Author Archives: Michael

Forward Top Skin

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Time: 6 Hours

I started today with the intention of building the Vertical Power VP-X power connectors to clean up the area behind the instrument panel. What I found was the crimper that I bought from Aircraft Spruce, even though they recommend it just for this task,  was the wrong one according to Chad from VP.  

 These power connectors are very specific and need a specialized crimper. I emailed Cahd and he let me know that they have several that they loan out for free minus shipping as they are expensive, $380, to buy. He said he would ship one out at the end of the week. So I decided to stop the wiring and move on to actual building which I haven’t done for a while. The next task in the plans is to work on the forward upper skin and its parts. After cleoko’ing the skin in place I worked on the two support ribs that attach the aft sides of the skin to the windscreen roll bar. These ribs needed to be match drilled to the skins holes while making sure that edge distances are maintained. I took my time to make sure I didn’t damage the roll bar as I drilled.  

    
 One other thing I did to this area was to draw a line vertically matching the side skin below it. I have read in several blogs that guys have been cutting this piece of the skin off so the line from the side skin travels up evenly. This also allows for the canopy skirt to sit better from what I have read. So I decided to do the same and cut these tabs off. You can see the area or line in the middle photo above. Once I had all the holes match drilled I removed the skin and other parts to be deburred and dimpled.  

 Before I dimpled the skin I rolled the lower edge of the left and right side to help the skin lay on top of the side skins.  

 After the skin was done I moved to the instrument panel support structure and dimpled its flange along with the forward baggage aft walls flange. With those done I was able to rivet the instrument panel structure to the side skins as well as the top eight rivets that were left open to get the structure in place.  

    

 While I had the river gun and bucking bar out I finished the row of rivets on the right side forward skin where I had left open so I could work on the support angle on the inside for my new battery cover.  
 Not a lot of photos but a lot of work today, mainly deburring and edge work. 

  

Pilot Headset Jack’s

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Time: 2 Hours

I also worked on the pilot headset jacks today. I first figured out exactly where I wanted to put these. My first thought was on the right side as you enter the aircraft from the left and that would keep the cords out of the way. The second was to put them out of they way of anything else. The right gear tower seemed like the best spot to house these. I could have put them on a couple of areas that would have been vertical, meaning the plugs would have been pointing straight down as the were inserted. I didn’t like this as the jacks would be a dust collection problem. We see this in our consoles in the Lear 45’s at work. So I did some measuring and came up with a good placement on the gear tower making sure that there were no items, like wires or brake lines, that were in the way. I then drilled the holes and cleaned them up. Next was to solder the wires on and put them in place.  

    
   Very happy with the location and just ticked all the extra wire with the rest of the intercom bundles that I’ll work on later. 

Music Jack

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Time: 2 Hours

One option to with Dynon SV-INTERCOM is to have a mutable 3.5mm music jack. The intercom itself has one built into the face of it and I will use my iPhone on that one. I decided to put one in the back next to the USB charging port for my passenger. This will allow the passenger to play music or any audio like a movie on an iPad in the back. The audio will play through our headsets. The nice feature of the Dynon intercom is that this audio will auto mute when any transmition comes from ATC so you don’t miss a call. This jack is pretty small and has three tabs, L, R and ground. I soldered a three conductor shielded wire to it and ran it all the way to the area where the intercom will be placed.  

    
    
    
    
   Cool little item for those long cross-country flights!

Switch Backers and Headset Jacks

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Time: 4 Hours

Since I had the switch panels now I decided to finish up the work needed to install the switches. What I really needed to do was fabricate some backer plates that will give structure and help lock the switches into position. The first this was to do was match drill all the holes in the plate. The second thing to do was drill small holes that correspond to the anti-rotation washer. These washers have a tab on the inner side to match to a notch in the switch threads. They also have a tab on the outer edge that will match to the hole in the backer plate. What this does is secure the washer to the plate so it doesn’t spin. The inner tab doesn’t allow the switch to spin and holds the switch in place.  

   So now that I have both the left and right backers finished I can clean them up to prime and paint the side consoles for their final color. Once those dry I will stick the switch placard on and install all the switches minus the seat heat since it will come with the seats later. I didn’t want to paint yet since we were both in the shop and the fumes get bad I moved on to another task. I got a few new soldering items and planned on building the headset jacks starting with the passengers. The head phone and mic jack look identical except the holes are different sizes. They both have three components, a ground, a ring and a tip. Each of these parts has a a tab that is associated with it and is where you connect a wire. These wires get soldered to the tabs. This is a new skill for me and watched a few videos including the EAA’s to get a good idea of how to do it properly.  

 I made sure to put a small piece of shrink tube on each of the wires before soldering the wire so I could protect it after it was finished.   

  After getting both the phone and mic soldered and cleaned up with heat shrink I put them into their place and fished the wires up to the instrument panel. I bought isolation washers from SteinAir that make sure the jacks do not touch the metal of the airplane as this can cause real problems with their operation.  

    
   

   In the one photo you can see the pile of wires, most of which will be going to the intercom. Next I need to decide where I want to put the pilot headset jacks and wire them.