How does the Air Conditioning work, for use in places like Dallas and Phoenix?

T

Pretty well. This has the newest A/C design from RAS. While it’s not as good as a new Cirrus is (those A/Cs are amazing), it’s pretty good, and the cabin volume is a lot larger. If you keep the shades down, use foils on the cockpit windows, and pre-cool before boarding in the summer you’ll be comfortable from boarding up to altitude. If you let the heat get ahead of it, it won’t cool down until you get to 15-20k feet.

There are two versions of the air conditioning pallet that can be installed on the Eclipse. Matt will have to speak to the one on his airplane. One is supposed to work better, but the other seems to break less.

I can’t really tell much difference between the two. For PHX and Dallas in the summer, if I want the airplane to be relatively cool(er) for my passenger, I have to run the system on a GPU for an hour to cool the interior down with all the window shades in. Even then it may only be 25 degrees cooler inside than outside.

If it’s a hot summer day in PHX though, you may easily find yourself up against performance rather than air conditioning limitations. On a 120F day in Phoenix, the 6,000 lb max gross Eclipse becomes a 5,500 MTOW airplane.

When I do low altitude training in the Eclipse in the Phoenix area such as shooting approaches and the like, leaving the bleed air off helps a lot.

Once airborne on a cross country, there aren’t any issues.

There are two versions of the air conditioning pallet that can be installed on the Eclipse. Matt will have to speak to the one on his airplane. One is supposed to work better, but the other seems to break less.

I can’t really tell much difference between the two. For PHX and Dallas in the summer, if I want the airplane to be relatively cool(er) for my passenger, I have to run the system on a GPU for an hour to cool the interior down with all the window shades in. Even then it may only be 25 degrees cooler inside than outside.

If it’s a hot summer day in PHX though, you may easily find yourself up against performance rather than air conditioning limitations. On a 120F day in Phoenix, the 6,000 lb max gross Eclipse becomes a 5,500 MTOW airplane.

When I do low altitude training in the Eclipse in the Phoenix area such as shooting approaches and the like, leaving the bleed air off helps a lot.

Once airborne on a cross country, there aren’t any issues.

Will have to keep that in mind when it comes time to change one out on one of our planes. More effective would always be good!

One plane I fly has the dual start batteries. The biggest benefit for me is it helps shift the CG forward. I’m a lightweight, so if it’s just me, or just my regular passenger and me, I run up against the aft CG limit on a stock airplane. The dual start battery mod keeps me within limits.

The dual battery installation requires a reroute of the air conditioning lines. If you’re going to install the new pallet, that’d be a good time to install dual start batteries. I see they offer a ballast plate for the lighter AC pallet. That would in most cases be a necessity for CG if you fly solo and are not a large individual.

Sorry for the delay updating here - I was tied up with my type rating on the new plane. The first deposit never did arrive, but the plane went under contract the same day and the new buyers are moving quickly to close.

absolutely beautiful plane. Have always wanted an Eclipse and wish i could get in on one of these! Alas need to get to at least 500-750 hours to get decent insurance so a few years out for me.

Wow, that thing is crazy efficient. I wish them best of luck and like Mike C. once said, if they certified with Garmin and kept it simple, they would sell like hot cakes.

Even nicer if they used that same design philosophy and added a larger model with lav, 2 more seats, and a little more range, they would have a winner.