Avionics Fans

This plane will end up with a lot of equipment both on the panel and sitting behind the panel.  This leads to heat generation which isn't the best thing for electronic components.  The RV-14 kit actually has you install two fans on the glare shield and many builders of the RV-10 have taken it upon themselves to add a few fans of their own.  I decided to join in on the fun, and at the same time log a little build time.

The idea is fairly simple, mount two fans under the glare shield to push the hot air out and replace with cooler air under the foot well. An added effect to these is they will also function as defrosters on the windshield.  At first the idea of flying at any time when I have ice on my windshield seems a bit nutty but my neighbor who is a military pilot said it has more to do with condensation. As a result some people have wired these fans to a switch labeled 'defrost' and manually turn it on and off.  I'm not going to do that but rather have them wired in a way that they remain on anytime I have the master on.  The added benefit is when you shut down the plane you'll know your master is left on if you hear the fans.

In regards to fan selection most any computer style cooling fan will probably work.  The common size seems to be 80mm or around 3" fans although I've seen larger ones and smaller ones used by builders.  I went with 80mm and probably spent way too much time selecting the ones I wanted.  In my typical overthinking method I wanted ones that were relatively thin as to not impose onto the forth coming avionics install, while still moving a lot of air and keeping someone quite (Which is silly given the engine is 2 feet away). I selected the OD8025-12HB from Digi-Key with an associated cover (10020-1-5170). These fans seemed to offer a good balance of air throughput and sound.

Something to note on the installation is there is very very little margin of error in lining up the fan hole with the guard attachment holes. On some of the side about a 1/16 of an inch hang out under the grill screen.  I'm not particularly concerned with that because I will be covering the glareshield with some type of material which will require me to work it around the holes so it will end up getting recovered.  However if you don't plan on doing something like that and that detail will bug you then maybe do the hole a bit smaller than the fan size.

Holes Drilled

Installed Top

Installed Bottom