Lighting: Landing light mounts fabricated.

Here are the posts pertaining to my landing lights.

• 12-Aug-13, initial thoughts
• 17-Aug-13, lenses cut 
• 9-Sep-13, lights ordered
• 7-Jan-14, wiring completed
• 2-Nov-16, panel control circuit
• 16-May-18, first night flight

Because I am using AveoMaxx Hercules 30 landing lights, the kit does not include provisions for my lighting selection. 

First I needed to cut some pieces of 0.04" aluminum of the appropriate size, 10"x4".

I bought a cheap metal brake from Harbor Freight (always a gamble buying something from them and true-to-form, it was missing the handles, so I used screw drivers in their place).  This let me put quality bends in the right locations to match the W-00017 Mount Bracket in the outboard leading edges.

Here are the completed bent pieces with the W-00016B AeroLEDs Sun Spot LX Bracket (from Section OP-52A) in comparison.

I used a 4" hole saw to make the cutout for my Hercules lights.  Then I lined up the mounting brackets from Aveo to prepare my brackets for nutplates.

Here are the brackets with nutplate holes match drilled in and dimpled.  Also, the edges of my brackets were cut diagonally to reduce weight.

My painted brackets with the Hercules mounting mounting brackets attached.

Completed landing light mounts with lights installed.

Interior. Seatbelt/Harness fitting fun.

My safety harnesses, obtained in September 2015 and installed in March of 2017, came with end fittings.  They are all  3/16" thick with 1/2" diameter bolt holes and 1.875" wide strap slots.  That thickness is appropriate for the shoulder harnesses, however it is too thick for the lap belts, the latter of which needs to be 1/8".

Additionally, the 1/2" diameter bolts holes are too large for the AN4 bolts (which are 1/4") called out for on page 42-06.  So I had my friend fabricate for me bushings with dimensions:  0.252" ID, 0.5" OD and 0.202" L.  The bushing were pressed into the end fittings (left) and attached to the F-01406E Shoulder Harness Lugs using the AN4-6A bolts and associated hardware (right).

Here are the shoulder strap end fittings in place.

The end fittings are too long to work for the crotch strap (it places the strap above the rectangular cutouts in the F-14110AB Crotch Strap Brackets, shown two images below).  So I tried drilling a hole to make it sit lower.

However, the end fitting is just too thick and creates too much space between the two Crotch Strap Brackets.

I purchased end fittings from Aircraft Spruce for the crotch straps which have 7/16" bolt holes, 2" wide slots for the strap and were 0.091" thick.  My friend made bushings for me with dimensions 0.315" ID, 0.4375" ID and 0.202" L, to fit the AN5 bolts called for on page 42-02 which have a 5/16" (0.3125") diameter .

With the crotch strap folded over on itself, it's unreasonable to use all four screws on the Crotch Strap Brackets as the thickness is too great and the brackets have an excessive clamping force on the strap, preventing length adjustment.  I deemed this acceptable and moved on.

For the lap belts, Crow provided replacement end fittings, which were not black anodized.  They had slightly narrow 1.5" wide slots for the strap and were 1/8" thick with 1/4" bolt holes.  Because this 1/8" thickness is precisely what the F-01480 Seat Belt Attach Lugs are designed for, the end fittings will not freely rotate about the bolt (the end fittings should be 0.091" thick with a 1/8" bushing).  That's okay.  I adjusted the angle of the end fittings to align close to what it would normally be when the occupants are strapped in.

Avionics: Final panel image.

The next posts to my blog should detail final assembly of the airplane in the hangar.  I don't know when that will be because I don't yet have a hangar.  However, since my last post detailed the wiring of the airframe, I wanted the top post to be something more aesthetically pleasing, especially since this post will be up for a good while.  So this post will show my panel for the last time.  The next posts should be of an aircraft with wings and a tail attached.

If you're interested in reading about the design of my panel, you can go here.  Here are the 12 posts relating to my panel.

Lit up, camera flash, day time.

Lit up, no camera flash day time.

No juice.

Lit up, camera flash, night time.

Lit up, no camera flash, night time.

LED strip full brightness, white only, night time.

LED strip full brightness, red only, night time.

LED strip full brightness, white and red lights, night time.

Here's the layout (includes replacing the GMA-200 with a GMA-245 and replacing the TruTrak ADI2 with a Konardia Horis 57).

Avionics: The big master wiring post.

It turns out that it's difficult to find pictures of how folks wired their airplanes.  Based on my experience wiring an airplane for the first time, I think I understand why folks tend not to share their work.  One of the goals for my blog was to share all of my work, no matter the quality.  So, though I'm not proud of my wiring work, this post discloses it fully.

