Previous: Slider Frame

2/20/05 - Prep - 3 hours

I know this isn't really electrical, but I needed to get this piece off my workbench, so I went ahead and installed it. I decided to just use screws and locknuts rather than bother with platenuts here since there is access to both sides without issue. So I marked and drilled four holes in the flange of the bracket. I measured to the center of the panel and drew a line on the inside. Then I measured the center of the control bracket and drew a line on the flange. Then I just matched up the lines, clamped, and match-drilled the bracket to the panel.

2/21/05 - Fuse Door - 4 hours

My electrical system is going to have three fuse blocks. All of which will be located behind the panel and I will not be attempting to mess with them in flight. However, once the front top skin is attached permanently to the fuselage there will be no easy way to access the fuses without crawling into the plane head-first and reaching up into the panel. So, after studying Andy Karmy's photos, I decided to install a hinged access door to the underside of the panel.

The panel will be secured with a camloc under the passenger side of the instrument panel. To change fuses, all I will need to do is hop in the passenger seat and turn the camloc to drop the panel down.

I started with some more borrowed aluminum, thanks to my friend Todd. I used some thin sheet to save on weight, and I bent flanges on the sides to strengthen it a bit. I used two pieces of oak as a simple break.

To save further on weight, I trimmed the corners a bit.

To locate the camloc, first I measured and drilled a 1/4" hole in the "trap door", then with it clecoed in place, I swung the door up to where it matched up with the panel. Then I simply match-drilled the 1/4" hole. I installed the camloc in reverse so I could match-drill the rivet holes for the "platenut".

In the pictures below you can see the door installed. Notice that it slopes a bit due to the difference between the subpanel and the composite panel. That's why the lip of the door has a little bend in it, to match the angle of the panel flange so it sits flush when closed.

The previous picture was taken from the top. This should provide adequate "workspace" while installing all the wires, yet it is far enough out of the way that I don't think I will have trouble getting around it.

I'm really happy with this. I think it should make it easier to work on the plane later on.

2/22/05 - Vents - 2 hours

Okay, this is also not electrical, but I started to be concerned that my "fuse trap door" may interfere with the vent hoses, so I went ahead and installed the eyeball vents into the panel in preparation for routing the vent hoses. These vents are really nice, but they only had a tiny flange for attaching the hose, so I bought 2" flanges from Vans which I bolted to the eyeball vents on the back side. The whole assembly is then epoxied to the composite panel. Here you see my clamping method. I wanted consistent clamping pressure around the perimeter of the part, but I also wanted to be able to verify the alignment of the vent, so I used a see-thru jar. Worked great.

2/25/05 - Some Wiring - 6 hours

I had some help today from my dad, who drove up from Houston to give me a hand for a while. We went out to the airport and picked up my engine and brought it to the house. More on that later.

We started by making a ground wire. I referenced Bob Nuckolls' guide on attaching terminals to big wires. We used both a soldering gun and a small butane torch to get the terminal hot enough to suck in the solder.

I also decided that now would be a good time to figure out the oil pressure line, so I went ahead and installed the fitting into the manifold and attached the line to the firewall using platenuts.

Next it was time to position some of the main electrical components. I installed platenuts on the voltage regulator so I could mount it to the back of the subpanel. This is in easy reach of all of the buses, and yet it is out of the way. I also installed the battery bus on one of the instrument panel supports. Here it is hopefully close enough to the battery.

Here is a top view of the fuse blocks mounted to the "trap door" I discussed previously. The smaller block is the "Main" bus, and the larger one is the "E-Bus." I seriously doubt I will ever use all of the slots I have available. I think I have a total of about 22 circuits on the plane, and there are forty fuse locations in total on all three buses.

The trap door rocks! I have already taken advantage of it when I need to have better access. This was definitely time well spent.

2/26/05 - Avionics Trays - 8 hours

My dad shot this picture of me trying to get the radio stack to sit correctly in the panel.

I was surprised at how far the radios stuck out of the front of the panel, so I kept working at it until I figured out that the radios pull back into the mounting tray about 1/4" when they are locked. I was glad to have at least one new radio so I got one of the little installation screwdrivers which let you install and remove the avionics.

