Tuesday, November 13, 2018

Work continues on avionics trays, service bulletin SB 18-09-17 done

I've been working on avionics placement: this is challenging in many ways.  I've had to re-configure both drop-down trays as I test fit everything.  Part of the challenge is that the panel delivered from Steinair has the entire wiring harness attached to it - since the panel is not that strong until all the avionics are mounted and it's mounted to the panel frame, it's not practical to move it back and forth to the airplane for fitting.   So I continually test fit everything "remotely" and carefully measure (and use templates of various types) to get to the point where I'm ready to move the panel and harness "en bloc" to the airplane.

My friend Chris came over yesterday to help me with mounting com radio and also to help me complete the service bulletin (link: http://vansaircraft.com/pdf/service_bulletins/sb18-09-17.pdf ).  This required removal of a number of rivets on the bottom of the aft fuselage, crawling inside the airplane to match drill two clips on either side that attach to stiffeners on the bottom skin, deburr these, then rivet them onto the aft ends of stiffeners and the bulkhead.  On the middle stiffener, a doubler is attached on the outside with internal doublers that "sandwich" the aft end of the stiffener with the bulkhead structure and the external doubler.  No photos of this yet.



Fitting tray for standby battery and backup alternator regulator - this fits inside the glovebox opening and attaches the lip of the doubler in this opening and a horizontal brace on the firewall.  I also made a plate to fit inside the glovebox opening above this shelf.  I will mount the bracket that holds the avionics relay and all the power distribution to electronics/avionics on this plate:





Installed:



Drop down tray on co-pilot side for transponder (in tray on bottom) and engine interface - GEA 24 -  (installed the d-sub connectors will face inboard).  I also will mount the CO detector on the top tray outboard of the GEA 24:


Test fitting the pilot-side drop-down tray:  I had to modify this to clear wiring but basic configuration is the same.   Garmin GAD 27 fits on bottom part of tray and GAD 29 on top: I had to purchase 90-degree adapters for the d-sub connectors on GAD 29 to get the connectors to fit here.

Remote Com 2 (GTR20) test fit on pilot side subpanel (now permanently mounted):


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