Joshua's RV-9A Project

Started off working on the panel, by riveting the EFIS trays in place.  The design of the trays really helps stiffen up the panel, pretty much eliminating flex in the vertical, and the radio stack angles help as well.  Once the EFIS trays were riveted in, the panel was clamped to the bench and I started fitting the radio stack trays.  This was fairly easy, using a ruler, calipers, some wood blocks, duct tape, and a stack of popsicle sticks for fine adjustment.  Once the trays were clamped in position, the mounting holes were marked with a drill bit, center-punched, and drilled to size on the drill press.  Dug around for suitable screws to mount everything, and the SL-40 needs thin washers on either side, as it’s tray is just a bit narrower than the rest.  I aligned the 327 and SL-40 to the bottom of the panel cutout, and the audio panel to the top, and the resultant gap in the middle measured out at the right size for the 430…the miracle of CAD.  Finally, took it all apart to debur, prime, and rivet together.

Once the panel was all riveted, I scrubbed the rivet rows with scotchbrite and slathered on a light coat of epoxy.  When it cures, I’ll sand it smooth, which should effectively make the rivet rows disappear when painted.  I wouldn’t have bothered with this, but there are a couple of extra holes that needed to be filled, because of the late discovery that the right rib would need to be moved.  Found that the epoxy takes awhile to cure, 10-15 hours according to the can (West Systems w/206 hardener).  Should be ready for sanding & paint tomorrow if I bring it inside overnight.

With the panel curing and unavailable for further work, I set upon other tasks…torqued the CHT sensors and put drip loops in their leads; this lead to fabricating and installing the starter cable, more adel clamps installed to hold that cable and give a place to tie the CHT’s to.  EGT’s will tie into the same place, but with no exhaust system, it’s hard to install those!  I’ve left the cable unattached at the starter end, to avoid inadvertant activation.

Finished installing the nutplates for the manifold pressure sensor, and bolted that in place.  Connected the silicone tubing from the sensor manifold to the sensor.  Filed down the center heat box cable eyeball to give it better grip on the cable, the finished installing that cable and terminated on the flapper arm.

Started on installing the wiring for the AFS system, by running the magnetometer wires to the tailcone.  I hope I’ve got everything I need back there, because there is zero room left in the snap bushings at the rear spar bulkhead…  The only thing that is left to go aft of the main spar (except for all the connectors, of course) is the mic & phone lines, which won’t need to pass through the rear spar bulkhead, than goodness.  The magnetometer wires were just long enough to get where they need to go.

Those lines in, worked on the rest of the AFS wiring, putting in the engine monitor harness, after removing a bunch of pins from the connector, inputs such as amps, trim, and flap position, which will be supplied via the VP-X system.  Figured out which wire was which, and ran them to the approximate locations FWF.  Removed the pre-installed fuel level wires and replaced them with the ones already run in the airframe.  Switched the RPM input line to the electronic ignition pin, to connect with the Pmag.  Sensor harness done.  Next up, the main harnesses, running serial and audio wires in the right general directions, power & ground, and tying up the external inputs, as I don’t believe I have any uses for them at the moment.  I may just pull these from the connectors as well, and stash them aside with the wires I pulled from the EM harness, for later reinstallation when necessary.  Along with all this wiring, of course, goes the regular installation of bushings, grommets, tie bases, and so on, as and where necessary.

Discovered that the adel clamps I put in to secure the wire bundle on it’s vertical run from the tunnel to behind the panel, -14′s — which I assumed were oversized and would be swapped with something smaller once wiring was done — have reached their capacity.  I have 4 more wires to insert there (mic/phone lines), so they’ll probably need to be -15′s.  Of course, the next larger size I have from -14 is -18.  Sigh.

To do:

• Print alternator wiring diagram
• Print mockups of ARINC and ADS-B boxes for panel space arrangement
• Find torque spec for oil temp sensor
• Install starter cable boots, torque starter cable at contactor
• Run additional ground wires for EFIS case grounds (18AWG)

Lots of parts new to the shop at the moment — recieved an order of adel clamps and misc. hardware from ACS, random stuff from McMaster, a crimper frim Digikey, and picked up a boxful of Garmin gear, plus a box of engine sensors, from SteinAir yesterday.  The AFS screen isn’t ready yet, hopefully in a month; word is that there’s a shortage of a part needed to build them.  I did get the tray, sensors, and all the harnesses, so there’s plenty to be done, and the screen should be able to pop right in when it’s ready.

Tonight I sorted a bunch of hardware into the bin racks for easy access later on; washers, nuts, nutplates, and so forth.  Also sorted the large collection of adel clamps I’ve amassed; pretty much fills a medium sized cardboard box.  (In case you’re wondering: the engine mount tubes are -12 and -14; you’ll want lots of those.)

With the adel clamps neatly organized, it was a good a time as any to start clamping things.  Worked on securing the alternator wiring and other wires that run around the engine mount.  There’ll be plenty more clamping to do as more wires get added to the FWF.  Put rubber grommets in the subpanel wiring harness holes, and ran the CHT/EGT harness through to start looking at wire run paths.

