Wire Routing

MORE ….. Avionics Wire work…..

Dec 31, 2013. Hours 30. (Worked this over multiple days)

Over the past Holiday I have been non-stop working on wiring the systems under the dash and throughout the fuselage. I will say that I am not as young and flexible as I used to be and my body lets me know every time I decide to make it do something I think it still can do. Regardless the wiring is moving along despite the long hours of work.

The VPX Pro is 95% wired with the exception of ALT1 and ALT2 connected at the box. All toggle switches are wired except for the IGN Batt 1 and IGN Batt 2 source switch. The three fuses associated with the IGN system are not terminated yet but I do have wires routed for the 5 AMP ECU breakers. I installed a 20 AMP c/b for the external power ports I will be installing throughout the fuselage. The mounting hole for this c/b was not originally planned for in the right side panel.

The two control sticks have been wired in but I still need to locate 9 pin back shells for the d-sub connectors. I shortened the vertical portion of the control stick so the base of the Infinity grip was at the lowest point on the control stick. I did not shorten the horizontal portion of the control stick where is inserts into the control receiver. I will wait to modify this once I receive the seats. With my height only being 5’4″ i am afraid I will encounter issues with having the stick to far back when I have the seat ll the way forward. I plan on creating on more notch to further move the seat forward to help me reach the peddles. If I run into issues I might need to shorten the rudder control cables so I can pull the rudder peddles further aft.

I worked with the GTS-800 coax cables for the upper and lower antennas. I cut off the EXTREMELY expensive QMA connectors that Garmin supplies. I had to cut 4 of them off since I could not properly route them throughout the fuselage to the overhead with the 90 degree connectors. This cost me and extra $145 dollars. Had I understood the price of these I would HAVE NEVER ALLOWED Stein’s guys to terminate the cables for me and “test” the GTS-800. Overall the routing went well and the cables are installed top and bottom.

Everyday I go out to the fuselage and work on the wiring. It seems that nothing ever changes. I know work is getting done, but this has been rather challenging to keep an upbeat attitude. I hope to work the wing root connectors and the two push pull cables for the heater controls. I also hope to install the switch for disconnecting the ground to the copilot stick so that a nonflying passenger will not affect the electrical controls on the stick.

I also worked with the ELT and extended the 4 wire “telephone” cable to reach the dash. I also mounted the ELT orange noise box with velcro to the right side under the dash. This box contains a battery and so does the dash mounted control.. These two items will need to have a battery installed and have the dates tracked for battery replacement.

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Engine

Engine and EFII Ign

Dec 31, 2013. (1 month delayed)

Engine and EFII update. The engine was ready for delivery just prior to Thanksgiving but I decided to have the EFII Dual Ignition system installed at Barrett so they could run it on the dyno. With a couple of wiring issues on the dyno the EFII system did not operate at full throttle. It is believed the power source for the IGN coils (three of them) was not adequate enough to supply ample power to the coils at the higher RPM ranges. Thus causing the engine to run perfect at idle and lower RPMs but at higher RPMs it failed to operate correctly.

All the EFII parts including the ring gear were sent back back to Robert where he bench tested the units once again. He originally did this prior to shipping them out to Barrett. Nothing was found to be an issue and so the parts are en-route to Barrett. I am not sure if Barrett will have the time to dyno the engine with the EFII systems but it would be a great comparison to the mag dyno run.

Time will tell if the issue was related to smaller than recommended gauge wiring for the EFII setup on the dyno, but I am behind now on the project because of this set back. I was originally going to use the time my dad spent with us for the holidays to mount the engine while I worked the avionics. Over 1 month set back.

Robert at EFII and Rhonda and Allen at Barrett have all been great to work with throughout this and have been very responsive.

Fuselage Section 44, Wing Attachment

Wing Root Panels

Nov 30th, 2013 3 hours.

My father worked on the Upper and Lower Wing Root Fairings by priming and the riveting the F-1099 stiffeners onto them. Simple task and he learned a new riveting method, back (flush) riveting.

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Avionics Wire Routing

Panel Work Continued

Nov 26-27th, 2013, 20 hours.

More worked continued on the panel wiring. Not much to report. Working towards finalizing the panel the best I can before installing it onto the fuselage.

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Avionics Section 32, Tailcone Attachment

Top Tailcone Skin, Upper FWD Fuselage Skin Attached, Tire Tube change

6 Hours on Nov 29th,
My folks came into town for Thanksgiving. So my dad and I decided to final rivet the F-1074 Top Tailcone Skin, the upper FWD Fuselage Skin and sub assembly that holds the entire panel and avionics into place. The install went easy as e added firewall sealant and all associated rivets except for the top skin rivets where the cowl will attach later. .

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Engine

Our Barrett Precision Engine (BPA) comes to life !!!!

Today I received a call from Allen, owner of Barrett Precision Engine, to let me know that our Lycoming IO-540-X engine, S/N BPE-11358 came alive today (Dec 3rd, 2013) on the dyno stand at Barrett. I don’t have the official paper work but he advised me the engine produced 301.93 HP @ 2701 RPM. Allen mentioned this is one of the best 9:1 compression Lyc IO-540 engines he has built. Regardless of the comment I am extremely happy with the results.

