TravisHamblen
Active Member
Up here in Minnesota it can get QUITE cold, so I am always looking for more cabin heat. As a matter of fact I built the RV-7A while living in Las Vegas and I laughed at needing any heat. Now that I am in Minnesota I am planning to install a second heat muff so I can get as much hot air flowing into the cabin as possible. With just one heat muff and some REALLY cold OATs the cabin is just okay, if you have on all your cold weather gear, but not even close to toasty warm. With the heat coming out down by your feet it seems to keep my feet nice and toasty, but the cabin up by chest level is COLD!
So my plan for the 2nd heat muff is to route it up into the fresh air cabin vents (eyeball style) so that it can be aimed wherever I want the heat at the time and you can even adjust the flow volume (although I don't see much need for anything other than full blast this time of year). I was struggling with the idea of making a selector box under the panel for each vent so you can swap between cold air and hot air. For now I am just going to run the heat straight up to the vents, then twice a year I can swap which hose I hook up to the vents. I am hoping that this will heat the upper portion of the cabin up to a toasty warm state and the original heat muff will continue to keep the feet and area below the panel toasty warm. I shudder just thinking about what it would be like to fly with it Minnesota cold outside but nice and warm in the cabin, especially being able to aim those vents around, and maybe even put my hands in front of them every once in a while for a nice warm up!!
Has anybody done this before?? If so what kind of results did you get? Any advice or suggestions would be greatly appreciated!
Travis
RV-7A 45+ hours
Lake Elmo Airport
So my plan for the 2nd heat muff is to route it up into the fresh air cabin vents (eyeball style) so that it can be aimed wherever I want the heat at the time and you can even adjust the flow volume (although I don't see much need for anything other than full blast this time of year). I was struggling with the idea of making a selector box under the panel for each vent so you can swap between cold air and hot air. For now I am just going to run the heat straight up to the vents, then twice a year I can swap which hose I hook up to the vents. I am hoping that this will heat the upper portion of the cabin up to a toasty warm state and the original heat muff will continue to keep the feet and area below the panel toasty warm. I shudder just thinking about what it would be like to fly with it Minnesota cold outside but nice and warm in the cabin, especially being able to aim those vents around, and maybe even put my hands in front of them every once in a while for a nice warm up!!
Has anybody done this before?? If so what kind of results did you get? Any advice or suggestions would be greatly appreciated!
Travis
RV-7A 45+ hours
Lake Elmo Airport