Time: 7 Hours
Today I started the fabrication of the shelf that will hold my two COM radio units and the ADS-B receiver, which allows me to get traffic and weather information. I’m following Glenn’s lead on the style and placement, just forward of the elevator bell crank under the rear baggage top shelf.
I notched out the aft end to allow for plenty of clearance with the bell crank. The outside edges are 1/8″ wider than the radio units and will allow the attach hardware to have plenty of room. In between the part making I primed the other shelf I already finished.
I ran home for lunch and my grommet edging arrived from Aircraft Spruce, this will line any metal holes that wires go through that is too big for regular grommets.
When I got back to the hangar I cleaned up the parts of the COM shelf and countersunk the holes on the sheet for flush rivets. Once all the parts where some I started priming them. In between coats of primer I riveted the ADHARS shelf together and put it in its place.
When the primer for the COM supports was dry I riveted the aft pieces together. I had to make the support out of three parts to allow for the cut out where the bell crank is.
While I was waiting for the sheet to dry I drilled all the nutplate holes for the COM shelf. I had to countersink the holes using my angle drill since there isn’t much room there. The pneumatic squeezer made quick work of the riveting.
While I was working on the nutplates I noticed that I forgot to install the second flexible conduit on the right side of the fuselage. This side required a new hole to be drilled in the middle floor rib as there wasn’t one there like the left side. I used my step bit and had that done pretty quick. I ran the conduit and secured it with zip ties.
Another task I got done was to run the static air lines to the ports I had Pro-Sealed the other day. I ran from one port to a tee then to the other port. From the tee I went through a adele clamp and to a 90° elbow. Later I will run a line from that elbow to the two ADAHRS units.
As you can see in a couple of the last photos I have some paper templates of the ADAHRS units. I used the actual dimensions from the Dynon Skyview manual and plugged them into my vinyl cutting software. I then printed the outline and text using that software to my printer. The software also adds three registration marks that when I take the printed card stock and put it into my vinyl cutter it scans those marks and knows the exact layout. It then makes precision cuts along the edge and gives me an exact size template of the units. I used them to help build and align the rivet pattern for the avionics units. That’s where I stopped for the day. Tomorrow I will finish up the COM shelf and work on the ELT and Transponder mounting brackets.
