Hi Folks,

ALL painted components have been buffed out and ceramic coated and are back in my shop, except the left wing which Guy Williams and I took straight to my hangar from Phil’s shop.

I am now primarily focused on the electrical system install and expect to start the avionics install in earnest in the next week or two.

Somewhat concurrently, I’m working to get the rudder/brake pedals configured and installed, along with the brake lines, master cylinders and reservoirs plumbed. 

Coming up soon will be the balancing, rigging and final installation of all the control surfaces.

…getting exponentially closer to finish every day!

I’m getting a lot done on the electrical system install for certain, but admittedly a lot of it is organization, administrivia, wire & component labeling, and final circuitry determinations.

Not shown is my final numbering and labeling of the relay deck that will soon be installed on the top of the Tri-Paragon.

Amazon delivered my inline ATC fuse holders with 18 ga leads (vs the ones with massive 12-14 AWG leads from all the aviation/automotive outlets).  I thought I had ordered another set with 20 ga leads, but apparently both showed up with the 18 ga leads. Regardless, I quickly used these as integral components in my new HXr EFIS & AHRS Master switch sub-harness, replete with a 5-pin Molex connector (I had no preferred 3 or 4 pin Molex connectors on hand) to allow me to split the circuit for physical switch installation into the panel.

Why the inline fuses?  Because on the GRT forum one of the GRT techs stated that power circuits should be fused AFTER any switch (I’ll note that’s NOT stated in the manual).

Why the Molex connector?  Again, because this switch (like its twin RAM air valve switch) mounts from the front of the panel inward.

Once all my switch sub-harness creation and labeling was complete, I then installed the switch into the instrument panel… another domino knocked down, one at a time!

I then installed the ALT FIELD circuit breaker . . .

and then made up and installed the 18 AWG cross connect wire between it and the Master Switch.

I then worked for about 2 hours finishing up the circuitry and wiring change to the P1 nose gear motor connector (front of NG-30 cover/center of pic) segment to the P2 connector (right side of NG-30 cover/top of pic).  I finished up terminating pins and soldering wire segments to add 4 previously loose wires into the P2 connector (front half, “P2A”) before wrangling all the wires together.

Tomorrow, I’ll physically install the P2 connector to the NG-30 mounting tab with screws and finish terminating wires into the aft side of the connector (P2B).

My final task of the evening, which I spent another couple hours on, was the routing of the wire bundle coming from the aft part of the airplane through the newly installed Adel clamp on the sidewall.  I had to pull some shorter wires out that will need wire segments spliced onto them to extend them to reach their final connection points.  I also spent a good 30-45 minutes tracking down wires that I couldn’t find any labeling for (Yes, lesson learned that I should have labeled the VERY END of each wire… <sigh> but it is what it is… ).  I also identified and labeled the multi-wire cables before calling tonight’s tasks done.

Yep, it was very late (well after midnight) by the time I finished, and I was quite ready to pack it in for the evening.  More to come tomorrow . . .

Today was supposed to be the first of a 3 day blitz where all focus would be on wiring up the bird, with small sideline tasks here or there.  As you read below you’ll discover, as I did, that a major portion of my time today was spent with ‘Fein’ saw and Dremel tool in hand making a lot of dust as I cut out stuff to allow the ELT to both install in place and the clasps to work as designed.  So my 5-10 minute “minor” task of installing the ELT mounting tray literally turned into a nearly 3 hour task… but it’s in!

Read on Dear Reader…

I started off today installing my padded carbon fiber wire-flattening plate and zip-tying that into place, before determining that I needed a -11 Adel clamp up higher.  Again, this wire bundle is all the wires coming from the aft of the aircraft —that I had originally planned to run up the edge of the right outboard leghole edge— and it needs to be secured to the sidewall as flat as possible to keep out of the way of the elevator control tube.

After determining the best spot for the Adel clamp to secure the wire bundle, I then drilled a hole, prepped a RivNut and then floxed it into the sidewall.

To keep the floxed in RivNut pressed against the sidewall nice and tight I used one of my clamps as a spreader for a few hours while the flox (MGS 335 with fast hardener) cured.

My planned “sideline” (read: non-electrical related) task for the day was removing the GIB seat cores, straightening out the Velcro attach strips, which included trimming the Velcro and cutting it at the seams of the back seat hole covers and around the thigh support sump tank covers.

