As most of you all know I’m pretty much back in the saddle as far as flying is concerned in my attempt to finish up my Instrument Pilot’s rating.  Unfortunately, I’m definitely not in the saddle where the build is concerned.  In fact, the horse is in the barn and won’t really be ridden for another month or two as far the build.

I have been occasionally taking a break from studying here and there to get a bit of planning and scheming in on some of the miscellaneous electrical stuff that I have yet to finalize.

So, I thought I would provide a quick update on some of the pieces-parts that I’ve found to help further my cause.  First off, I finally found a good, cheap basic heater fan resistor coil for my oil heat system.  I got this off of Amazon for about $5.  Not bad, and so far it looks like it will definitely work.

Here’s the backside of the oil heater fan resistor coil.  However, since it didn’t come with any specs I had test each of the coil circuits for their resistance values and create a truth table to verify what was what.  It took about 10 minutes, but I verified the entire circuitry of the heater fan resistor coil.

I also ordered a heated seat pad kit for the front seat and/or possibly both front & aft seats (if I can make it work).  The wiring is fairly straightforward and the whole thing will come in under 0.8 lbs. installed.  I think I mentioned it before, but I will be wiring both the heated seat warmers and the oil heat system through a DPDT relay so that only one system can be powered on at any given time.  This is of course to ensure that the charging system, main power bus, and/or battery isn’t overtaxed beyond the capability of my 40A alternator.

Finally, when I spoke with Rich at Aircraft Extras about adding new AG6 warning screens (shown below) to a couple of new chips for me, I added a bottle of canopy cleaner and a tire air nozzle extension to the order to optimize shipping costs.

Here are the 2 new AG6 chips that Rich programmed for me.  To be clear, he just didn’t simply program them willy-nilly, but went off a fairly detailed spreadsheet that I created for him that listed out the majority of the field parameters.

The 2 new AG6 chips include a verified screen description number to display Canopy “Locked” (versus simply “Closed”) . . .

And an updated EZ binary version of Landing Brake Up and Down (versus the already programmed Landing Brake “On” and “Off”) . . .

Along with 2 completely new alarm conditions and screen displays:  RAM Air Open and Closed (to ensure I close the RAM air scoop to keep FOD out of the engine) and IBBS Low Volts (IBBS-specific low voltage alarm to show the back-up battery is not charging or is under charged).  I had Rich program these alarm screens as yellow since they fall more in the caution category in my opinion, but I can easily change the colors later on if I want.

That’s pretty much all I have to report for now.  I have of course been making notes of any potential system updates or mods as I run across them, but for the most part I’ve either been flying or studying over the past week or so.