Ac
- Thread starter landon18
- Start date
455 Bravo Uniform
Final Approach
If at your home base and in the hangar, you could rig something up and expect it to work ok vs in the sun on the ramp or portable.
First I’d custom build an aluminum box “funnel” that would be riveted or screwed to the front face of the AC unit and connect it to a male round hard duct stub. Then a dryer hose to the round.
That dryer hose would then be connected to another custom made unit with a male duct on one end and a custom way to attach it to the plane. Depending on the model, you’d have some choices: the baggage door, vent window, side window, etc. That typical low-wing pilot side vent window would be easiest…heck you could just jam that soft dryer duct in there and be done. High wing window, or a baggage door would take some fab.
First I’d custom build an aluminum box “funnel” that would be riveted or screwed to the front face of the AC unit and connect it to a male round hard duct stub. Then a dryer hose to the round.
That dryer hose would then be connected to another custom made unit with a male duct on one end and a custom way to attach it to the plane. Depending on the model, you’d have some choices: the baggage door, vent window, side window, etc. That typical low-wing pilot side vent window would be easiest…heck you could just jam that soft dryer duct in there and be done. High wing window, or a baggage door would take some fab.
For some EMS helicopter ops we would put your average window unit in a kids wagon, mfgr a plenum from aluminum to capture the cold air out the front duct, then attach several SCAT hoses to the plenum which fed the air into the cabin area via the door vent windows.
For $110 you can get a 5000BTU AC from W-mart, fab a duct adapter and pocket the difference.
We tried out a portable EcoFlow Wave 2 in the plane and it worked decent enough despite the space it took up.
Ran the drain to an existing drain hole and vented it out the empennage. Ended up being a lot of work for limited reward.
Kiddo's Driver
Pattern Altitude
Duct tape & cardboard.
Standard for A&P shops all over the south.
Standard window AC sitting on a shop cart with cardboard taped on the cold air out to form a transition to a duct.
Add a duct fan if you feel fancy.
Standard for A&P shops all over the south.
Standard window AC sitting on a shop cart with cardboard taped on the cold air out to form a transition to a duct.
Add a duct fan if you feel fancy.
Interesting. But never had that problem in any of the airplanes or helicopters we did that with and we're talking temps in the 90s/100s and 90+% humidity and regardless if it was parked in a hangar or out on the line.
Now let's not get overly dramatic.
Had some minor condensation issues, forming on the metal gaspers and occasionally dripping on pax on very hot and humid days, until the temperatures equalized and humidity dropped.
But... they wanted gold plated gaspers and other hardware in the cabin, comes with a few drawbacks. They didn't want the plastic ones.
With the aircraft system running sure. But never had an issue on the ground with an external air condition unit plumbed into the cabin with SCAT tubing as discussed above.