Pilot Stick and Nav/Strobe wiring

I decided to get the pilot stick wire runs figured out along with the strobe and nav lights.   The Nav and Strobe lights are hard to wire even though they seem simple.  I am going with LED lights and they recommend you have a shielded wire where the shield is locally ground as well as firewall ground.  But also you need one circuit to run to both wing tips and the tail, as well as a "sync" wire that connects the strobes together to ensure they fire at the same time.  In my case I am running all the lights from the right wing through the fuse to the left wing bay where I will connect them all and run them forward.   So across the center of my fuse I have a strobe wire, nav wire, sync wire in a shielded bundle.  I am going to sync the wing tip strobes, but  not the tail.  I am not going to run a sync wire all the way forward, so the tail strobe will fire randomly which is fine by me.

The wire bundles are combined with the pitot tube and AOA tube coming from the ADAHRS behind the baggage compartment, and go through the outer ribs to go forward as well as out to the wing tip..  Also, the Pilot stick wiring is complete and feeds through the same snap bushings going forward to the VP-X.  Pilot stick as I indicated earlier contains switches for  roll trim, pitch trim, push to talk, A/P disconnect, and com radio flip flop..

I know it sounds confusing, but its the only way to get this done.   Looking at the photos, at least the runs look clean.  :-)

Snuck in the Engine Start Button

Well, the Engine is here, I am  now waiting for the prop and governor.  I need to install the governor before I hang the engine, well, at least that is my plan.   I am still doing other research to determine what I need to do before hanging it.  In the meantime I borrowed a hoist which is mega stout from a friend in my EAA Chapter, put it together and it awaits the big event..

But the Honda S-2000 engine start button also showed up, so I quickly punched a hole in the panel and mounted that.  Theres more work to do on the start button, but I got it in the panel to make sure I am going to like where I put it.  When ever the engine isn't running, this button will be lit and enabled by the VP-X (if the master switch is on).  As soon as constant RPMs are detected, the button is disabled to protect from accidental activation.

I wired the button by hijacking a computer floppy disk drive plug.  It fits perfectly with the design of the button and I moved the wires around a bit so you have Red: power coming from the VP-X, Black: going to Ground for the light, and the switched Yellow goes to the starter relay.  Pretty simple process and the engine start button looks cool!

Look what Showed up today !

My last huge shipment showed up today.  The Engine is here !   This baby will be leading the way for us all over the country for the next many years.  The engine is quite impressive from AeroSport and I am so happy with my color choice, it looks just amazing in person. it is so great to finally have this thing in my hands.  Just as my non motion insurance kicks in, the engine shows up.  Makes me feel better that I have some coverage now that this is sitting in my garage.

I tried to take lots of pics from different angles to refer to later as necessary and will post them here.  The first one is how it came wrapped in the crate.

Below are some front/side and back shots for future reference.   You can see the Left Mag, Fuel pump, and oil filter in the first one.   Second is head on, which shows the LightSpeed EI ignition wire and so on.   I don't have a good shot of the starter, will need to get that one later.

I haven' t found any AeroSport shirts.  Hopefully they will come out in one of the boxes,  I still have those yet to go through tonight.

Continued VP-X Connections

I connected Flaps, Nav Lights, Strobe Lights, Left and Right Landing lights, as well as Pitch and Roll trim and Flap sensor to the VP-X.   These connections were the easier ones because they go straight from the VP-X all the way to the powered component.  Then the switch which will be wired up later connects straight to the VP-X.  Other Components like the Seat Heat, Starter switch, etc, have the switch inline between the powered component and VP-X, so I need to wait until I am able to wire up the switches before running the final line to the VP-X.  For  now I am starting to get the big mess of jumbled wires to lay reasonably nicely.

Loads of Electrical Work !

In order to keep making progress I continue to work on electrical while I wait for my engine.   My approach is to get all the wires ran to where they need to be, then come back to tidy up and secure them with the terminals as I focus on certain areas.   I suppose there are different ways to work through electrical, but with my knowledge so far, this works for me.  At this point I have learned about enough to be dangerous.  ;-)

So I have ran about 90% of all my wires down through the conduit to the rear of the plane.  I have lots of wiring behind the panel yet to do, and firewall forward, but for the remainder I have ran about everything.   I still need to do my runs for the Skyview Network and all the lighting out to where the wings join the fuse, but that is about it.  I also have ran my Pitot/Static/AOA tubing and am pretty happy how it turned out.   My runs remain straight and efficient.   I have Pitot and Static running both to the Panel (for the Gemini) as well as to the AHARS (Dynon) in the tail cone.   My AOA only runs to the tail cone.   Junctions are in the left wing root section as well as near the AHARS.

