How warm is the heater in a 172?

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Jacques
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How warm is the heater in a 172?

Post by Jacques »

I live in Oregon, and I see student pilots from the Hillsboro Flight Academy ( near Portland) out at all times of the day and into the night. Tonight is a beautiful cloudless night. The stars are brilliant and the winds are very light. I saw this red beacon flashing as I went to the grocery. I checked with flightaware when I returned, and the pilot has been up since around 4:40p. It is now 8:30, and it is 2C.

So how comfortable is that pilot? In general how warm is the heater in a 172?

The pilots path was from Hillsboro to Astoria where the Columbia meets the Pacific, down the coast to Newport, inland to Corvallis for some pattern work and touch and go's, then back North up the Willamette Valley towards Hillsboro.

I'm more than a little jealous...what a perfect night for a flight, even if it is a little cold.

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CAPFlyer
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Re: How warm is the heater in a 172?

Post by CAPFlyer »

It works decently enough. It's an extremely simple system - simply a "muff" that surrounds the exhaust manifold and heats air being forced through it and into the cabin. There is no fan or anything, so on the ground it's a bit anemic at low power settings as the prop doesn't force enough air into the inlet (in the cowling) to really make it work. I've flown in a C-172 at -20*F and needed to take off a layer of clothing to keep from sweating, so it works well enough. Remember though that there's also not a lot of room to take off/put on layers so having a good heater isn't always the best thing. :)

I will say that I still tend to prefer it over the other option on light aircraft - the Janitrol. While the Janitrol is extremely effective, it's also (in its simplest terms) just like turning on a gas stove in your house to heat it - it burns raw 100LL to generate heat that is transferred (via muff) to the air being moved past it via a fan. While this means it works great on the ground and you don't technically have to have the engines running (although your battery will suffer unless you have a GPU connected), it also means that you have a potential bomb/fire in your airplane that can (and has) go off and cause a lot of problems for you.
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MarcE
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Re: How warm is the heater in a 172?

Post by MarcE »

it's VERY warm and you are lucky if you have a 172 where your heater is properly adjustable like in the A2A version. I used to fly in an older 172 that had a more "digital" heater... when it was pulled it was hot inside (there's not much room in a 172. it looks a lot bigger on the Sim than it really is, you sit shoulder by shoulder and have the knees of your rear passengers in your back..) and it's not isolated. So if you push it off it will freeze in 2 minutes :D We normally flew wearing a sweater in winter and opened it as little as possible. But most of the time around 0°C/30°F we just used the windshield defroster.

Newer Cessnas might be better at this. ^^

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Oracle427
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Re: How warm is the heater in a 172?

Post by Oracle427 »

While the 172 is narrow, I have never find it to have tio little legroom. I can usually stretch my legs out quite a bit when sitting in the back. The exception might be if the pilot is over 6 feet tall as had to have the seat positioned back a ways.

The find the cabin heat to be extremely effective. I have yet to run into a situation where I need the heat opened more than halfway unless I want to slowly roast my passengers.

The adjustment is not quite linear with most of the variability in the first inch or so of travel. The last inch just seems to be somewhere between volcano hot and surface of the sun. :)

Older airframes tend to be very drafty so while the heat is effective, there is a lot of cool air coming in to replace it. You also must consider that it is wise to wear the proper amount of clothing for an emergency, so everyone tends to be very bundled up in layers. Good times!
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AKar
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Re: How warm is the heater in a 172?

Post by AKar »

I'd agree about Janitrol heaters (and equivalent combustion heaters). I have always been suspicious of them, and find them somewhat scary. Not to mention that they tend to have all kinds of interesting maintenance requirements thrown at them. They are used in twins. Because of difficulties in routing any warm air hoses from the engines on the wings, me understands.

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Jacques
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Re: How warm is the heater in a 172?

Post by Jacques »

Doesn't sound like I need to worry about them anymore. Thanks for the answers!

bullfox
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Re: How warm is the heater in a 172?

Post by bullfox »

I notice that in below freezing weather the Comanche heater won't heat the cabin to more than cool.
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Re: How warm is the heater in a 172?

Post by n421nj »

In real life it is hot
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pjc747
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Re: How warm is the heater in a 172?

Post by pjc747 »

It should be more than enough heat for the temperatures of the Pacific Northwest. In general, single engine planes like Cessnas are easily kept warm in most normal use conditions than a twin, for instance. The heater in addition to the ambient heat is more than enough.

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Re: How warm is the heater in a 172?

Post by pjc747 »

Sorry for duplicate
Last edited by pjc747 on 12 Dec 2017, 18:38, edited 1 time in total.

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BrianW
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Re: How warm is the heater in a 172?

Post by BrianW »

Like Oracle said it depends on the the aircraft, older 172’s with the stock wing root vents are impossible to completely close. I distinctly remember one flight I made from KRNT to KYKM on a cold winter day, where I had the heat knob pulled out all the way at 9000’. I was fine until I made a turn that put the cabin in the shade, it wasn’t too long after that that I could see my breath. Fortunately at that point I was at TOD anyway so I didn’t have to put up with it that long.

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