Friday, Nov 20th, 2015 Part 2 - canopy, wiring, headset jacks, fuel selector, misc

I've been wanting to come up with something that will allow me to lay down under the panel semi comfortably rather than bend backwards onto the floor.  If nothing else this would be handy for when I have to rivet the forward top skin.  I decided to see if it was possible since I wasn't sure if I got it level if I'd fit in the remaining space.

I have a couple of stands I've been using that are about 7" high that once again came in very handy.  One of them was just about the perfect height and nicely straddled the center section where the wiring and fluid lines go.  I fabbed up a small shoebox sized stand to fill the gap on the side and this was the result.  Covered it with a sheet of cardboard and put a small blanket over it and it worked great.  It's very tight, but will probably serve well for riveting.

From Finish Kit 2

On my last order from Aircraft Spruce I picked up some grommet edge.  I'd been making my own out of split nylon tubing - worked ok but I really wasn't too happy with it.  This stuff is great - it has a metal core that is very grippy and will not come out.  This is the passthrough for the Dynon D10.

From Finish Kit 2

Passthrough for the Skyview connector gets the same treatment.  The black box on the back side is the Dynon ARINC box.

From Finish Kit 2

While I was at it I installed an 8 slot fuse block.  There weren't enough CBs in the VPX sport to handle every connection, but the VPX Pro was overkill for me.  The solution is to hang a fuse block off of one appropriately sized CB on the VPX, then size the fuses in the block for the various loads.  This will power non essential items like panel lights, primer solenoid, etc.

From Finish Kit 2

Installed a molex connector on the flap power lines to allow removal if necessary.

From Finish Kit 2

Detail of the other end of the connector.

From Finish Kit 2

Safetied the flap pushrod to the bolt per the plans.  Hopefully this will be the last time I will put this together.

From Finish Kit 2

Enlarging the hole in the fuel selector bracket to accept the Andair fuel selector.

From Finish Kit 2

This is what the Andair fuel selector valve looks like.  Really high quality unit.  The fittings are clockable and are available in a wide variety of sizes and types.  I'm installing the nutplates.  The holes for the nutplates as well as the dimples are all pre-machined.  The slots in the center section are where the lockout button goes.  You *cannot* turn this valve off by accident.  There is a spring loaded pin on the handle that has to be positively lifted and then the handle turned.  The single hole on the back center is the hole for the locked off position.

From Finish Kit 2

There is a pre-drilled and labeled trim piece that fits on top of the selector mount.  Used it to mark out the holes for drilling.

From Finish Kit 2

Detail of the fittings.  O-rings on the inside give a positive seal, and the allen screws are staked after tightening to ensure they don't back out.

From Finish Kit 2

Running the pitot heat and landing light wires to the terminal block under the pilot's seat.  The left side passthrough is so full you can't get one more wire through it, so these will run through the center.  Still have a bit of room on that one.  Hopefully it's enough.

From Finish Kit 2

It may not seem like it, but I'm actually making progress.  I think I've pretty much figured out where everything will go and how it will be routed, so now I'm starting to tie off the unused wires, then run and terminate the grounds.  The final bit will be to terminate the power lines.

From Finish Kit 2

I got a note from Amy at Flightline that she's done with my seats.  I should be getting those and the carpet from her early next week.  :)  Looking forward to seeing what they look like.

Thursday, Nov 19th, 2015 Part 1 - canopy, wiring, headset jacks, fuel selector, misc

This is going to be a two part update - I've been doing a lot of stuff but just haven't taken the time to update the blog.  Too many pictures for a single post, so I'll break it into two parts.

Installed the Skyview and D-10 in the panel so I could figure out where to run the wires.  There is a large (37 pin) connector on the backside of the Skyview, as well as a couple of USB connections and 9 pin DSUB connectors for the network connections.

I need to find a place to put the EMS box and the ARINC box.  Based on where the wires are going, it looks like the back side of the sub panel will be the best place.

From Finish Kit 2

I decided to put the ARINC box catty corner behind the center sub panel.  Cut 2 holes for cables to pass through.  The large one on the lower right is for the large Skyview connector.  The smaller one is to bring the network connections from the ARINC and EMS boxes.  I've got a Dynon network splitter that will allow connecting them together and will reach through to one of the DSUB connectors on the Skyview.  If I haven't forgotten something, I won't need another hub.  The connection from the hub in the back runs through the center passthroughs and will connect to the other network connection.

