Effective Cooling inAviation Applications

to create comfortableenvironments for

customers and aviators

case studies

Coker Family Private Hangar

“When you are out here working on these airplanes and you are hot you just don’t do your best work. Our Port-A-Cool evaporative cooler has made it bearable out here. ”

Steve L. Coker, Jr.

A Sizzling Predicament Several miles down a dirt road outside Tyler, Texas, the forest of loblolly pines suddenly opens to reveal a private runway and seven airplane hangars.

The hangars house eleven planes owned by the Coker family and their friends.aSteve Jr., Sally, Steve III and Janie Coker are a family that flies together. Steve Jr. and Sally were both pilots before they married and have been flying

since 1967. Their children have followed suit. Steve III ceremoniously marked his 16th birthday with his first solo flight and received his pilot’s license the following year. Janie, who has been flying for years as well, hopes to complete her license in 2014.

When they are not flying, you will find the Cokers in their hangars – a particularly sweltering place to be during the summer months when tempera-tures in the East Texas area average in the lower to mid-90s and often spike into the triple digits. With temperatures that high, the hangars can get hot and uncomfortable fast.

“When you are out here working on airplanes and you are hot, you do not do your best work,” Steve Jr. said. “If you can cool the hangar, you work better and make fewer mistakes. Plus, you enjoy yourself a lot more!”

While the newest hangars the Cokers built are well-insulated, it still does not completely protect them from the brutal East Texas heat. The Cokers needed a practical way to cool down their hangars. They also needed a solution that could be moved from hangar to hangar as needed.

An Easy Answer Trying to solve the problem, the Cokers attempted cooling the hangars with large shop fans, but the fans just created a breeze – they did not cool the

air. A few years ago a family friend introduced the Cokers to a product that offered the relief from the Texas heat that they needed – a Port-A-Cool® portable evaporative cooler.

“I had seen Port-A-Cool evaporative coolers in hangars across the country,” Steve Jr. said. “We had just never thought to get one until our friend introduced us to them. Let me tell you, these evaporative coolers are fantastic products.”

Powerful Results “Our evaporative cooler has made it bearable out here during the summer,” Steve Jr. said. “We were very impressed with just how much it dropped

the temperature in the hangars. It is a heck of a product!”The evaporative coolers have made a difference in the Coker family’s life in the hangars. The family says not only do the evaporative coolers make

them more comfortable while working in the hangars, but extend their enjoyment during the frequent gatherings the family hosts on their property. “We have had several parties out here and, while it is not all that surprising, in front of the evaporative cooler is the most popular place,” Steve III

said. “When that Port-A-Cool evaporative cooler is on, everyone is going to be standing around it.”

More than just a swamp cooler While many people will ask “Isn’t this just a swamp cooler?” Steve Jr. will tell you it is not. Growing up in South Texas, Steve Jr. had experience with

the typical old-fashioned swamp coolers, and the differences between the two are profound. “The old swamp coolers of yester-year would drop the temperature, but

they made such a mess!” he said. “My mom had just purchased a brand new coffee table and placed it in the living room in front of the swamp cooler. By the next morning, the whole veneer top had rolled right off! My Port-A-Cool evaporative cooler won’t do that. If the water is adjusted properly, it will add very little humidity to the air, which is a good thing in a hangar.

“The big difference is in the evaporative technology media,” he said. “They are much more efficient than a swamp cooler.”

Port-A-Cool evaporative coolers are equipped with KÜÜL® evaporative technology, the highest quality rigid cooling media on the market today. KÜÜL evaporative technology is constructed with the heaviest vir-gin-quality kraft paper and highest resin content currently available.

Curtis Air Field Municipal Airport

“We just love our Port-A-Cool evaporative cooler and so do our visitors. Customer service is a big part of what we do here and being able to provide a comfortable environment to our visitors in the summer months is great.”

Joe Mosier Airport Manager

A Scorching Dilemma

Two hours northwest of Austin rests the small town of Brady, Texas. Geographically, Brady, which the locals refer to as “The Heart of Texas,” is the closest city to center of the Lone Star State. In August 1941, Curtis Field was opened three miles from Brady. On January 1, 1942, the facility was commandeered by the United States Army Air Forces and was used as a primary pilot training airfield during World War II. The military relinquished control of the airport in February 1945.

Today the airport hangars, runways and surrounding fields occupy 506 acres. The complex is comprised of two large 100’x140’ han-gars, two medium 100’x100’ hangars and 10 t-hangars that house 58 planes. With temperatures that average in the lower to mid-90s during the summer months and highs that can spike into the triple digits, the 14 hangars can get HOT!

Joe Mosier, the 16-year airport manager, knows just how hot the metal buildings can get. The most obvious solution would be a large overhead fan, but often these options only push the stifling air from high in the hangar’s ceiling to the floor. There is airflow, but it is hot air!

Mosier needed a solution to protect himself and his staff from the unrelenting central-Texas heat – one that was not only cost effec-tive, but also practical for the open-area hangar and could deliver cool air versus moving hot air.