I originally had the EFII dual ignition system installed by Barrett so he could run the engine with the system. I believe this would be the first time Barrett has run the EFII system. Everything went fine until 2400 RPM. So the system was removed, mags put on and then run for initial break in. The EFII system is being sent back to Robert and they will give it a once over and verify if anything is amiss. Either it is a system issue or install issue but regardless I look forward to seeing the resolution to the problem soon. I was hoping Barrett would put the engine back on the stand with the EFII system installed so we can confirm proper operation and get a comparison against the mag run. I have confidence it’s not a system or install issue but likely a wire labeling issue or something that simple that caused possible crank sensors to be connected wrong. This is an assumption on my part…. We shall see…

    Engine Data from build:

Built Factory New Limits
New Cylinders
All mandatory parts replaced plus any additional parts not meeting new parts limits
New Airflow Performance fuel injection system, FM-300
BP’s patented Cold Air Induction
9.1 compression cylinders
Sky Tec 149 NL starter
Dynamic balanced rotating assembly

Avionics Mounting Avionics

Panel Work continued

Nov 20-25. Hours 48

I continued working the panel with routing of wires and termination of various system wire to various system parts. I was able to connect many of the VPX-Pro connections but will still have mare to terminate once the panel fuselage piece is riveted in place. I terminated as many wires as I could for the O2 system and CO system while I had the panel laying in the apartment hangar.

I had to correct a couple of pins that connect to the Garmin GMU22. A ground wire and RS232 wire was in the wrong locations from Stein. I added the O2 and CO2 audio wires to the PMA8000BT audio panel. I wired the passenger audio mute function on J2-13,14 together. AUX enable goes low when AUX button is on. May be used for passenger mute inhibit by connection to pin 13.

I wired in the Cabin 2-way light switch and the Tie Down light switch plus a switch to control the AC Compressor independent of the AC Control module. This switch will light up (internal led) when the AC Control module is commanding the AC Compressor on, but the AC Compressor will not turn on until the switch is filled up to the ON position. This is so I can control the AC Compressor and know when the AC Control module is commanding it to be on.

I removed several of the voltage and amperage measuring wires from the GAD29 since the VP-X will handle the processing of the information and then hand off this to the G3X.

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Avionics Mounting Avionics

Aerosport Panels Arrive

Not sure on the date of when the Aerosport panels arrived since I got rather busy with work and other things going on. My best guess is they arrived in early November.

Date Nov 7th, 2013, 16 hours

I spent much of my time beginning to understand what the task at hand was. I laid most of the components out in the panel. There were several holes and tolerances that were either wrong size (too small). Some of the holes being smaller actual was ok since I hadn’t determined the final LED signal light I wanted to use yet until I saw it on the panel. One of the dimmer control knobs is rather close to the Left PFD but this is likely a non issue.

I continued with understanding how to mount the avionics trays. This took a bit of effort to get them correctly aligned where I wanted them. I used various support behind the panel to anchor the trays to each other and to the sub panels. I believe I have captured enough attach point to secure the trays and the weight they will be holding.

Date Nov 9th, 2013, 8 hours

I then started on wiring. I introduced the harness to the sub panel for the first time and got a good look at the real “task at hand”. I put the VPX Pro back into place to understand how the harness routing would be effected. I did change the way I was going to originally route the harness since it quickly appeared that I could not route all the cable thru an opening I had originally thought would work. It would have worked if I had attached the harness to the back of the trays before installing them but either way the over goal was still captured. Many hours spent on basic harness routing and planning.

Date Nov 10th, 2013, 8 hours

Harness termination begins. I started with connecting the VPX Pro to various connections coming from the harness. I decided to not connect the CO monitor to the GEA24 Discrete In 2 J244-42. I choose to not connect this since I have a dedicated yellow LED in the panel. I disconnected the Trim, Aileron and Flap Position sensor wiring form the GEA24 unit. The VPX Pro is sending the Trim, Aileron and Flap Position sensor status to the MFD via RS232. I removed the Main Bus Volts wiring J244-25 and Main Amps J244-36/37 to allow the VPX Pro to provide this information to the MFD.

Date Nov 16th, 2013, 8 hours

Wired the AFS AOA, CO unit and defrost fans.

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Avionics G3X Components

Mounting G3X Components

Oct 27, 2013. 5 hours.

I decided I had a fairly good idea for the locations of the G3X components and so I started to lay them out on the sub panel. I tried my best to make everything fit as I thought they should be oriented for best access and routing of wires. I had to add support for the mounting of the GSU-25 to make the sub panel more rigid.

GSU 25 provides the following functions:

Avionics GNC-305 Autopilot Control Panel

Mounting GNC-305 Autopilot Control Panel

Oct 26th, 2013. 2 Hours

I mounted the GNC-305 Autopilot Control Panel this weekend. There will be an aluminum panel that will act as a face plate to help cover the hole that are used for mounting the veneer control cables since the bezel of the GNC-305 doesn’t cover them. Since i don’t have the Al plate yet I decided to cut the main mounting hole and fitted the GNC-305 in place. Simple and straight forward.

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