Really struggle with temperature control
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I don’t understand how my instruments can get so hot that I have to keep the blower on in flight, even while my cabin and cockpit temps are dropping precipitously. I was flying at 36000’ over Alaska with an OAT of -52°F and my instruments still needed the blower. I have watched the YouTube video on cooling and heating the cabin many times but still cannot figure out what I am setting incorrectly. Any advice is much appreciated. TIA
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Agree - I've developed some tricks to attempt to keep things from melting, but the manual doesn't seem to back all of this as being necessary, such as:
- Keep the airstair open until I've been able to get the air running off of at least one engine.
- Turn on the blower ASAP and never turn it off.
- Start bleed air off the right engine before starting the left engine so that I can run the blowers and set lower temps as early as possible.
Any other ideas appreciated.
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I agree with that, if I needed to cool the cabin. Problem is, I need to warm the cabin and it won’t hold temperature at higher altitudes. Also, while I can’t heat the cabin up there, I can’t cool the instruments. Meanwhile my cabin can’t hold temp and the highest i can get it is 60°F while the instruments need the blower the whole time. They should have made a system to blow the heat from the instruments into the cockpit and cabin.
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I agree with that, if I needed to cool the cabin. Problem is, I need to warm the cabin and it won’t hold temperature at higher altitudes. Also, while I can’t heat the cabin up there, I can’t cool the instruments. Meanwhile my cabin can’t hold temp and the highest i can get it is 60°F while the instruments need the blower the whole time. They should have made a system to blow the heat from the instruments into the cockpit and cabin.
@dadgametime you’ll need to change the bleed air selector to High (turn all the way to the right). That will be the only way to keep the cabin warm at higher altitudes.
I’ve been flying the Starship since release and never had the avionics get too hot and I haven’t even been using the alternate blower. Are your avionics actually shutting down in flight/throwing overheat warnings? -
@dadgametime you’ll need to change the bleed air selector to High (turn all the way to the right). That will be the only way to keep the cabin warm at higher altitudes.
I’ve been flying the Starship since release and never had the avionics get too hot and I haven’t even been using the alternate blower. Are your avionics actually shutting down in flight/throwing overheat warnings?@Iconography I'm going to guess he's looking at the tablet temps which aren't visible IRL.
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The only limitation I'm aware of in the Airplane Flight Manual is this:
AVIONICS Ground operation of integrated avionics with cabin temperature exceeding 95°F shall be limited to 30 minutes.
I read this as: cabin air up to 95 degrees is cool enough to maintain the avionics (don't forget there are intakes from outside air, too)
If you're not getting red boxed "DISPLAY TEMP" warnings, don't worry about it too much. I've glanced at the tablet at times cruising the flight levels and seen the avionics bay up around 100-110 Fahrenheit plenty but I've yet to see them shut off on me. On the ground on a warm day I run the blower but I also tend to operate out of the PNW and we have pretty mild summers where I am.
This is the curse of knowing, I think: in the real aircraft you don't have a readout telling you what the avionics bay temperature is, Nick is just demonstrating the simulation with the tablet pages (which are super cool).
Think of it this way: if you do have a display overheat, it's a great excuse to use the many reversionary controls
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The only limitation I'm aware of in the Airplane Flight Manual is this:
AVIONICS Ground operation of integrated avionics with cabin temperature exceeding 95°F shall be limited to 30 minutes.
I read this as: cabin air up to 95 degrees is cool enough to maintain the avionics (don't forget there are intakes from outside air, too)
If you're not getting red boxed "DISPLAY TEMP" warnings, don't worry about it too much. I've glanced at the tablet at times cruising the flight levels and seen the avionics bay up around 100-110 Fahrenheit plenty but I've yet to see them shut off on me. On the ground on a warm day I run the blower but I also tend to operate out of the PNW and we have pretty mild summers where I am.
This is the curse of knowing, I think: in the real aircraft you don't have a readout telling you what the avionics bay temperature is, Nick is just demonstrating the simulation with the tablet pages (which are super cool).
Think of it this way: if you do have a display overheat, it's a great excuse to use the many reversionary controls
@ComputerJones I would say this message is definitely on the right track. Just since I haven't mentioned this anywhere else yet, the avionics will being to start shutting down in the neighborhood of 150°F. Some a little cooler, and some substantially higher. They all have their own random variation and tolerance based on where they are located behind the panel, relative to other avionics, and relative to the cooling ducts.
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Ugh that is super freaking cool (hot?) makes me wanna push it to failure!
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@ComputerJones I would say this message is definitely on the right track. Just since I haven't mentioned this anywhere else yet, the avionics will being to start shutting down in the neighborhood of 150°F. Some a little cooler, and some substantially higher. They all have their own random variation and tolerance based on where they are located behind the panel, relative to other avionics, and relative to the cooling ducts.
@Black-Square the avionics bay was still quite a bit below 150°F the other day when I turned on the avionics. The PFD was dead.
I had started the engines just a few minutes before along with all blowers but I couldn't even get a complete panel. I hadn't even started to taxi so I simply exited, reloaded the flight and all went OK with the restart. That has only happened one time.
One thing that has really affected this, I believe, is that climate change has certainly made a difference. The ambient temperatures that we've been experiencing for this time of year are averaging quite a bit above anything I've experienced in my 7 plus decades. I can recall some pretty warm cockpits on hot days back in my flying days, but it must be a lot worse today.
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I have been wondering what is considered nominal temps for the behind panel area. It seems to always be in the red in normal conditions, which makes you feel like you need to have the aux fan on all the time, but it sounds like temps of 120+ are actually considered fine?
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Tips I've found if you want to keep your avionics bays as cool as possible.
Turn on the ALTN and leave it on.
As soon as you have the engines lit:
Bleed air valves to Both
Temp mode to Auto
CKPT and CABIN Blowers all the way up
Turn the CKPT temp all the way down (the inner knob)
Set the Cabin temp so that the Temp Mode Target on the Cabin page on the tablet shows 70 degrees or whatever you want the cabin temp to be.turn on the lights master and turn down the displays (less heat)
You can have those bays in the green most of the time doing those things.
If your cabin temp won't stay with the set temp (Temp mode target on the Cabin page on the tablet will turn red) then turn the bleed air valves up to High Flow.