Electric Cabin Heat

[39cubcoupe]

I flew quite often in extremely cold weather below 15f. I had heat muff cabin heat. Did it help? A little.
But in reality, most trips in this cold were not more than an 1 hr in the air. I dressed warm, long johns, extra socks, good gloves. Worked just fine. Heated body suits etc were not needed. If I was going to be up for longer x country trips all the time, than yes I would look into heated clothes but, heck, most of us are not up much more than an hour or so in nice weather, probably not going to be up there for hours in cold weather. If you can fly in cold with the sun in your canopy, that makes a huge difference. If the Sunnis behind cloud layer and its 10f. It gets cold fast.
If I would have blocked off the rear fuselage with some cardboard cut to fit I think the muff heat would actually worked good.
Jan G


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[DCASonex]

Camit machine (a.k.a. Camit Aero Engines) the folks that actually made parts for and assembled the Jabiru Engines have a bolt on 40 amp alternator for the Jab 2200 and 3300 engines that can be used in addition to or in place of the stock flywheel alternator. In addition to putting out enough power to keep one nice and warm with plug in suits, it is more like an automotive alternator in that it produces power at lower RPMs while warming up and taxiing on the ground. Worth a look if contemplating heated seats or clothing.

David A.

[hickej]

My heat muff has only shown itself to be good down to 55 degrees at night (e.g. no sun to warm the cockpit). I still have a lot of air coming in from the wing roots that I'm working on. I am going to try to add an additional small heat muff to double the heat production and see how it goes. So far, the solution has been good for night flights in the San Diego area but is certainly not good enough for colder climates.
-Jim Hicke W0162