With the GIB seat cores out of the bird, I then finalized the hardware install on the GIB control stick, with the top castellated nut requiring a cotter pin.

My next “quick kill” was to be a 10 minute install of the ELT mounting tray.  I have to say this went south from the get-go, since after finally finding the right length #6 screws I promptly installed the tray with the securing straps in place… only to find that I missed the stamped “FRONT” and “BATTERY” markings on the straps.  Of course, I had them reversed.  Another 5 minutes to fix those.  Not bad… done, right?!

Yeah, until I actually mounted the ELT into the tray.

I quickly found that the aft/battery end of the ELT couldn’t seat due to the pilot thigh support tab being too wide front to aft.  So I marked that for trim (pic 1) and trimmed ‘er up.  After 2 rounds of trimming and vacuuming up the mess, the ELT actually fit and seated into place.  Success!  . . . right?!

Uh, no.

I then found that the vertical support rib for the pilot thigh support (to ELT’s right) was not allowing the ELT strap clasp handles to flip downward to allow engaging the tang on the clasp (pic 2).

Also, with the ELT seated fully down in its tray, it still wasn’t allowing the thigh support cover to seat into place.  Clearly some relief was needed, so I quickly marked a strip on the aft corner underside of the thigh support plate for cutting…

Which I did next.  After checking its fit, I’ll glass it later.

I then spent the next hour using my Fein saw and Dremel tool to cut a notch on the forward end of the thigh support rib and a channel on the aft side, all to simply allow flipping the ELT strap clasp handles up and down enough for the loop to engage the tang on the tray.   This involved iterations of tray and ELT in, then out for cutting, as well as constantly reorienting the blade on the Fein saw to get the proper angle… and not inadvertently cut anything that didn’t require it!

My perseverance won out and I finally got the darn ELT installed (without connections of course)… Voila!  While it put up a valiant fight, I won the battle!

The cherry on top was that the pilot thigh support cover fit back into place nicely after the aft corner notch was created… again, I’ll glass that later.

After all that unexpected time spent on the ELT install, the right sidewall installed RivNut flox had cured, and I took the spreader clamp out and removed the washer.  Here it is after a quick cleanup.  I’ll let it cure overnight before installing the Adel clamp.

I spent the next hour disassembling the P1 connector (lower right corner) and the P2 connector (upper left corner) to remove 2 unneeded wires in my quest to replace the “Gear UP transit” and “Gear DN transit” indicator lights with just one “Gear IN Transit” light.

I cut the 2 remaining wires that connect to the gear motor positive and negative leads  to the indicator light and soldered in a diode on each wire.  I then combined the diode leads along with one of the pair of wire leads going into the P2 connector, and soldered those up (black heat shrink in middle of pic).  At the indicator light, the other lead will now go straight to ground.  This allowed me to remove the pin and lead of the remaining wire of this pair since it is now no longer needed.

Clearly, this means a total of 3 pins/wires were removed from the P2 connector.  I do have some loose wires that I will terminate and install into those 3 positions to help clean up the wiring in the nose/NG30 area.  Since my stock of AMP CPC pins were in the house, I’ll do that task tomorrow.

My last task of the evening was installing the 10 amp circuit breaker (CB001) for the nose gear power.  The hardest part of that was weaving the CB with its attached wires in tow through all the myriad of loose wires inside the front of the bird.  But it’s in.

Tomorrow I plan on getting the “ALT FIELD” CB installed, which will leave one left (which is currently attached to the TriParagon, still installed in the mockup panel).

Again, I still plan on focusing primarily on wiring and avionics for the next few days before I break back out onto other tasks.

Another post covering the last 2 days…

Yes, all the electrical system mods and change ‘chickens’ are coming home to roost, and working these changes into the matrix, above and beyond the standard effort to get all the electrical system installed correctly, is proving to be a big time drain.

A simple example is my trimming down the pair of nose gear indicators lights (“Gear UP transit” and “Gear DN transit”) to only one indicator light that depicts simply “Gear in transit.”  Besides verifying the circuitry, this will require disassembling 3 different connector shells, soldering in and heat shrinking a pair of diodes, and repopulating empty connector slots with currently loose wires.  Then tying the ground side of the new sole indicator light to the dimmer circuit. Plus relabeling all the wires involved.  A 2 hour task for REMOVING A LIGHT… Crazy!

