Another Vote for Heated Clothing

Toobuilder · #1 12-30-2011, 02:06 PM

The times that my wife and I would fly the -8 in cold weather would usually end up with her freezing, my left foot on fire, and both of us wishing for something better. Considering both the poor heater performance as well as the impressive electrical power of this particular -8, I decided to remove all the heater equipment and place my stock in heated clothing. It was a good choice. While our trip over to Phoenix this week was hardly an example of "severe" weather, we did find that the lightweight electric clothing kept us nice and toasty. We're only running a lightweight vest and heated insoles. It seems that keeping your core and feet warm is really all we need in an airplane.

It's a whole lot easier, lighter, more reliable and safer to run a couple wires to a power outlet than installing the exhaust driven heater.

Anyway, big thumbs up for this mod. All my airplanes are going to be like this from here out.

KatieB · #2 12-30-2011, 02:46 PM

Where did you get your heated clothing? That's a great idea. Our Christmas trip to WI in the 8 gave new meaning to "frozen buns."

Ironflight · #3 12-30-2011, 05:07 PM

We went with a similar idea in the -3B - heated seat cushions. We'll have to look into those heated insoles for the back-seater in the -8. Solar heating takes care of the upper body (for us), but it is hard to heat the feet.....

Toobuilder · #4 12-30-2011, 05:34 PM

This gear is avalable all over the web. In this case, the vest is from Tourmaster, and the insoles are from Cozy Winters.

I thought about the heated seats, but ultimately decided that it would be nice to switch from airplane to airplane with only a single investment - like headsets or portable GPS. Also, when not needed, the clothing stays safe in the closet. I don't know what the failure mode of heated seats is, but stepping on them day in day out can't be good. If you DO go with just the insoles Paul, make sure you have some way to control the power. With the vest, there is a high, medium, low position which runs everything connected to it... but straight 12 volts off the ship will be "full blast" and they will get hot!

RV10Man · #5 12-30-2011, 06:59 PM

We've been using heated clothing on the motorcycles for years. We use Gerbings.

I was riding home from a dinner ride one night. The OAT was 8 deg F. with a 40 mph nw wind. I really don't know what the wind chill was at 70 mph, but I had on my heated gear, gloves, jacket liner and pant liner. I actually had to turn down the thermostat, I was getting too warm.

Marshall Alexnader

Lars · #6 12-30-2011, 08:24 PM

I bought my first article of electric clothing, an Eclipse electric vest, for cold weather motorcycling back in 1981 or so. Turned cold weather riding from a miserable (at best) experience into just another ride. As RV10Man noted, electric gear works as advertised, though with a sport bike with small fairing (and relatively little extra avoirdupois) I tend to relish every calorie that my current Firstgear jacket liner can produce.

My -7 has two accessory (AKA cigarette lighter) outlets on the panel for the express reason of being able to use said jacket liner while flying.

Another good source is www.aerostich.com, probably well-known to the bikers on this forum.