Worked on the panel and trays: modified the right edge of the EFIS 1 tray where it interlocks with the other one, drilled and countersunk the rivet holes to attach it to the panel.  Stripped part of the primer off the panel where I’ll use epoxy to smooth over the rivets around the trays and radio stack.  Primed the tray and back of the panel.

Pulled open the box of engine sensors and distributed them around: put the CHT’s in the cylinders finger-tight, the oil temp in its place.  Started work on mounting the manifold pressure sensor by drilling for nutplates, but called it a night when it was ready to rivet, since it was past midnight (think of the neighbors…)

More wiring work tonight, doing some bundle tying and terminations.

• Tied up the bundles forward of the subpanel, so that things would be at the correct place for cutting to length and termination.
• Crimped the Dsub pins and installed into the connectors on the Vertical Power CU.
• Shrunk the labels onto all the wires currently running to the CU.
• Combed out bundles and rearranged some support brackets for better runs and to avoid chafing.  Also added some split brake tubing over a couple nearby edges, in case vibration moves the bundles closer over time.
• Rerouted the master buss feed to travel through a rib using a snap bushing, rather than under it with an adel clamp; this gives me better separation between that big wire and the bundle of other wires that has to pass under it.
• Changed the power feed to the light dimmer to use the spare slot on the terminal block I mounted to the lid, to use as a buss point for all the interior lights.  (The dimmer module is fed from here, which drives 4 channels of lighting; a line runs to the map light panel overhead, and a third line will provide power to the annunciator lights).
• Combed out the mess of ground wires at the firewall, crimped on connectors, shrunk the labels, and landed them on the ground block.  Added a ziptie base to secure them on the route up to the block.

Got word today that my avionics are ready to be picked up, once I get them some money.  Hopefully by the end of the week, since I don’t have much going on next weekend…it’d be exciting to have the panel fired up by this time next week.  It’s also time to measure for control cables and fuel lines, and order that stuff up, since it’s all made-to-order pieces which may take some time.

More wiring work, running things here and there.  More work on wiring the switch row; almost complete.  Started tying up some bundles.  Temporarily mounted the annunciator lights so they can be wired.  Ran out of 22ga wire.  Soldered the jacks on the Pmag serial wires, drilled and mounted to the subpanel along with a label indicating their purpose.  Tested the P-lead wires, established routing for the wires going to the Pmags, and moved the adel clamps on the cases to the opposite corners, where they will be correctly positioned for clamping the wires.  Made up leads with terminals for grounding the ignitions and secured them to the mounting studs.  I need to order a fistful of 5/16 lockwashers to replace the ones I’ve loosened adjusting stuff on the engine.

Sprayed another coat of black paint on the backlight switch channels, then carried on running wires.  I’m working left-to-right on the panel switches, and made it through about half of them tonight, including the master and starter…tested both with their switches.  I also discovered that my battery was dead because I left the master on after the last work session.  Sigh…so I busted out the battery charger and hooked it up, left it on to charge for awhile.  I bought the Odyssey charger/maintainer, so I could just leave it on to float charge the battery and keep it topped off.  Ran power and p-lead out to the Pmags, as well, and tested the power-side switchology for the Pmags to make sure it was wired correctly.  Will test the p-leads tomorrow, so that I know they’re right before hooking them up to the ignitions.

I often find myself bouncing around the project lately, where I may be working on three little jobs at once in different parts of the shop…waiting for paint to dry on a couple things, for instance, while drilling something and wiring something else.  So when I sit down at the end of the day to write these logs, it’s sometimes challenging to think back and remember everything I did that day.  Pictures help, but I’ve had a bad time remembering to take a photo of every little job, too.

Today’s work…

• Riveted the right cabin heat control bracket to the vent bracket, which was then riveted to the side skin.  Installed the control cable and secured it, which required some modification to the firewall passthru, as the cable was just slightly loose in the eyeball.  I used a flat file to shave just a bit off the flat side of each ball halve, which allowed it to get a firm grip on the cable and secure it in place.  Cut the casing and cable to length and assembled.  Installed the right side vent nozzle.

• Traced the spare round-gauge hole, and the autopilot head hole, onto scrap stock and cut it out to make filler panels for those cutouts, since they will not have instruments installed in the until phase two of the panel.
• Fabricated angles for mounting the radio stack to the panel.  Waiting to drill them to the panel until the radios are in hand, in case the width of the trays is a bit off of the width of the panel cutout.
• Cut a hole in the subpanel behind each EFIS screen to pass the wiring harnesses and pressure tubing.  Also put a hole in the lower right subpanel for the wiring feeds to the switches on that side of the panel, in addition to the hole that’s already made for running cable to the dimmer module.  I have a couple sizes of nice rubber grommets from McMaster, in addition to an assortment of snap bushings that I bought from Van’s awhile back; finding the right size for a particular hole is easy.

• Wired up the dimmer pots and interior light switches, then dropped the panel in to test them out.  While the panel was in, I ran wire for the accessory power jack and the music input jack next to it (though this wire may end up being a placeholder, if this wire is already in the harness from Stein).