I started off today going through my electrical boxes to collect up all the washers for all the instrument panel B&C switches that use FastOn connectors, since those clearly don’t need to be soldered prior to install.

Here we have the left side and center of the panel, with the Fuel Pump switch under the red flip up cover and the 2 center landing light and nav/strobe switches.  Now, I did install the RAM air scoop rocker switch just to the left of the Fuel Pump switch since it has a Molex connector pigtail for connection.

Also, note the bottom left corner panel eyeball vent and center strut RAM ball mount are both installed.

On the right side of the panel we have the “Big 3” switches inside the switch guards: the Master Switch, Electrical Ignition #1 (Electroair), and Electrical Ignition #2 (P-Mag)… all currently un-wired.  However, the P-Mag 3A circuit breaker near the sidewall is actually wired as is the bottom contact of the Auxiliary Alternator (SD-8) 2A circuit breaker.  The other side of that CB will connect to switch 003 in the Warning Annunciator Sub-panel.

Finally, nestled in between the rows of the Big 3 switches and the circuit breakers is the diminutive TACH 1 ↔ TACH 2 switch, which I soldered-terminated its wires and installed.

I will note that after some assessment, I moved the large wire bundle coming from the aft of the aircraft from the edge of the right leg hole to the sidewall, outboard of the elevator control tube.  I actually created a padded plate out of scrap carbon fiber to secure the wire bundle and will install (flox) an Adel clamp threaded insert into the sidewall.

It was all looking fairly tidy until I discovered the bottom connector tab of the P-Mag CB was touching the control stick cable’s securing Adel clamp just above the screw holding it.  Thus I had to mark the offending areas, disassemble everything in that immediate area to grind down both the Adel clamp edge and the circuit breaker bottom tab to allow for about 1/8″ clearance.  Yep, the clearance is tight and minor tasks seemingly unending!

An unexpected break that I did get was when I started deconstructing the mess that was the clear heat shrink over the CS ammeter in the nose battery compartment.  It had 2 layers of clear heat shrink, the final one being too large so that the ends were open and of course the 3 ugly yellow zip ties securing the original heat shrink that came with the CS ammeter, but didn’t quite fit.

Well, apparently by applying heat to the added clear heat shrink, the original cut heat shrink actually shrank to secure itself around the CS ammeter.  Since it is cut to fit, I simply re-affixed the label back in place and then added 2 less conspicuous white zip ties and called it good.

The case of the UGLY CS ammeter has been solved… moving on!

Elsewhere in the nose battery compartment… I nearly forgot to install the 2-wire control connector for the starter contactor.  Another lucky break in that there was a threaded hardpoint that I had originally installed for the battery cable, but decided the angle/ configuration wasn’t correct so left the cable unsecured at that point.  However, that open threaded insert allowed me to secure the control wire connector with an Adel clamp just aft of the starter contactor.

In addition, I replaced the starter contactor’s inline fuse Adel clamp with a slightly larger one and secured BOTH leads of the fuse vs just one.  Much cleaner, and better positions the exiting wires.

Finally, today I met Guy at Phil’s shop to pick up the left wing.  After some final thinking —although I clearly have some work to do on the wing to get it ready for final install— I made the decision to take it to my hangar vs back to my home shop.  Yes, the transition of working on the plane at the hangar vs my home shop has just begun.

Pressing forward!

I started off this morning at Phil’s shop where I loaded up the canopy, the left aileron and the two front wheel pants to take back to my shop. I ran a few errands on the way, and then unloaded it all when I got back home.

I then swapped out vehicles, grabbing my truck and trailer and headed back to Phil’s shop where I wrapped up the canard in prep for hauling it back to my house.

Here we have the canard wrapped up and loaded up on the trailer ready to head back to the shop.  I also loaded up the saw horses in my truck bed.

The weather was very nice today, in the high 60s, so when I arrived back to my house, before unloading the canard, I printed out the labels for the new switch I’m adding on to the instrument panel for the new “HXr EFIS & AHRS MASTER.”  After applying the labels, I then hit them with a mist coat of matte clear coat before I started unloading the truck and trailer.

