Keeping warm.

I am thinking about keeping the wife warm (and happy) in the back of the -4. I am making aileron push rod seals to stop leakage of cold air from the wing to the fuse, but am puzzling about the flap push rods.

Has anyone sealed up this air path and is it in fact a problem? In case it is not clear I am talking about the hole shown in the second picture down here, http://gikonhome.blogspot.com/2007/05/interior-is-painted.html#links and the one vertically beneath it in the fuselage exterior.

I would be interested to know:
a) is it a draft source,
b) which hole did you seal, and
c) how?

One thought is that a bit of very soft foam between the flap and fuse might be enough in the cruise, and with the flaps down perhaps it is a low pressure area anyway, so the air is exiting?

air leaks

Steve,

I just got my phase one comlete and took my wife for her first ride. I had her feel around for any leaks from those holes, she couldn't feel any air coming from them. i did use a piece of thin foam between the flap and belly
so I'm not sure if its the seal or its a low prressure spot but the wife wasn't drafty and that all that counted.
Dennis

Alternative

Here's an alternative.

http://www.veterok.com/car-seat-heater_veterok.htm

I'm not really very familiar with the -4 but on the -7 when the flap is up the bottom skin of the flap covers the hole. I plan to make an RTV "gasket" around the flap pushrod hole to completely seal when the flap is retracted. Hard to make a seal that will be effective when the flaps are down but that's only a small part of most flights. Hopefully this is not totally impertinent to the RV-4. (If it is... sorry to have wasted your time and the bandwidth. )

I thought about this very topic while burrowing out those big holes in my fuselage too and I thought about trying "aerodynamic brushes". They are used on the Canadair jets in the gear bay. There is no door to cover up the main wheels when they are retracted. The wheels just sit flush with the bottom of the fuselage. So to seal the gap between the wheels and the fuselage skin they put these brushes on that seal up the couple inch gap.

They are meant to reduce drag and I don't know if they would really keep air out but I'm going to give them serious consideration. They would for sure help and installed correctly they shouldn't interfere with the flap mechanism.

I'll try to find a picture of what I'm talking about and post it.

Chris

Chris/Jim - both neat ideas. I am a little less concerned because of Deven & Dcleco's comment, but if the brushes were easily available I would be tempted because it seals things up flaps up or down. Unless a better practical plan comes up I might just wait 'til I fly (one less thing to do) and go with the RTV if there is a problem.

Thanks.

brushes

I'm going to work tomorrow and I'll try to get you a pic of the brushes. I don't think they'd be hard to duplicate. You'll understand when you see them. I'm with you though. I'll fly and see how it is before I go to the trouble.

Chris

Backseat HEAT!!!

Steve,
Here's what I have in my Rocket, a heated rear seat cushion that plugs into my backseat 12V outlet. Pulls 10 amps. Works great, she loves it...

BTW, 50 hours now on the 380x150x5 tires on my soft turf strip, I'm absolutely chuffed! Thanks for the great idea!

RR

http://www.amazon.com/Wagan-Deluxe-...pd_sim_dbs_auto?ie=UTF8&qid=1202749262&sr=8-9

Here's something I did on my Rocket. Go to the hardware store and buy a wide foam paint brush. Glue the foam from the brush to the bottom side of your floor panel and cut a slit in the foam to follow the path of the flap arm. This foam is rigid enough to hold shape while flexible enough to flow around the tube.

Works pretty good on my airplane.

Chris - if you have a picture of your brushes I would be very interested. Randy P's idea is neat. Just trying to find the right textured foam.

I also agree with Smokey. I certainly plan on an 'electric chic heater'.

super low cost $17 heated seat

Thought I'd post a PIREP for you all. It was about 10F degrees today and I wanted to fly between big snowstorms. No problem, because my Skipper now has a heated seat!

Yes, that's right, for only $17 you too can have a warm tush while flying about the icy winter skies. Here is the link on amazon where I bought mine last year. We used them 1 winter in the minivan and they work great but slide around when you get in and out a lot. We upgraded to a slip on style (about $75) so I have the old ones left over.

I'm pretty sure each one draws about 4A of current. Since my Skipper has a 10A breaker in the cigarette lighter I only tried one seat.