Author Archives: Michael

Camera Mounts

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Time: 2 Hours

I decided for the exterior camera mounts I would go with FlightFlix Rock Steady mounts. I liked the quality, hardware and pricing of these but there are several brands to choose from. I have watched a lot of videos produced over the years and knew the particular views I wanted to capture. One was in the cockpit looking at the instrument panel but could also be turned around to view the passenger. The next was the view from the wingtip looking at the side of the aircraft with the pilot in the center. The other view was from high on the tail looking forward using a wide view getting a “birdseye“ view that gets the wingtip to wingtip perspective. The mounts can use a machined aluminum dove tail that can be mounted with a screw anywhere. Then they have a “knuckle” that clamps onto the dovetail on one end and the other end can clamp a ball that’s machined from aluminum and has a GoPro style attachment for the camera. This setup allows for any and all angles to be set.

I only have one camera now but will be ordering two more when they are in stock. These are gonna make for some great videos of flights.

Garmin VIRB Audio

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Time: 2 Hours

I had planned on having several Garmin VIRB cameras on the RV to record some great angles while flying. One cool feature of the cameras and other is that you can record audio from the intercom and air traffic control as you are recording video. This adds a really cool aspect to videos and lets your viewers get the whole experience. In order to do this you need a cable that intercepts the audio that the headset hears. The cable plugs into the jack that the headset plugs into and then you plug the headset into the cable. There is another cable that comes off that setup and plugs into the camera. This all works great but doesn’t look good with all the cables running everywhere. I could do better so that’s what I did. I decided to run a second headset jack, just the one for the output and not the microphone, that is tapped off the passengers jack and run it to the sidewall support aft of the pilot seat back. I created little storage areas there with small sidewalks for things like checklists. I figured I could install the jack down inside there and you wouldn’t see it. Then I could plug the cable in there and run the other end straight up to the camera. This keeps the cable all cleaned up and looks a lot better.

I powered up the RV and turned on the camera to record. I played a little music from iPhone and waited for some traffic to make call while in the pattern. Everything recorded great and the music muted when someone made a call on the traffic frequency. I can’t wait to see some of the cool videos I will make in the future!

Propellor Installed

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Time: 2 Hours

Now that we were home with the propellor it was time to get it installed and see how the engine cowl fit. I cut and installed the cowl a long time ago based on measurements from Hartzell and the late Jon Thocker. I asked a couple local pilot/A&P friends to assist me. The process is pretty easy and straight forward. I guessed on what spacing I needed on the spinner backplate which is adjustable with washers and spacers to get the gap between the aft edge of the spinner and forward edge of the cowl.

The spacing on the spinner was a little tight so I adjusted the washers to give a little more clearance. I couldn’t get the lower cowl installed with the cowl lip baffles installed. The material I used is thicker than what Vans supplies and is less flexible. So I removed them and installed the cowl. The fit is ok but still tight and I’ll need to fix that. The spacing on the cowl ring in relation to the spinner was perfect, it has about 3/16” adjustment for future engine sag which allows the engine to slower slightly due to the rubber engine mounts compressing.

What an exciting day! The propellor is installed and all the painstaking work we did to try and get the fit just right based on nothing more than rough measurements paid off. It’s getting close now!

Hartzell Propellor

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Time: 0 Hours

Vans emailed early this week that my propellor was finished. I quickly emailed Hartzell and set up a time to pick it up. We had originally planned on staying in the Dayton area to visit the Air Force Museum as well as tour the Hartzell facility. unfortunately due to the virus we were unable to do that so it was just a quick trip down to pick up the propeller and return home. To say we were excited to go done and pick it up was an understatement. This is a huge part of the build and are excited to get it installed.

Passenger iPad

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Time: 0 Hours

We got our new iPad mini delivered from Apple last week. So I mounted it in the back seat for the passenger to see flight information or watch a movie. I used Ram Mount parts including a 1” ball round bar mount, the large arm and the low profile case. This set up is sturdy and allows the iPad to be tucked up under the roll bar. The Dynon system allows for the flight information to be displayed on the iPad via a WiFi connection.