Citabria heater to hot

brcase

brcase

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Brian
A friend of mine just purchased a '75 Citabria 7GCBC.
The heater on it, even when off warms the cabin almost to extremes.
I know Citabria front seat tends to be warm in the summer but this one seems extreme.
Yesterday it was so hot he couldn't keep his foot on the left pedal in low cruise flight.
We verified the heater valve is completely closed, but looking at the system we can see how it vents hot air against the firewall in such a way that firewall probably gets quite warm.

Anyone else seen this issue or fixes?

Brian
 
It's pretty much standard for Champs/Citabria's......the 'hot-left-foot' syndrome. Too hot to keep your foot on the pedal seems extreme, however. We fly when temps are in the 90's in the summer time (using both pedals) on our 7ECA. In the extreme winter time, your left foot is the only thing toasty warm :)

FYI...American Champion has parts to convert the partially-opening left window to fold fully up against the wing. There's also an STC for flying with the door off.
Jim
 
Jim Rosenow said:
There's also an STC for flying with the door off.
Jim
Click to expand...

Is that a paper STC or are there actual modifications made?

FWIW I fly a 1996 7GCBC and have never noticed my feet getting warm at all (unless the heater is on).
 
Mtns2Skies said:
Is that a paper STC or are there actual modifications made?

FWIW I fly a 1996 7GCBC and have never noticed my feet getting warm at all (unless the heater is on).
Click to expand...

Just paperwork....limits the airspeed. You can find it with a Google search.

Jim
 
Well it just takes outside air and flows it past the hot exhaust, I'm sure you could ether allow more outside air into the system, or increase the size of the shroud around the exhaust, maybe make a few holes in it to help balance out the heat?
 
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