I have also just started labeling and grounding my wires up front at the firewall ground block.  I am grouping some wires where it makes sense, such as my two seat heat grounds, my two auto pilot servo grounds, and probably others to save tabs on my ground block.  Critical components I will ground Individually, such as the VP-X grounds.   Also, I was able to run the first few VP-X grounds to the block as well.  Not long and I will update the software in the VP-X and start to connecting the remaining wires to it.

All this fun, can’t be complete without some Left Seat Time.  ;-)   I was able to sit in place and play around with my panel layout.   Liking the way it is coming together at this point.  I temporarily installed the throttle quadrant and really like the way the throttle/flaps/fuel pump switches are aligned.

Don't forget that oil breather hose clamp ! !

Wouldn’t you know it..  The day after I seal up the firewall opening, I realize that I need to drill out one more rivet from the front and install a nutplate so that I can bolt on the oil breather line adel clamp.  I don’t feel too bad, because the drawing is a bit confusing.   I looked at it and where this nutplate goes it indicates “alternate location for engine ground”.  Well I am going to use the top of the firewall to ground the engine, so I moved on, and didn’t realize this nutplate is also used to secure the oil breather..  ugh..

  

To complicate this, the nutplate is right behind a bar on the engine mount, so to drill the holes and shoot the rivets I had to get creative.   All in all, anything is possible, it’s just a matter of how difficult.   This one turned out to be fairly difficult but doable..   A recoverable mistake is always a good one..    Like any landing you can walk away from..   J

With Bekah’s help I used an angle drill to open up the holes for the #10 screw and nutplate attach points.   Then she bucked the face of the firewall while I back riveted the nutplate from inside the fuse.  Not an easy task, but we got it done per plans.

I also started sorting out the pressure transducer.   This unit holds the pressure sensors and the tubes that feed pressure directly from the source to the sensor.  I am setting it up so that top is the manifold pressure, middle is oil pressure, and bottom if fuel pressure.

Firewall Recess

There was only one goal for this work session..  Rivet and seal the firewall recess.  The recess is designed so the prop governor on the engine can fit in the recess, but still forward of the firewall.    Up to now I have had a large hole that provided great access from out front, but I knew that wouldn't last forever..   I can’t think of anything else I need to do on the front lower area inside the cabin, so have now sealed it up and am ready for the engine. 

The entire process took about an hour and was a great mini project that had a beginning and an end.  Those are always nice.   I mixed up some sealant, and put a bead on the flange then clecod the recess in place.  Then started riveting.   I did have to take off the battery, heat box, VP-X support, and brake lines in the cabin.  These will all go back on shortly.  

Wiring and Panel work

My exhaust arrived last week, no pictures, but its here and ready for the engine..   The engine has been test ran and will most likely ship next week, so I will have it quite soon..  In the meantime I continued working on electrical and panel.   Mainly my plan was to finish as much wire runs as possible, at least getting the wires to the general location.  I got the aft GPS antenna cable ran, the pilot stick switch wires ran, all my pitot/static tubes inside the cabin ran, both my com antenna cables, and that is about it.  Lots of wires now, routed all throughout.  Looks colorful don't you think..   Also, this is the last picture through the firewall, since tonight I will be sealing up the firewall recess..

I also was able to finish the Map Box and add some better imagery to my panel.  This gives a better idea of what it will look like.   Also, a view of the wire runs under the cabin floor.  Notice the writing on the Passenger Warning !  

Here you will see that I also painted the outside sub-panel sections and am ready to rivet those in place for good as well.  When I do that I  might add the top skin if at all possible, because I know the top skin forces the whole forward deck down about 1/16 inch.   I want to make my canopy fit as good as it did when I first installed it, so I want to make sure all rivets are set with the same stresses in the metal as were there when I cut the canopy.