I opted to do the wiring myself after learning that the cost to have it done professionally would be between $3k and $5k.  My time tracking spreadsheet shows I spent 220.14 hours on avionics (wiring and mounting).  That's under-reported.  It's probably in the 300 hour range.

Wiring planning began in December of 2015.  Physical wiring began in February of 2016 and continued in fits and spurts until April of 2017.

Here are the posts outlining my harness construction and wiring routings.

• Air frame harness.
• Avionics stack (Garmin and GRT) harnesses.
• Control column harnesses.
• GRT EIS sensor distribution board.
• Canopy harness.
• Fuse block construction and layout.
• EGT and CHT wiring. 
• LEMO wiring.
• Magneto wiring.
• Starter switch wiring.
• Landing light wiring.
• Switch control circuit board for landing and nav/strobe lights.
• Indicator lights circuit board.
• Wing root wiring

Here is a high level electrical diagram for the airframe.  You can read about my topology here.

Bringing the harnesses into the airframe is a gentle affair.  The wire ends are then temporarily labeled so that pins can be later added.

It gets really messy inside, especially at the outset.

Routing wires down the tunnel.

I used wire tie mounts to fasten down the wires adjacent to the fuel pump.  These are from Panduit and are shown on the left.  Some folks use Adel clamps.  Those "nut launchers" are evil, so I wanted to avoid using them, especially in a confined space.  The right image shows how the wire tie mounts were attached to the F-14103 Fuel Pump Brackets with nutplates and #8 screws.  I used four wire tie mounts (not shown), two on each side.

Wires going outboard from center under the seat pans (left is left, right is right).

The harnesses to the wings are set outside the airframe.  Visible on the right image is a temporary min-harness I made to test my landing and nav/strobe lights.

When connecting pins, I used the rungs on my ladder as shelves to hold my various tools.  Nearly every wire was labeled on both ends.  Go to the end of this post to see how I labeled my wires.

Final layout of airframe and tail harnesses going down the baggage area.

The top images show the left side LEMO connector wiring whilst the bottom shows the right side.  I wanted a large service loop on each.  You can also see that I put on little Molex connectors to accommodate later replacement of the LEMO socket.  This whole approach is detailed in this post.

Canopy harness, detailed in this post.

The left side behind the panel, detailing the GRT AHRS and EIS.  Go here for details on the AHRS mounting and here for details on the EIS mounting.

The right side behind the panel detailing the SkyRadar DX, whose installation is detailed here.  You can see the main ground lug at the bottom of the picture.  It just goes into a nutplate on the firewall with an AN3 bolt.

The center behind the panel.  It looks hideous and it is.  However, those wire bundles are so incredibly stout that I'm entirely confident they will not move appreciably during flight.  Also, you can see the MAP sensor on the right side of the plane (left side of image).  It's the black box fastened to the F-01456-R Fwd Fuse Rib.   Details of the MAP install are found here.

A larger-picture view of the entire area behind the panel.



Left side of subpanel.  I plan to spiral wrap the wires along the TruTrak ADI2.

Right side of subpanel.  As an aside, the instrument on the bottom left of the image is my lift reserve indicator (LRI).  Go here to read about an LRI.  A forthcoming post will provide additional details on what I ultimately did to construct my LRI.  Until that time, I'll record here that I used a Manostar FR51AHV-500D differential pressure gauge.

A closer shot of the right side subpanel showing the main ground distribution bus, AE Fuel Guardian and SSR for Avionics Bus 2.

Center of subpanel.

Wider shot of subpanel.

Canopy underside showing the LED strip and defrost fans.  Canopy wiring is detailed here.

CHT and EGT wire routing along engine mount.  This process was detailed here.

The GRT pitch servo.  This was taken prior to replacement of the DB9 hood (explained below).

I replaced all hoods with ones that can be finger tightened (DB9 and DB25).  These were to the AHRS, MAP sensor, GRT HXr EFISs, TruTrak ADI2 and pitch/roll servos.  This allows easier work to be done because I didn't have to use a screw driver.

ELT.  Details of its installation are here.  Just need to route the wires.  I'm waiting for the tail to be mounted to be sure they are routed correctly.

ELT antenna coax running on left side of baggage area.  I used silicone and edge grommets to lock it into place to avoid chaffing.

Wire routing on left side of tailcone.

Here is the magnetometer.  Details of its mounting are here.

Some additional thoughts:

• I did not plan my wiring well at all.  I just routed wires as I went along, so I didn't plan things ahead of time.  
• If I were to do this again (ha!), I would plan accordingly so as to have a much nicer wiring layout.  
• I would add service loops and consider better positioning of the various constituents.  
• I would use the "forest of tabs" approach for the ground bus and leave extra tabs for later additions.
• I would leave accommodations to power additional, future components.

However ugly as it is, I'm confident that my wiring is stout, resilient and ready for flight.  It just could have been a lot nicer.