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Building Integrity
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Date:  12-6-2017
Number of Hours:  3.00
Manual Reference:  ch 24
Brief Description:  Pilot fresh air vent relocation

For the first 200hrs of this airplanes life, I've had a pitot static system with almost no errors at all. Speeds were calibrated and accurate, but the IAS would intermittently be "jumpy". For the life of me I could not figure it out until one day I was flying along and noticed that my Autopilot would be steady in pitch until I closed my air vent. It then made perfect sense what was happening.
I originally installed my fresh air vent forward and above the static air port thinking it was well out of the way and would not interfere with the airflow over the static vent. I was wrong. I decide then that relocating the vent, although not a fun task, was very neccessary as I didn't plan to fight my AP anymore.
Today I decided to go for it and cut out the vent. I was going to just fill it in and install a new one in a different location, but I could not find a 1.5" naca duct ANYWHERE. NO one sells them and the company I bought them from went out of business. Well that means busting out the ol Fein Tool. After cutting it out and leaving a gaping hole in my nose, I cleaned up the naca itself and filled in some interior imperfections with Z-Grip, then shot it with filler primer. The airflow through the vent has always been great, but more is always better for those HOT slow IAS days.
I decided to install the vent on the floor in front of my pedals and just aft of FS7. I have ample room for routing the hose here, but more importantly the airflow on climbout will be much better than before. In fact, during climb out in the past, I would have to lower the nose to get airflow through the naca. Now it will be a ram air vent at high alpha. Perfect.
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Naca located upstream of the static port

Naca located upstream of the static port

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the grand canyon cutout

the grand canyon cutout

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Vent prep

Vent prep

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