roof vent

[alun]

does anyone have one that works.  mine looks like it was painted shut.   it gets a bit hot with only the storm vent and the twirly air vent by pilots leg even with this typical british summer.

a british summer....   i hear that they have been renamed muslim summers.  occasionally sunni but mainly she-ite.

[The-sky-captain]

All of my vents work and it takes every one of them to keep me cool in the crazy heat and humidity around here. POH mentions not to use the roof vent at high airspeeds because it may cause buffeting. I've never felt this, but like Jim I usually don't open it full bore in cruise. Gotta love the 152's where you can open up the entire window and hang an arm out like the you are riding in the old farm truck. Maybe that's because you are going roughly the same speed:)

[N207LS]

All of vents work now, but it's still hot in the Florida summer.  I had to replace the cable due to it breaking and it was a much bigger project than I thought.  The cable was available from the factory, but getting to it to replace it took a lot of time (as well as putting everthing back in place).  Also, if I were to do it again, I would consider buying a cable at Home Depot and cutting it myself, as the one that I got from the factory was nothing very special that I couldn't have bought for about $150 less at my local hardware store. 

As far as opening it in flight, I regularly keep mine wide open when I fly with about a 1-2 mph loss, but a nice breeze. 

Aaron

[Lood]

Quote: The-sky-captain

All of my vents work and it takes every one of them to keep me cool in the crazy heat and humidity around here. POH mentions not to use the roof vent at high airspeeds because it may cause buffeting. I've never felt this, but like Jim I usually don't open it full bore in cruise. Gotta love the 152's where you can open up the entire window and hang an arm out like the you are riding in the old farm truck. Maybe that's because you are going roughly the same speed:)

[eaglebkh]

I had problems with my roof vent at first because the painter sprayed right over the screen in the vent, reducing the cross-sectional area down to about 50%.  So I just cut the screen off.  I cruise with the vent wide open, because partially closing it mean less air flow - never experienced "buffeting".

I also fly with a home-made air conditioner I constructed out of a cooler, fans, bilge pump and heater cores.  Works quite nice - I would never want an installed A/C unit.

[KSMooniac]

Brandon, could you share some details (and costs) for your home-made A/C unit please?  I'm interested in doing that as well...and your point about the installed A/C is spot-on.  You can remove the portable unit in the winter or if more payload is needed, not to mention it costs almost nothing compared to the installed version!

[eaglebkh]

Scott, see new topic in "General" forum...

[alun]

does anyone know the best place for any of the roof vent parts.  i am going to pry my painted vent open and have a go at fixing it.

thanks!

alun

[defrkm20j]

Hi Alun, mine works just great

 

Axel

[The-sky-captain]

Try an airplane boneyard. I have gotten a few small items like a window latch, emergency gear plastic and fuel selector plastic from a place here in Clinton, Arkansas. Ironically it came off of a Mooney that I was originaly supposed to purchase but but the ferry pilot ran out of gas on final. Needless to say my pre buy caught a little more than I felt comfortable with:)

[alun]

I don't think there are any near me but we'll see what happens. 

 

[MooneyMitch]

www.dodsonaviation.com  I have had very good success with Ted at Dodson. 

[FlyDave]

Alun,

Another boneyard is Wentworth:

http://www.wentworthaircraft.com/home.htm

They have tons of stuff. I've bought from them twice (including $250 for the "new" (meaning 1975) style fuel caps for my Cherokee).

Good Luck!!!!

[N207LS]

Most likely your cable is broken and that is why it does not work properly.  Once you access the cable, remove the old cable and go to a local Home Depot (or hardware store) and buy a new cable.  It will take you much longer to access the cable, then it will to replace the actual product. 

Aaron

[alun]

thanks Aaron.  I will need to break the vent first and see what happens.  If we get nothing then i guess we start pulling panels off!

[butchgilbert]

Alun,

Once you replace the wire that controls the dorsal vent, be VERY careful opening and closing it. Too much torque and you'll disconnect the or break the wire and have to start all over (learned by experience). Be gentle with it.

Butch Gilbert

N6902V 1975 M20F.

[David Mazer]

I have an Arctic Air portable AC and it works great in FL.  I can count on a 15-25 degree temperature drop when I use it.  Dealing with the ice can be a pain but the ability to remove it is great.  I had a special aluminum bucket made to the right size and I pre-freeze a block of ice and then pack the remaining space with cubes.  That gives me over an hour of cooling and that is usually plenty because, once at altitude, I can turn it off in cruise and just use it for taxi, takeoff, descent, and landing.  Probably a lot easier to buy a commercially available unit than make one yourself.  However, I substantially altered mine by replacing the 500 gph pump with an 800 gph pump and replaced the .25 in tubing to .5 in.  All in all, it works much better this way and the cost to upgrade was about $40-$50 depending on the bilge pump.