In Cabin AC
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I live in Phoenix Az, and I spend a lot of time flying in the American Southwest.
Today the outside temp was 103 (low by our standards) and the AC could not overcome the temp.
During the summer day time temps rang from a low of 85/95 to highs ranging from 102/120OAT = 103
Cabin temp = 118
full ACno failures...
Can we get a little boost in AC effectiveness?
thx
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Welcome to general aviation :) Most of us only have the big fan up front for air conditioning, so having AC at all is quite the luxury.
Looking at the code, in those conditions, you should be able to achieve a cabin temperature of 78°F on the ground. Did you have your right engine running a little faster to engage the compressor clutch? You can see the status of the air conditioning on the environmental page of the tablet interface. If the compressor is running, you will see it spinning with a green background.
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Maybe I misinterpreted the Environmental video. I thought it said Cabin Air was the 1st step in air conditioning. Will verify that.
I quote "When operating the aircraft on the ground in pleasant weather or when unpressurized you must pull out the Cabin Air handle."
I guess 103f is not pleasant weather. :-)
Summer is just starting I guess I will be able to practice a bunch!
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That's absolutely correct! Great analogy!
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No, those only control the flow of conditioned air (possibly only heated air, I would have to check the diagrams in the maintenance manual) towards the pilot/copilot.
If you look on the tablet, you can see the action of the cabin air knob, which should help explain what it does. It's the butterfly valve to the left of the text "Vent Blower". It admits outside air into the cabin air plenum, but only when on the ground, or unpressurized. Some aircraft, like the TBM 850, label this valve "Emergency Ram Air". When the aircraft is pressurized, a check valve (also visualized) closes, preventing pressurized air from leaving the plenum through the ram air inlet.
This is covered in my environmental control systems overview video, by the way. Come to think of it, I think that's what @meh1951 was quoting from above, haha.
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@Black-Square said in In Cabin AC:
This is covered in my environmental control systems overview video, by the way.
Excellent videos!!
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@Black-Square - I’d watched that video before, but hadn’t really dissected it since at the time the Duke was not yet available. I rewatched it after your post, and it was indeed very useful, even though it didn’t talk specifically about the pilot and copilot air knobs. The most useful thing about the video for me was realizing that moving those knobs in the cockpit was actually turning valves and such in the tablet display … I had not realized it was showing that level of detail. That led me to look a lot closer at the tablet the next time I was in the plane, and THAT was more educational than I’d ever have guessed. Turns out I’d been doing the wrong things with almost all of those environmental pull knobs, and on my next flight managing the environment finally became pretty straightforward. I love the fact that learning the plane requires this degree of slow and steady progression. It’s awesome stuff, exactly what I’d hoped for. The Grand Duke (piston) is hands down my favorite MSFS plane now.
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Absolutely wonderful! Thank you so much for sharing your progression. As you may have seen me say elsewhere, I had hoped the tablet would be a learning too, first and foremost. Hearing that I succeeded really makes my day :)
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