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#11
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air conditioning- nice, required, or silly?
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#12
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air conditioning- nice, required, or silly?
Followup question for those of you who have one installed:
What are the associated maintenance and repair costs for the A/C and its related components? The Turbo-arrow IV I fly had A/C originally installed, but it was removed more than 10 years ago.) |
#13
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air conditioning- nice, required, or silly?
In article ,
john smith wrote: Followup question for those of you who have one installed: What are the associated maintenance and repair costs for the A/C and its related components? I had one on my cherokee 140 (until I removed it). It was in-op (no freon) and I didn't have a problem with the alternator belts breaking, so the associated maintenance and repair costs were zero. -- Bob Noel (goodness, please trim replies!!!) |
#14
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air conditioning- nice, required, or silly?
I think the power/useful load/cost trade-off doesn't make sense for
most situations, including NOrtheeastern summers and single-engine pistons. Also, many of the planes that offer AC as an option can be and are flown high, so heat isn't an issue for long anyway. But, as always, it's a question of what your mission is. -- Thomas Borchert (EDDH) |
#15
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air conditioning- nice, required, or silly?
B,
You can always turn it off. G which doesn't reduce weight much, though. -- Thomas Borchert (EDDH) |
#16
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air conditioning- nice, required, or silly?
On Sun, 08 Jul 2007 11:23:57 +0200, Thomas Borchert
wrote: B, You can always turn it off. G which doesn't reduce weight much, though. True. |
#17
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air conditioning- nice, required, or silly?
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 As others have stated, you cannot use if for takeoff. So, you use it on the ground and then turn it on again in the climb. 4 minutes into the climb, you are usually into cooler air anyway and shut it off. Google A/C and see the persistent problems with these units. They are R-12 systems in most planes. If you think it is expensive to get a car charged with R-12, wait till you see what it will cost to get an A&P to do it - if you can find one. Likely you will have to talk an auto tech into bringing his equipment out to the airport for the A&P to watch him charge the system. Then, you get to pay 2 folks for one operation. 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. The hoses are now 20-30+ years old. They leaked like crazy when new and have not gotten any better with age. If an auto tech charges the plane, they will likely give you the speech about how they are required to investigate why the system needed a charge and fix it. Or, they may refuse to charge it at all UNTIL the leak is found and fixed. As others have said, they rob you of 70 odd pounds in the Pipers. For a 140 that is 10% of its useful load and precludes any thoughts of a third person. The alternator belts and pulleys are the biggest pain. After 1000 hours, the pulleys wear due to the high tension required on the skinny alternator belt. Once worn, you can throw belts in as little as 2 hours. Ironically, the compressor belt usually never breaks. Which would you choose to go South unpredictably? We removed ours and got back 43 pounds. We left the drop door and condenser in because of the hassle of removing it. The cost to "convert" back to stock can be staggering and the parts are NOT easy to identify and find. Opinions vary, but in many Midwest/Northern parts of the country, it is not worth the hassle. Good Luck, Mike |
#18
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air conditioning- nice, required, or silly?
Thomas Borchert wrote:
I think the power/useful load/cost trade-off doesn't make sense for most situations, including NOrtheeastern summers and single-engine pistons. Also, many of the planes that offer AC as an option can be and are flown high, so heat isn't an issue for long anyway. But, as always, it's a question of what your mission is. The problem is that many northeast airports are very busy and have long taxi times. I've spent 30 minutes on the taxiway at Philly, Washington National (pre 9/11 obviously), and Boston. On a 95 F day, this is extremely unpleasant, even with the windows open (one nice 182 advantage). Matt |
#19
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air conditioning- nice, required, or silly?
On Sun, 08 Jul 2007 13:10:44 GMT, Matt Whiting
wrote: The problem is that many northeast airports are very busy and have long taxi times. I've spent 30 minutes on the taxiway at Philly, Washington National (pre 9/11 obviously), and Boston. On a 95 F day, this is extremely unpleasant, even with the windows open (one nice 182 advantage). Philly, Wash, Boston? No need to go there! I've spent 30 minutes on the ground at Martha's Vineyard, New Bedford, and Danbury. |
#20
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air conditioning- nice, required, or silly?
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. |
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