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Cold air in the rear

bob888

Well Known Member
I have noticed (actually passengers noticed) quite a bit of cold air coming into the back seat area. It seems to be coming from UNDER the rear cushions. I have boots on the aileron linkages, so probably not from the wing root. Has anyone else noticed this? Source?
 
If your doors don?t seal perfectly, air will be pulled out of the cabin since the air outside the rounded upper fuselage is at slightly lower pressure. The cabin air is replaced by cold air pulled in from the tail, coming thru the corregated aft bulkhead. Try stuffing insulation into the aft bulkhead corregations, along the edge.
 
Also cover the lightening holes in the bulkhead just forward of the baggage door. Some cold air manages to work its way in there, too, which a passenger in the left seat can feel.
 
Exit air??

Talk of closing off the corrugations in the baggage bulkhead make me wonder- we can't have ventilation without an exit for the air - if we close off the obvious connection to the tail cone, where will the air find its way out - and are we choking off airflow to the overall detriment of cabin comfort?

I know from decades of RV-6A ownership that the tail cone "pumps" rather than exhausts air, and my cabin air exit in the 6 with aileron boots is obviously across the longerons underneath the canopy side skirts - my shirt sleeves get sucked into that gap all the time. Not sure in a 10 with well-gasketed doors where the exit air is going to go.

What's the accepted RV-10 best-practice for providing air exit while blocking cold air infil?

Not flying by a long shot, but would sure like to incorporate this in my build now.
 
I was getting tons of air in from my tail cone, and air was getting sucked out via my door seals. I had terrible heat for a while. I sealed up the doors hinges and it helped a ton. I haven't re-tested to see what direction air is moving around the baggage bulkhead.
 
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I didn't do anything special per se in my RV-10.

I did put on aileron boots.

I also finished my interior with AeroSport Products panels, plus a couple that Geoff custom made for me. The lower half of the baggage bulkhead has a panel covered in carpet. The upper half panel is covered in leather.

These bulkhead panels fit tight against the standard AeroSport Products interior panels. They seem to do a great job at eliminating drafts. I've not gotten a single complaint.
 
I had been working with the understanding that the tail cone is a low pressure area. The corrugations in the baggage bulkhead are to allow air in the higher pressure cabin to exit that way.

The air rushing over the canopy is a lower pressure area as well, and must be lower than the tail cone. If the doors aren't sealed properly the lower pressure area just outside will pull air out the door seals, which will cause the baggage bulkhead "exit" to become an intake.

If this is not correct please let me know so I can edit and remove any misinformation.

Air does indeed come IN the baggage bulkhead from the tail. I can verify (or rather my wife can) that air comes IN around poor fitting door seals.

-Marc
 
Then where's it going out?

And do we need to help it do so, so that it will come in from the heat ducts or fresh air vents, and not some unwanted place?

Guess not, if no one has added exhaust louvers or similar.
 
Air does indeed come IN the baggage bulkhead from the tail. I can verify (or rather my wife can) that air comes IN around poor fitting door seals.

-Marc

That is surprising. I always thought that the air flowing around the mid-fuse exterior was under a lower pressure than the cabin air. In the 6, any leakage around the canopy forces air out of the cabin (air moving from interior to exterior) and it was my assumption was this air was replaced either through the cabin vents, when open, or from the tailcone, when everything was closed up.

Larry
 
To those that have installed -10 aileron boots, have you also sealed the spar itself?

It looks like there's a pretty large opening formed by the gap between fore and aft center section pieces that would have to also be sealed.
 
To those that have installed -10 aileron boots, have you also sealed the spar itself?

It looks like there's a pretty large opening formed by the gap between fore and aft center section pieces that would have to also be sealed.

My lessons from the 6A show strong airflow from the wing to the cabin, hence the effectiveness of aileron pushrod boots. I intend to fully seal up the gaps in the spar area with silicon. I did the same on the 6 and get no air flow from the control stick area, which is a common complaint on the 6/7.

Larry
 
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