes to another control box behind the panel. It's control is on the right side of the instrument panel and it is labeled "Defrost". The control "in" position is the normal heater mode and the associated hose is routed to the pilot's foot area. The "out" position diverts the hot air to the other control box output wich routes the heated air through a red hose/duct to the forward edge of the avionics vent hole (it is between 2 and 3 inches in diameter covered with wire screen). The hose/duct is flattened at this point and clamped in place with a homemade aluminum strap clamp. It works well so far but it is a very limited spread area. Also with my design you cannot get defrost function without have heat on. Avionics heat will not defrost anything. Good luck with your system.

Bob Axsom