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More Cabin Heat

Posted: Sat Jan 06, 2018 4:18 pm
by gordsh
Yesterday I flew my plane from CZBA to CYXU in negative 28 deg Celsius temps, which was the coldest I have ever been inside of and outside of my aircraft. Off course as you would expect I had the cabin heat on - left lever set to "heating on" and center (air distribution) lever set to the middle position to split the air flow between floor and canopy. I could feel some heat but not enough. Lets just say a longer flight would be unbearable. I did install the yellow engine cold weather baffle to the oil cooler intake.

Is there anything that I can do to increase the amount of heat that comes into the cabin like taping off any of the vents on the exterior?

Re: More Cabin Heat

Posted: Sat Jan 06, 2018 5:19 pm
by smoss
there is a winter baffle also for the air inlet under the pilot side wing root. It helps tremendously! It blocks airflow to the back and top vents (which is all an open connected system) which stops all the cold air from leaking out from the throttle quadrant and under the seats. If you have the oil cooler one, you should also have the wing one.

Re: More Cabin Heat

Posted: Sat Jan 06, 2018 7:01 pm
by H60 pilot
For the baffles mentioned above: http://support.diamond-air.at/fileadmin ... ncl-WI.pdf

Also, the DA40 operating temperature is not less than -20°C (-4°F) per 6.16.1, the winter oil cooler baffle does not change this. Not casting shade on your cold weather flying, just suggesting we consider all the effects of operating below the aircraft's OAT limitation, beyond that of just poor cabin heating.

Re: More Cabin Heat

Posted: Sat Jan 06, 2018 7:04 pm
by Rich
Assuming there are no rear-seat passengers (or if there are and you don't care for them) try blocking off the rear-seat heat ducts to force more air into the front heat ducts and defrost ducts.

Re: More Cabin Heat

Posted: Sat Jan 06, 2018 7:15 pm
by Pascal
Is a DA20 or DA40 alternator strong enough to power an aftermaket 12 volt automotive heated cushion? How about two?

https://www.walmart.ca/en/ip/12v-heated ... 0140916505

Re: More Cabin Heat

Posted: Sat Jan 06, 2018 7:17 pm
by Rich
H60 pilot wrote: Also, the DA40 operating temperature is not less than -20°C (-4°F) per 6.16.1, the winter oil cooler baffle does not change this. Not casting shade on your cold weather flying, just suggesting we consider all the effects of operating below the aircraft's OAT limitation, beyond that of just poor cabin heating.
My POH says -40. And that's "prior to operation", for whatever reason.

Edit: Now I see. Really old manuals do show -20C. But this has since been revised.

Re: More Cabin Heat

Posted: Sat Jan 06, 2018 8:07 pm
by gordsh
Hi Rich, my POH says -40 as well ....and I read it before I flew the airplane which is how I new about the cold weather baffle to the oil cooler intake.

Thanks Mick but I did consider if it was below the aircraft's OAT limitation and I would not have flown the plane in -28 irresponsibly. Thanks every one for the suggestions, I will give them a try.

Re: More Cabin Heat

Posted: Sat Jan 06, 2018 10:22 pm
by H60 pilot
Appreciate the correction, I've been using the manual dated 01FEB2001. I wonder what other limitations I've been incorrectly observing? I've got 09DEC2004 now, there's that upper limitation I thought was so strangely missing!

Re: More Cabin Heat

Posted: Sat Jan 06, 2018 10:33 pm
by Hans
There is a piece of orange 2” hose ... it’s about 4”Long and connects the “heating wrap” around the muffler directly to the vent box into the cabin. Its an angular connection that is a poor design .Mine had some “wear” in it and I replaced it...that seemed to help...you can view it by looking up under the strut on the front wheel

Re: More Cabin Heat

Posted: Sat Jan 06, 2018 10:51 pm
by Rich
H60 pilot wrote:Appreciate the correction, I've been using the manual dated 01FEB2001. I wonder what other limitations I've been incorrectly observing? I've got 09DEC2004 now, there's that upper limitation I thought was so strangely missing!
There's a much newer one you could grab from the Diamond site. I use the 2014 (revision 9).