After another couple of rounds of clear coat, I left the panel outside to cure for a few hours before I installed it into the bird.

Here we have the left side of the panel, with the securing screws in place… which took a good bit of time on the side screws to install due to the lack of clearance with the hex key.

I then ran into another issue in my failing to remember every little nuance of this build, as literally all these little tasks are “coming due” in my final installs of literally every component.  This time it was the lack of screw holes to mount the pair of remote USB ports on the instrument panel for the HXr and Mini-X EFIS thumb drives.

My initial thought was that I was going to have to remove the panel, which again involved the very slow process of installing those screws along the side…. admittedly I was quite annoyed, and really didn’t want to go that route.

I ran out to grab a quick bite since I was starving, and while out I brainstormed some possible courses of action other than removing the now installed panel.  My plan hinged on finding a hex drive 7/64″ drill bit (which thankfully I had on hand) so that I could use my flexible extension to drill these holes, since I couldn’t get a drill with a standard bit in that tight space to do the job.

I had a 2-port USB plate that I got from Steinair (IRRC) that I used as a drill template with clothesline pin halves pressed into the holes as alignment pins.

Here’s how the drill jig setup looked from the front side of the panel.

I have to say it all worked out great, except for one minor issue in that when I installed the top screws it destroyed my “USB” labels that were immediately under the HXr and Mini-X labels.  No big deal as I’ll remake those and apply them under the top screw and then mist them with some clear coat.

As you can see, other than my minor SNAFU it all worked a treat.

With the remote USB ports installed there was one last step to ensure that they were truly operational… I had to insert the thumb drives to test the actual alignment of panel and USB plugs.  Again, they fit great and my sideline task was successful (yet another crisis avoided!).

Here’s a closer up shot of the installed thumb drives and installed USB ports on the upper right side of the instrument panel both on the aft side (pic 1) and the front side (pic 2).

Yep, another task I figured would take about half an hour that ended up taking over 3 hours…

Again, I’m finding that many of these final tasks require extra effort to accomplish since unforeseen issues are cropping up.

Regardless, I am still PRESSING FORWARD!

Ok, another 2-day update here in this post…

I’ll start off with that I have been doing a good bit of research and final verification on my electrical system circuits and component connections, mainly in the stuff handled by the TCW Tech IBBS.

With that said, I started off today by laying protective plastic into the bird once again for a minor mess I plan to make.  I then brought the Warning Annunciator Sub-panel out to the shop and temp mounted it onto the panel.

I traced around the sub-panel with a fine tip Sharpie and marked the centerline and AG6 button locations.

I then removed the panel and figured out where my 2 holes for wire transition through the composite panel and for the ribbon cable connectors for the AG6 annunciator button displays (pic 1).  Once I got it all figured out, I drilled 2 pilot holes (pic 2).

I then used a 3/4″ hole saw to drill out the 2 holes.  Thus the aforementioned mess I referred to.

Here’s a shot on the front side of the panel.

Moving on with messes… but first, a quick recap: here is a pic from over a year ago when I cut the original composite panel to allow installing my new clock/timer, which happens to moonlight as a full up mini-EFIS.  I previously had a 2-1/4″ circle cutout out with the 4 corner 4-40 screws with platenuts on the back side (actually “front”) of the holes to secure the screws.

To fit the MiniUni-2 Clock/EFIS I used the top outboard screw hole as a reference for cutting out the squarish shape of the clock/EFIS as it only mounts to the aluminum panel fascia and otherwise needs clearance through the original composite panel.

Well, I left that tab uncut and now with my plastic sheets still in place for drilling the wire access through holes near top centerline of the panel for the warning annunciator sub-panel, I thought it was a good time to make another mess by eliminating this unneeded tab.

So Voila!  It’s gone.

And yes, besides a fair amount of research (I did touch up paint one of the Vortilons) and planning/organizing/documenting electrical system tasks, this is it for Day 1 [which was a full entire day on the plane build].

Day 2 started out in Phil’s shop… where I RTV’d the left wing Vortilons onto the leading edge after measuring and marking the install points.

Here’s another shot of the 3 installed Vortilons on the left wing, as well as some of the finish work that Phil and Ray did on the wing top.