A Quick Fix

Before taking over as the Curtis Field Airport Manager, Mosier had held the same position at Sharpe Field Airport in Carthage, Texas. While there, Mosier had been introduced to a product he thought could solve his problem – a Port-A-Cool® portable evaporative cooler. “I remember the first Port-A-Cool we had in Carthage,” Mosier said. “The thing would cool like nothing else, but HEAVY! And forget

about moving the big metal thing. The old ones did not have casters that swiveled. You would be rolling it along and everything would just STOP!”

Despite that, Mosier knew the company’s reputation in the portable evaporative cooling industry. When the United States Army did

a training at Curtis Field and left a slightly damaged Port-A-Cool evaporative cooler, Mosier took matters into his own hands. All the abandoned evaporative cooler needed was a new pump, which Mosier easily replaced. The difference was stunning.

Powerful Results

“Everyone was in love with the thing,” Mosier said. “We kept borrowing the ones the Army left and would just replace the pumps. That was a problem in some of the older models – the pumps would burn up if you let the water run out. It was easy enough to fix that though!” Curtis Field no longer uses hand-me-down Port-A-Cool evaporative coolers. Several months ago they purchased their very own Port-A-Cool® Hurricane 3600 and Mosier could not be more pleased. “Port-A-Cool did a great job when they invented the Hurricane 3600 model,” he said. “It comes with a low-water shut off so the pump

will not burn up if you run out of water and the motor is a variable speed so we have more control over how hard the fan is blowing. The new models are much lighter and moving them around is a breeze.“We just love our Port-A-Cool and so do our visitors. Customer service is a big part of what we do here and being able to provide a

comfortable environment to our visitors in the summer months is great.” Mosier says by offering a clean, cool facility they see many repeat visitors. Including the many visitors they get during the Armed Forc-

es Day Celebration and Fly-In they host each year. He says coming to airports are just like anything else, if the facility is clean, neat and comfortable visitors make note of it and will come back. If the facility is otherwise, visitors will note that as well and not return. Port-A-Cool portable evaporative coolers employ the same cooling process found in nature. Temperature drops are obtained by forcing air over water-soaked evaporative media. The evaporation process taking place on the evaporative media is much like the cooling sensa-tion you feel when you exit a pool or when you feel a sea breeze.

Port-A-Cool, LLC, a worldwide manufacturing leader in the portable evaporative cooling industry, is renowned for superior evaporative cooling units, media and accessories since 1990. Headquartered in Center, Texas, the company produces a wide range of products and portable evaporative coolers that cool 500 to 4,000 square feet. Port-A-Cool products are sold via distrib-utors across the nation and in 56 countries abroad. To learn more about the company, or to see the line of products, go to www.port-a-cool.com.

These case studies provided courtesy of:

Eagles Nest Estates Air Park

“Because of my Port-A-Cool portable evaporative coolers, I have my hangar back during the summer. After hanging out here at my hangar, many of my friends have purchased Port-A-Cool evaporative coolers as well!”

Dan McNeeley

A Sweltering Problem

Dan and Hollie McNeely live in an airpark in northeast Texas – a neighborhood specifically developed around an airstrip. Most of the 80 houses in the airpark have a private airplane hangar located in the backyard.

Dan spends many hours in his personal airplane hangar – working on planes, relaxing with friends, planning trips and much more. As well as work-ing on his planes, Dan loves restoring and driving vintage cars.

During the summer, however, the sweltering conditions in his hangar often interfered with his activities and kept his wife and friends completely out of the hangar.

“The heat doesn’t bother Dan too much,” Hollie said. “I just cannot take it for very long though. I hated not being out there with him, but it was much too hot and humid for me to stay for more than short periods.”

Dan needed a quick fix to reclaim his hangar from the heat – one that was not only cost effective - but also practical for the open-area hangar.

A Simple Solution

In his travels to airplane tradeshows, Dan had met a Port-A-Cool® representative who suggested Dan test out a portable evaporative cooler. In 2001, Dan decided to give it a try and purchased two Port-A-Cool evaporative coolers.

Powerful Results

Since his purchase, Dan is much more comfortable outside during the warm months. Not only can the evaporative coolers easily be moved to cool exactly where needed – from the hangar to his garage or to the back porch for a special night on the patio – they can drop the overall temperature in

Dan’s hangar as much as 30 degrees F.

“Because of my Port-A-Cool portable evaporative coolers, I have my hangar back during the summer,” Dan said. “After hanging out here at my hangar, many of my friends have purchased Port-A-Cool evaporative coolers as well!”

Dan has been so pleased with his Port-A-Cool evaporative coolers that he now has two of the newer models offered – a Hurricane 3600 and a JetStream 2400.

Port-A-Cool portable evaporative coolers employ the same cooling pro-cess found in nature. Temperature drops are obtained by forcing air over water-soaked evaporative media. The evaporation process taking place on the evaporative media is much like the cooling sensation you feel when you exit a pool or when you feel a sea breeze.