DA40 Air conditioning

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Expand view Topic review: DA40 Air conditioning

Re: DA40 Air conditioning

by gordsh » Sun Dec 30, 2018 2:22 am

My annual was completed between the Diamond Aircraft Factory in London Ontario and XU Aviation (also at the CYXU) in summer 2018. I was told that a PROPER annual requires removing a part of the A/C which in-tun requires discharging the system for a proper inspection. This came from the factory not XU. The factory completed that part of the annual and XU completed the rest. My invoice from the factory portion of my bill showed $500 Canadian (before taxes) for A/C Refrigerant recharge. This does not include the inspection portion of the annual completed by the factory! All in all I love my Cabin Cool system and as mentioned before my airplane was the first to have the revised STC controller

Re: DA40 Air conditioning

by ZAV » Fri Dec 28, 2018 9:28 pm

I had my annual in the DA40 with cabin cool a/c. All that was done was a leak test, filter change, and mounting bracket check. It wasn’t $500.

Re: DA40 Air conditioning

by Thaddeus M » Fri Dec 28, 2018 7:34 pm

I also must ask... Why does the refrigerant have to be removed for the annual ? does the unit need to be moved for access to something ? Is there something in the Regs ? And did anyone else have this issue ?? Thanks

Re: DA40 Air conditioning

by Thaddeus M » Fri Dec 28, 2018 2:16 pm

Hi Shawn, Just a FYI on the cost of R134a... a 30# tank cost $90.00 US.. I'm not sure how much your system hold but I would guess no more than 10#...also the refrigerant that was originally in the system should be reclaimed and reused.
It does not go bad (unless it became contaminated..but that would be a separate issue..) or weaken or lose any effectiveness. So really the $500 was labor..

Re: DA40 Air conditioning

by Karl » Thu Aug 30, 2018 6:05 am

Colin wrote:(I've started to think that passenger jets should do that from the gate. Get the tug to get them to the taxiway just prior to runway. Then the sit and do engine start as the congo line feeds departures. There's got to be a fuel price where that starts to make sense.)
That was proposed for airliners a few years ago, would save tons of fuel.

Re: DA40 Air conditioning

by Colin » Wed Aug 29, 2018 6:21 pm

(I've started to think that passenger jets should do that from the gate. Get the tug to get them to the taxiway just prior to runway. Then the sit and do engine start as the congo line feeds departures. There's got to be a fuel price where that starts to make sense.)

Re: DA40 Air conditioning

by Colin » Wed Aug 29, 2018 6:20 pm

Dave, (to further the thread drift) That is a gorgeous looking tug. Is it faster enough that you could use it to pull the plane down past the 90 degree turns? Then one person could run it back to the hangar while the other is pre-flighting.

Re: DA40 Air conditioning

by CFIDave » Wed Aug 29, 2018 2:23 pm

I just took delivery of a new Best Tugs tug (Bravo model) to move my DA62 in and out of a T-hangar. It has a built-in GPU (based on 4 car batteries internal to the tug) that delivers enough 28V power (75 amps) to run the DA62's all-electric air conditioning on the ground. So now I can pre-cool my plane before engine start!

Original topic: In my experience, the add-on Cabin Cool system installed on DA40s and DA42s works very well, with the downside that the scoop (with heat exchanger) under the plane's belly creates sufficient drag to slow the plane down by about 5 knots or so.

In contrast, Diamond's built-in factory air conditioning for DA40NG, DA42-VI, and DA62s is challenged to beat the heat on hot humid days. But the good news is that this system doesn't create a performance penalty, since there's no external scoop -- instead, there are 2 ports in the fuselage for air intake/exhaust to an internally-mounted heat exchanger. One could argue that Diamond's built-in AC actually makes these aircraft faster, since it shifts the CG further aft to counter the weight of the Austro engines.

Re: DA40 Air conditioning

by gordsh » Tue Aug 28, 2018 11:14 pm

I surely did appreciate my a/c today at 3500 feet in the local practice area practicing slow flight ad stalls. We were practicing for over an hour an it was not quite high enough to be cool or fast enough for some incoming ram air. I kept the A/C on the entire time and it was nice. My instructor said he was dreading having to go fly with other students in the flight school non a/c planes. He asked if I could book him for the entire rest of summer! LOL.

Re: DA40 Air conditioning

by Colin » Tue Aug 28, 2018 9:01 pm

That's just what every FBO should have. I'd pay $40 to do that. Foosh, cool plane. Everyone get in. They don't even think about it under we've landed and it's sort of warm again.

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