I then got busy on the N-number application on the left winglet.  After measuring everything out (note the taped-in-place yardstick on the top edge of the winglet to get my reference marks) to get the N-number as close to parallel with 0 W.L. as possible, I applied the vinyl decal.

Here it is, squeegeed out with the protective paper removed.

The longest and most involved task at Phil’s shop was temp mounting the wing trailing edge fences, marking their mounting flanges on tape, and then cutting the tape and getting it back on at the correct angle (I used my 3D printed jigs for the angles).

Anyway, here is the taped off base areas for the trailing edge fences.  Again, the tape is to keep the ceramic coating off these areas which would make RTV’ing these fences in place —which I plan to do after 3-6 months of flying— nearly impossible due to how slick the surface is after ceramic coating.

A good bit more research when I got home, after the buffed out and ceramic coated bottom cowling, right elevator and both aft wheel pants were all put away.

I called TCW Technologies and left a message with one of their techs regarding my question on the IBBS.

In addition, you all may not know that Marco had an odd electrical mishap working on his Long-EZ in his hangar that messed up both his GRT Mini EFISs.  It looks as if an errant short may have damaged them, but the more concerning issue is that both have a 1A circuit breaker to avoid just such an event.  So I had a 1-hour long discussion about that and other avionics related topics with him.

One issue I’m dealing with, both with Marco’s experience (btw, he sent them both in and they are now back installed and working in his bird… but not without a pound of flesh in money for repairing them) and reading the install manual on my HXr EFIS is that it states that an on/off switch (avionics or otherwise) is preferred.  Thus, I am nailing down both the possibility of adding a switch for my HXr EFIS and possibly other panel avionics.  Moreover, I should note that flying back from Rough River 2023 one of Marco’s GRT screens needed to be rebooted, so it would be nice to have that capability as well… which clearly an on/off switch offers me.

There are also questions and requirements for fusing the components getting powered via the IBBS’s X-Bus (powered through and via the IBBS routinely, before any backup power function kicks in).

Finally back out in the shop I did a lot more data collection and verification on a good many electrical components.  Making up a list of required wire labels, circuits and installed inline fuses.

I then wrangled the wire bundle exiting out the of the bottom hole of the Napster bulking (coming from the nose battery compartment) and secured the bundle with 2 Adel clamps.  You might think this was merely a 10 minute task, but try almost an hour with getting the wires isolated, clamps sized and holes and threads cleaned up before actual install.

Part of my verification and data collection was in regards to the Warning Annunciator Sub-panel.  What wires were already run?  What circuits were on hand?  Switches? etc.

I then installed the CS6-CB onto the newly installed 6 AWG main buss to master contactor cable.  The CS6-CB consists of 2 small narrow circuit boards zip tied to opposite sides of the cable that serve as an ammeter, telling me the current flow that my avionics are getting supplied as it reports on my HXr screen.

Now, it came with a nice length of thick clear heat shrink, but the issue was that it didn’t fit over the CS6 once it was zip tied into place on the cable (as if they forgot to account for the zip ties… not the yellow ones).  Since the included heat shrink was on the cable, with no expediate way to remove it, I cut it lengthways and simply zip tied it into place with the yellow zip ties.  That didn’t seam to cover it too well, so I unbolted the cable from the contactor and added an even bigger clear length of heat shrink and covered all of it.

BUT… after taking these pics, it just looks fugly.  So I plan on removing it all, and simply using an appropriately size of black heat shrink and removing all the previous clear layers and yellow zip ties to tidy it up.  No ugly components allowed!

Note the black cable in the pics above, as well as below… that is the main ground connection cable between avionics area ground buss and the negative battery terminal. Below is a general idea of how these cables will be run along the right upper corner of the NG-30 cover back to the Tri-Paragon.

More to follow as I slog forward on all this!

This post covers the last day and a half, as Jess and I returned back home from Charleston late afternoon yesterday.

After getting settled back in and unpacked, I went out to the shop to pull the peel ply from the rudder cable conduit sidewall internal conical layups before razor trimming the overhanging glass.  After a bit more cleanup, I then snagged these shots of my completed task of rudder cable conduit sidewall exit moved aft by 5″ (yes, conduit will be trimmed much shorter to allow spring installation).