• Ran a wire to each Pmag for the serial port connection.  I will bring each of these to a jack on the subpanel for ease of connection with the computer utility.  The rear-mounted APRS transmitter will have a similar jack on the baggage bulkhead for programming.
• Test-fit the CO/SpO2 sensor.  Can’t use washers on these screws, because the mounting holes on the piece are too close to the protruding bezel.  Decided I need to get some #10 capscrews for the throttle quadrant mount to the panel, which should work better than bolts due to clearances (sockets were getting wedged in place).

• Cut the plastic U-channels for the switch backlights, and painted them black.  Cut LED strips to length for each piece of channel (3 total), and soldered leads to them.  After testing them, it looks like another layer of paint will be necessary; the light bleeds through the sides of the channel.

Spent the day working on various items, mostly in the cabin area.

• Hooked up the Garmin GPS 18x-5Hz to power and a computer to program & test it out.  Solid lock even inside the house.
• Printed real labels for the various wires I had labelled with tape after I ran out of label stock.
• Installed a connector on the #2 OAT sensor, installed it in the wing, and added connectors to the wing end of the OAT cable for both sensors.

• Drilled the #2 EFIS tray to the panel, the #1 tray will come with the avionics order…hopefully next week!
• Deburred and primed the panel and riveted the top angle on, after removing a bit of one ear on the angle to allow for the #1 EFIS tray.
• Riveted the canopy seal support angles to the subpanel.
• Removed the right side panel-subpanel  rib as I did earlier on the left; though I spaced the radio stack to not interfere with the rib, the angle to mount the stack would overlap the rib, and there would be no clearance for the mounting nuts.  This could be shortened by the thickness of the angle and mounted behind it, or (easier) moved to the right by 3/4″ of an inch of so.
• Added nutplates to the panel flange, and the subpanel bracket, to bolt the throttle quadrant mount to.  I’m making a conscious effort/decision to use nutplates under the panel, and have bolt/screw heads face down, so that future maintenance will be easier.  Also any electrical connection that must be made with solder (such as master and starter switches) will have a connector inline, to allow the component to be removed and serviced on the bench, rather than soldering in situ, laying on my back working over my head.
• Fabricated a bracket that straddles the throttle quadrant, to allow mounting of the fuel purge and center cabin heat controls on either side.  Painted and temporarily installed with the quadrant to work out cable routing.  Quadrant and bracket are mounted via the same bolts, and the bracket dresses out the quadrant install well, I think.

• Finished installing the firewall eyeballs for the throttle, mixture, and center cabin heat controls.  These buggers are time consuming…but only two left (purge & alt air).

• Fit the center cabin heat cable and figured out the cable route.  Put the right seat in to sit and work out a location for the right-side heat cable.  Decided to put it under the right air vent, against the sidewall.  So, fabricated a mounting bracket and painted for installation tomorrow.
• Riveted the left side vent bracket in place and installed the vent.  (Right side tomorrow, after the heater cable bracket is attached to it.)

Passed 1200 hours in this session.

Cleaned up the bench and found the countersink cutter, so I countersunk the vent brackets and panel top, then pulled everything apart for deburring and primer.  The panel won’t be primed/painted yet, as it will need more drilling and such to mount the avionics.

Wired the map lights and baggage lights to the dimmer module, temporarily connected the dimmer pots, and put some power to it; it’s fun to see things light up.  I also clamped an LED strip along the bottom of the subpanel to test if it would work for cabin/footwell lighting.  It did, so I installed that as well, though the wiring is not yet final.

Drilled the large holes in the firewall for the throttle, mixture, and center cabin heat cables.  Tomorrow I’ll drill the screw holes to hold the eyeballs in place.

The CNC-cut panel arrived on Thursday so I’ve done a couple hours of fooling around, putting in switches and indicators to play with and show off…I mean, to check that all the holes are correctly sized.  I did find that when I drew the pots for the light dimmers, I mis-measured and put the alignment holes off by a couple 32-nds.  I just filed them into ovals with a tiny round file; the placards will cover it up.  Everything else–at least the pieces I have–fits well.

With the dimmer pots temporarily in the panel, it seemed like a good time to wire them up, so I soldered the cable that runs to the dimmer module to them.  Everything will come out, of course, for more panel construction, but it was easy to solder them seated in decent light.

Also ordered more random stuff from Mouser (connectors, switches I forgot to order, extra switch hardware and locking rings), McMaster (channel for the backlighting, cap screws, washers), AFS (tray & harness for the second screen prewire), plus a Garmin 18x 5Hz GPS, which will feed position info to everything onboard in phase 1 of the panel: EFIS, ELT, APRS.

Also heard from the placard engravers, and they should have shipped on Friday.  Now just waiting on avionics, which I’m hoping for in the next couple weeks…AFS said they shipped their portion of it to SteinAir on the 17th.

Word came today that the panel has been CNC cut and shipped…even a picture:

Looks good…should arrive later this week; more details when it does.  Still no word from the placard engravers.