air conditioning- nice, required, or silly?

How much does aftermarket AC cost? The best price I've seen for a Baron was
around $25,000 installed!


"The Visitor" wrote in message
...
I don't know if it is an stc thing, but there are conversions available. It
has always been far cheaper to stick with r12 in my seneca. I seem to
remembe being told is was about 6k to convert.

John




150flivver wrote:

On Jul 8, 6:41 am, Mike Spera wrote:

They are R-12 systems in most planes...R-134? Many techs will not do a
conversion because they can
screw up some systems irreparably. Even though many have converted
Pipers, the local auto tech has no experience and likely will not want
to "experiment" with a very expensive airplane...

Mike

I can't imagine that converting an R-12 system to R-134 wouldn't
require an STC.

Viperdoc wrote:
How much does aftermarket AC cost? The best price I've seen for a Baron was
around $25,000 installed!

You had better want it bad for 25k!

I have not heard of any aftermarket prices.
Mine was factory.
And if I were to buy again, I would pay 25k extra for the option.

John

On Jul 7, 7:48 am, wrote:
Anybody have any experience with air conditioning in their plane-Nice
to have? Silly accessory? Don't leave home without it? 80% Summer
flying in Northeast.

Thanks for your opinion.

Andy

There are no built-in A/C options available for my Grumman AA5B, but
I've been thinking about trying something like this:

http://www.sportys.com/press/displaypress.cfm?id=325

Anybody get one of these yet? I'm out of Phoenix. It's hot here.
Really. hot.

-R

Rob wrote:
On Jul 7, 7:48 am, wrote:
Anybody have any experience with air conditioning in their plane-Nice
to have? Silly accessory? Don't leave home without it? 80% Summer
flying in Northeast.

Thanks for your opinion.

Andy

There are no built-in A/C options available for my Grumman AA5B, but
I've been thinking about trying something like this:

http://www.sportys.com/press/displaypress.cfm?id=325

Anybody get one of these yet? I'm out of Phoenix. It's hot here.
Really. hot.

-R


I can't give up 50 lbs.

Powered by cigarette lighter plug and pulls approximately 5 amps. Available
in 12 and 24 volt models. Weighs approximately 10 lbs. empty and around 50
lbs.

That looks really neat.
If you can make your ice real real cold.
If I didn't have air, I would at least try it.
Hopefully somebody with some experience with it, will speak up.






Rob wrote:

There are no built-in A/C options available for my Grumman AA5B, but
I've been thinking about trying something like this:

http://www.sportys.com/press/displaypress.cfm?id=325

Anybody get one of these yet? I'm out of Phoenix. It's hot here.
Really. hot.

-R

Rob,

but
I've been thinking about trying something like this:

http://www.sportys.com/press/displaypress.cfm?id=325


Aviation Consumer had a review on these in one of the recent issues.

--
Thomas Borchert (EDDH)

Thomas Borchert wrote:
Rob,

but
I've been thinking about trying something like this:

http://www.sportys.com/press/displaypress.cfm?id=325


Aviation Consumer had a review on these in one of the recent issues.

I showed the AC article on the AC to my wife and the thought it was a great
idea until I explained how many fewer shoes she would be able to take on
vacation if we had that in the plane.

"Peter" wrote in message
...
Looking at the various cars I have owned and how the aircon on them
worked (or, more frequently, didn't work) I don't think there is much
chance of aircon on GA being reliable. Most GA stuff is the cheap and
old (1950s) end of the motor vehicle parts market. The only car I have
ever owned with a reliable aircon is a Toyota/Lexus Soarer (US SC300
is the equivalent) on which everything is built like a tank. The
refrigerant tends to leak out within a year, the compressors get
cracks and leak... One car, a Toyota Celica, which I owned for 15
years, had its aircon working for maybe 1 year out of the 15. And
Toyotas are the best of the lot normally. I've never had anything go
wrong on a Toyota, except the aircon.

Here in Florida (where virtually all cars have AC) it is a general rule of
thumb that the AC will cost as much to maintain as the entire rest of the car.
It is well worth it!

The real heat of the summer is not yet here, but I went up yesterday for
some pattern work. I sweated so much that I was still damp an hour later. AC
in a light airplane would be really nice.

Vaughn

"Vaughn Simon" wrote in message
...

"Peter" wrote in message
...
Looking at the various cars I have owned and how the aircon on them
worked (or, more frequently, didn't work) I don't think there is much
chance of aircon on GA being reliable. Most GA stuff is the cheap and
old (1950s) end of the motor vehicle parts market. The only car I have
ever owned with a reliable aircon is a Toyota/Lexus Soarer (US SC300
is the equivalent) on which everything is built like a tank. The
refrigerant tends to leak out within a year, the compressors get
cracks and leak... One car, a Toyota Celica, which I owned for 15
years, had its aircon working for maybe 1 year out of the 15. And
Toyotas are the best of the lot normally. I've never had anything go
wrong on a Toyota, except the aircon.

Here in Florida (where virtually all cars have AC) it is a general
rule of thumb that the AC will cost as much to maintain as the entire rest
of the car. It is well worth it!

Odd! I've had cars with A/C for the past 30 years and never had any A/C
maintenance other than recharging them. Even that last time was several
years ago.


The real heat of the summer is not yet here, but I went up yesterday
for some pattern work. I sweated so much that I was still damp an hour
later. AC in a light airplane would be really nice.

Sure is!!!

I got my first airborne A/C this past Febriary; let's see if it holds up as
well as the automotive ones have.

Matt B.

--
"Islam isn't in America to be equal to any other faith, but to become
dominant. The Koran, the Muslim book of scripture, should be the highest
authority in America, and Islam the only accepted religion on Earth."
-- Omar Ahmad, Chairman Emeritus, Council on American-Islamic Relations
(CAIR).

"Peter" wrote in message
...

Looking at the various cars I have owned and how the aircon on them
worked (or, more frequently, didn't work) I don't think there is much
chance of aircon on GA being reliable. Most GA stuff is the cheap and
old (1950s) end of the motor vehicle parts market.

[snip]

"Aircon?" Are Filipino?



Marco