From Finish Kit 2

Finally was able to confirm that the plug in the top of the carb is for the temperature sensor, so I installed the carb temp sensor from the EMS sensor pack.

From Finish Kit 2

Since the tach info will come from the Emags, I need a cover for the tach attach point.  Andair makes one, so I picked that up and installed it.

From Finish Kit 2

I've been putting off doing the final riveting on the canopy for nearly a year.  Dreading possible cracking after reading all the problems people have had.  I've left it clecoed for at least 6 months.  Did a final check of everything and started riveting it with the pulled rivets.

From Finish Kit 2

It's really odd not to see all the clecoes sticking out any more.  The part I was most worried about was the forward bend.  I had a lot of problems getting it to fit when I first started working on it.

From Finish Kit 2

Finished and no cracks.  Big sigh of relief.

From Finish Kit 2

Detail of the back .  Pretty happy with how this came out.

From Finish Kit 2

Since I have to do something with the headset connectors before I go too far with wiring the radio stack, I decided to tackle where I was going to put these.  I've seen a lot of good solutions, from just putting them in the lower left of the panel or on a subpanel on the lower flange, to putting them in the forward angled canopy deck.  I've also seen them in the seat pans or back bulkhead behind the pilot/passenger. None of those really got the cables out of the way the way I wanted to.

Kent Stitt had his behind and below the panel on a small bracket.  Really liked that solution, so I mocked it up from some scrap aluminum to see how that would look.  I sat in the cockpit for several hours trying this out and decided to go this way, although I ended up moving the bracket above the horizontal angle instead of below as it is here.

From Finish Kit 2

I tried a couple of times to get satisfactory bends for these brackets, and couldn't produce anything I liked, so I picked up one of the cheap brakes at Harbor Freight.  I fiddled around trying to make something and quickly realized anything I could cook up would cost as much or more than this and probably wouldn't be as good as this one.

The way this works is it's hinged in the middle and folds upward using the handles.  There is a heavy steel (1/4" maybe) top piece that you can see sitting on the back top of the brake.  The material you want to bend is placed between the top piece and the brake, with the bend line along the hinge line of the brake and clamped into place with c clamps or similar (not provided, but I have plenty).  The top clamped piece has one edge milled to 90 degrees and another that's been milled at a bevel (20-30 degree maybe).  I got the best bends with the bevelled edge.

From Finish Kit 2

Test bends.  One is a factory angle, one is mine from scrap sheet.  Nearly identical.  One change I made later was to stick a long #40 drill bit against the bevel (on top of the material I'm bending).  That created a nearly perfect radius on the bend.

From Finish Kit 2

Comparison of the factory angle and one I did.  Mine is on the bottom.

From Finish Kit 2

Here's the final headset bracket.  I decided to make it in two pieces so I could remove it if needed.  The edge that goes against the outside will be dimpled and riveted to the skin.  Nutplates on ears will hold the larger piece.  Back edge gets nutplates to attach to the stanchion.

From Finish Kit 2

Final product.  I'll drill through the upright stanchion and the bracket to attach the back edge.  A long top bolt at the top will make a nice headset hanger.

From Finish Kit 2

Picked up some lugs and insulating nipples from Stein for the larger wires.

From Finish Kit 2

Also picked up some of the Vertical power power connectors.  These dudes are pricey.

From Finish Kit 2

Fabricated the #2 cable for the starter and ran it down the right side (#1 cylinder side) of the engine.

From Finish Kit 2

This was my first attempt at hooking up the manifold lines.  Not at all happy with this.  Way too many connections and just too cheesy.  The manifold line from the #3 cylinder comes in from the left here, the two vertical tubes are for the Emags, and the right fitting on vertical manifold will go to the Dynon sensor.

I later called Tom Swearingen at TS Flightlines and had him make me up a long manifold line to just go the full distance from the cylinder to the vertical manifold.  I can easily connect the Emags to the third hole using a tubing fitting later.

From Finish Kit 2

Marking the headset bracket for drilling to the stanchion and skin.

From Finish Kit 2

Painted and installed.  There are nut plates on the bracket behind the stanchion.  Used an AN3-22 bolt at the top with aluminum tube and heat shrink tube over it.  Makes a nice holder for the headset.

From Finish Kit 2