Having just installed the TCW Technologies Integrated Backup Battery System (IBBS) some questions arose on the circuitry.  I had discussed it all in the past with Bob at TCW Tech, but in my attempt to contact him a few weeks back I couldn’t get ahold of him (I have since learned via the VAF forum that he sold the company).  Regardless, I spent a good hour doing some initial research on that.

Back in the shop, with my mess making over with —at least for the time being— I pulled all the plastic sheeting out of the bird to get to work on the final hardware install for the pilot control stick (aft stick upcoming).  To get the right armrest out, I pulled the seat cores and then spent about 10 minutes cleaning up some irregularly attached Velcro from when I unceremoniously plunked the seat cores into place.  All is good now.

Part of the task to get the pilot control stick final hardware installed was to also install the elevator control tube.  However, before that happened I needed to do the final routing of the control stick cable through the bottom access hole on the right side of the instrument panel bulkhead… BUT, since there is no space to get the bulky P5 connector plug through the populated bottom access hole in the bulkhead, the connector had to come off (note the color marks on the white wires).

I got about halfway through removing the socket-terminated wires from the P5 connector when my already struggling (literally held together with tape) pin/socket removal tool gave up the ghost.  I did a bit more cleanup and organized some stuff, but this task was kaput until I could get a functional removal tool.

Later in the evening after dinner, I spent 30 minutes online before finally finding a removal tool that could arrive in less than a week (off eBay of course).  I also did another hour of research on my IBBS circuitry questions.

Today being the first Saturday of the month meant that we had our monthly EAA breakfast.  I queried a couple of people at my end of the table to see if they might have the rare tool I needed, but none of them did.  Ahhh, but my real mark was Joe at the other end of the table, who just recently completed a stunning RV-10.  If anybody had an AMP CPC pin/socket removal tool, it would be him… and he did.

So I’ll state it again: Better to be Lucky than Good! ha

With my borrowed removal tool in hand (after another hour’s worth of research in the house) I got busy removing the remaining half of the sockets from the control stick cable’s P5 connector.  I then routed the cable through the bottom right side opening in the instrument panel bulkhead.  And after giving the plug components a good cleaning, started repopulating the terminated wires.

One short-term issue I ran into, which ironically was caused by the same underlying long-term issue, was that the final 4 wires I had to install were all white!  Now, just as I noted in the pic of the P5 connector a little above, I had marked the white wires, and multiples of other colors, with permanent markers.  But after all the handling in trying to use my broken removal tool last night, all but one color rubbed off!

Now, it just so happens that me in my brilliance decided 7 years ago to not “waste” my white wires with colored stripes on such mundane wiring as this, so I used colored Sharpies to create the stripes on the wires to color code them.  Well, surprisingly (not!) the colors wore off… yes, from both 7 years ago and last night.

Thus I spent a good hour mapping out and toning out my wires to ensure that these white wires inside the P5 connector matched the white wires inside the externally pigtailed J5 jack for the Ray Allen roll trim servo.  Yes, it took a bit but I got ‘er, so that is two connectors (P5 and J5) that were completed tonight.

After figuring out the J5 roll trim associated wire positions, I then finished reassembling the P5 control stick connector.

I then spent the next 45 minutes routing the control stick cable through the bottom access hole up to the P5 connector securing bracket.  This took 3 iterations to complete since I needed to ensure enough slack to both secure the cable but also have freedom of movement with it attached to the control stick.

Speaking of the control stick, once I got my cable run completed I did the final install on the pilot control stick bracket hardware, to include mounting the elevator control tube, with 2 of the 3 bolts requiring castellated nuts and cotter pins.

I noticed when I grabbed the pic above, that I forgot to swap the bolt out at the base of the control stick and secure it with an aircraft grade nut, which I did next.

And here we have the elevator control tube installed.  Yes, it looks a bit constrained here by all the wiring, which will be secured and routed just adjacent to the panel leg hole opening.  Also note that in the “corner” of where the wire bundle crosses over the elevator control tube, if you look in the background you can see the Adel clamp that secures the control stick wiring cable (that’s the P5 connector upper right of pic).

Of course the rodends and jam nuts on each of the elevator control tube will be dialed in for final adjustment once the canard and elevators are installed.

