Operators of some business aircraft may have been caught unawares by a recent EU ruling which has banned the use of R12 freon in air conditioning systems as of December 31, 2000. Richard Evans spoke to a director of Air Part Supply Ltd, a global parts supplier based in Wycombe, UK, regarding the new legislation.

David McHugh told EBAN: “This is not a widely known fact. The aviation industry has been very slow on the uptake although it is being dragged into awareness because most executive type operators use local air conditioning companies to top up and maintain their systems.”

So have many operators been operating outside EU legislation since the turn of the year? “Not necessarily,” said McHugh. “As long as the system is not broken, operators are perfectly at liberty to carry on using it until it needs topping up. Only at this point is it illegal to use R12 because topping up is considered a maintenance exercise.

“What is very interesting is where some people are unaware that their systems have already been topped up with the replacement R134A. This simply doesn’t work for two reasons. Firstly, the R134A is a much smaller molecular structure which leaks though the seals, and secondly, the two are not compatible and only serve to contaminate each other. “Not only doesn’t it work, it is also illegal from an airworthiness point of view.”

From EBAN readers’ perspective, the aircraft said to be affected by this rule change and which Air Part Supply is able to support, are all King Air series, Barons, Dukes, all turboprop and piston engined Cessnas, all Piper aircraft, and all Learjet types.

The simple solution is a conversion kit which can be purchased from Air Part Supply. So what is involved in this conversion? Said McHugh: “You’ve got to take out the old compressor and hoses (which are all contaminated), the system is then flushed overnight to get rid of all the old R12, a new compressor and hoses are fitted and two days later, after testing, you’re up and running.”

And the cost? Said McHugh: “For a Learjet, it costs $6,000 for the parts, plus the labour. The kits drop down to $3,500 for other piston-engined aircraft.”

According to Air Part, conversion kits can be bought direct from the manufacturers themselves although Learjet has a different solution. Said McHugh: “Learjet has come out with a kit which involves removing the old freon system and fitting an air cycle machine as per the airlines, this is a considerably more expensive option.”

With summer not far away McHugh says a conversion, for some operators, is paramount. He explained: “I’ve spoken to chief engineers who will tell you that if you charter a Learjet to North Africa or Spain this summer and the air conditioning is not working properly, the avionics will start to malfunction. There are going to be people caught with their trousers down who will find they’ve got a weeks’ charter service coming up, can’t recharge their old system and will be compelled to do the conversion.” Air Part has appointed Northern Executive Aviation in Manchester and Air Training Services in High Wycombe as service centres. Both, said McHugh, have the tooling and training required.

On a final note, McHugh says there is another side issue, “Many of the old R12 systems, although serviceable, do not actually perform as efficiently as originally designed. Operators who have already had the conversion done, are particularly pleased because not only are they complying with the law but they’ve brought their new system up-to-date.”