My dad had to leave mid-day, so I picked up working on the radio stack in the afternoon. I really wanted nice, straight radios in the panel, and with the funky angle of the panel I found that I was driving myself crazy trying to line everything up. I also found that the two radios have different types of trays, and it isn't enough just to line up the trays. Instead I had to install the radios to get an idea of where the trays needed to be so I could line up the fronts of the radios

I finally decided that the only way I could achieve straightness was to use my "practice" parts to build everything up with a new set of angles, but do it outside of the plane.

Dan Checkoway mentions this on his site, but Garmin AT trays are a different width than the original Garmin trays. So I had to use tiny washers when I installed the SL-40 tray to make it match the width of the GTX-327. It wasn't a big deal since I had read about it on his site, but it sure adds to the time required to test fit it when you have to reinstall those washers some 30 times or so!

One more thing about tray alignment. I found that I couldn't just stack the trays on top of each-other. I had to leave about .05" clearance between them so that the SL-40's little tightening bell would have enough room to swing down and latch. I did this by placing a piece of .063" aluminum sheet between the two trays during assembly.

I also fabricated some side angles to join the two trays and keep them from "scissoring" and moving the faces out of alignment.

2/28/05 - Plumbing - 3 hours

Yet another non-electrical item, but something that needs to be done so that I can know where to run the wires. Today I went ahead and ran the vent hoses from the NACA vents to the eyeballs on the panel. Van's supplies some 2" plastic vent tubing that is rather flexible, so I decided to go through the subpanel above the forward canopy decks.

I used a 2" Greenlee punch to make the pass-through hole. Much to my surprise, I quickly found out that a 2" conduit punch yields a hole that is about 2.3" in diameter.

It turned out not to be an issue, but if tight tolerances are required, please double-check the tool before you use it. I bought some edge grommet material from Avery that I used to protect the edges of the big old holes that I punched. The hoses fit loosely in the new holes, so I will be securing them with tie-wraps most likely.

I went ahead and installed the hose clamps, but I'm not sure how to know when I have them tight enough. These things seem like they could squash the plastic NACA vent pretty easily.

Next I went ahead and punched the hole for the heat selector using the same punch tool. This punch didn't seem to work quite as well on the stainless, and it left a little of the metal sort of crimped over on one side. I had to use some creative whacks with a hammer and a bucking bar to flatten it back out. In the end you won't be able to tell because the selector sits on top of it, but I feel rather snakebit when I try to do anything to this firewall.

Here's the selector in place. I went ahead and used ProSeal to seal it. I also went ahead and drilled the push-pull knob on the panel.

3/1/05 - Ordered EFIS

No work today, but I did place an order for my GRT EFIS and the EIS4000 engine monitor. I also ordered capacitive fuel senders and the fuel flow option. I ordered all this from SteinAir. Check out my Instrument Panel page for more details.

3/2/05 - Designed Switchplates - 3 hours

I spent quite a while measuring and re-measuring for my switch plates. I am using a company called Front Panel Express, and their software called Front Panel Designer. Although this service isn't cheap, the results are really nice. I had previously sent a sample panel piece, and it turned out great other than my poorly measured holes. So with that experience behind me I made these two panels, complete with countersunk screw holes! No need for a labelmaker with these beauties! Yes, they will be blue.

3/3/05 - Engine Crating, Heat - 3 hours

I spent a while doing some engine-related stuff, which I will explain on my engine page soon. After that, I finished installing the heat selector cable. I had been waiting on some adel clamps I had ordered from Wicks. These are nice and small, and fit tightly around cables.

I had seen somewhere that you can use two adel clamps to attach standoffs to aluminum tubing runs. Since I needed some support for the heat cable, I used the brake line to keep it from flopping around.

Here's the heat knob on the panel. This is what it looks like in the fully open position.

The last thing I did was to install the base for the ANL. I had ordered some #10 countersunk screws to install this to the firewall. They were in the Wicks order as well. Looking at this, I decided that I would install it with platenuts just in case, so I did the whole drilling and dimpling thing for the #10 platenuts.

The ANL needs to hook up to the starter contactor, so I guess I need to make a cable.