Your airplane has a very simple heater, and any exhaust pipe gets extremely hot, whether it’s on a car or an airplane. Your airplane heater system takes advantage of that by placing a metal enclosure around the exhaust pipe, trapping the heat, and releasing it to you on demand.
This heater in a Cessna 172 looks like a monster robot out of a Spiderman movie. The orange hose carries heat to the cabin and away from the exhaust muffler shroud. The shroud is the large cylinder, or “body” of the robot.
The system, although simple, does have one major downside. In most light aircraft installations, because the residual heat from the exhaust is what powers the cabin heater, a leak in the exhaust system could mean exhaust coming into the cockpit. And that means carbon monoxide could be entering as well. Carbon monoxide is an odorless, colorless gas that can incapacitate pilots and passengers. Other than ensuring the integrity of the exhaust and the shroud during regular inspection intervals, the best thing pilots can do is use the heater sparingly, or invest in a carbon monoxide detector available from any pilot shop.
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