Another quick back story is that when I made the corner bracket to install the pilot cigarette lighter charger I had not yet added and glassed the insulation on the nose wheel cover.  Fast forward to this evening, and it was quite the challenge (with clearance being the usual enemy) to get the charger re-installed… but a good 30 minutes of finagling (and some choice verbiage) and I finally got it installed without having to cut anything.

Here we have a shot from the aft side of the installed pilot seat cigarette charger, as well as the final control stick hardware installed (pic 1).  And with the cigarette lighter charger cap open, ready for charging (pic 2).

And with my myriad of tasks completed, I called it a night.  More to follow tomorrow.

Happy New Year!

Greetings from Charleston, South Carolina!

Jess and are down here to roll in the New Year, and we hope you all are doing well!

This blog post again covers the past 2 days.

I first started off by measuring out my center 2.5″ internal conical depression in the sidewall and from that edge forward filled the cut sidewall rudder cable conduit channel with PVC foam, micro’d and pressed firmly into place.

I worked on some wire labeling and confirming the operation and control wiring of a couple of relays, which all checked out good.  I also did the final install of the battery bus (pics to follow soon).  In the few hours it took to do all that, the micro securing the foam in the sidewall channels pretty much cured… at which time I trimmed the excess foam, before wetting out and laying up 2 plies of BID over the foam and the sidewall edges of the channel that I had sanded and cleaned with Acetone.  After the layups were in place, I then peel plied them.

I then left these layups to cure overnight.

This morning I pulled the peel ply and cleaned up the edges of the layups.  I then marked the shallow diagonal lines from the wider embedded G10 washer narrowing going forward to the just glassed forward channel.

After cutting the top and bottom diagonal edges of the middle internal conical sections of the rudder cable spring channels, I then sanded and shaped the foam.  I also made “flox” channels on top and bottom edges of the foam and sidewall glass, where I filled them in with flocro.  For the channel internal foam I used micro before laying up 2 plies into the channel.  I of course ended the layups with peel ply.

I then left these layups to cure as Jess and I scurried off down here to Charleston, SC… again, to roll in the New Year!

Cheers to you all!  Happy New Year!

(And?!  STILL pressing forward!)

This post covers the past 3 days, where I didn’t get a whole lot done.  Christmas day I didn’t do anything, and half the day after I lounged around and took it easy with my wife.

But I did pull the peel ply off the aft side rudder cable sidewall conical protrusions, on the right side (pic 1) and the left (pic 2).  This is of course the beginning of the end (or halfway… ahem) of my refilling and glassing the sidewalls where I extracted the rudder cable conduits.

As I mentioned at the end of my last post, I pulled all the wires of the IBBS wiring harness out of the lower exit hole in the Napster bulkhead.  I chucked the rubber grommet that was inside that thru-hole and simply replaced it with a length of heat shrink (visible in pic 2).

This allowed me to get ALL the terminated wires going forward and aft through the bulkhead wire transit hole… specifically the pair of power wires that are terminated with knife-splice connectors (center of pic 1) that connect the IBBS through-power to the X-Bus.  After connecting the knife-splices, I then secured and protected them with red heat shrink (pic 2).

I then got to work on labeling and connecting up the taxi light wiring jack (next to IBBS, blue wire), the nose landing light jack, J0B (bottom center of pic), the nose gear’s small backup battery (emergency down if no aircraft power) pair of wires (green & white, left side of pic), and final switching circuit, power and ground wires for the taxi light stowed/ deployed actuator relay (RL011, bottom right corner).  I’ll note that except for one ground wire, and the pair of wires for the gear back-up battery, all wires are labeled.

Not shown is my work on the instrument panel mockup wiring, where I removed the outer heat shrink surrounding the relay that controls swapping between the COM1 and COM2 radios.  I had on my task sheet to verify that the solders were good, since they were completed with my old $14 soldering iron… not my “new” high speed soldering iron. Out of the 9 tabs, all but one looked fine.  The one tab that was a bit thin was an internal wire, but I got to it and got a nice clean good small solder blob on there.  Task complete.

Day 2, after another slow, lazy start, I was getting my task list finalized and confirming wiring and circuits before I printed out my wire labels.  I ran out of wire label heat shrink, but luckily the labeling heat shrink I ordered last week was in my mailbox.  Thus was able to do another batch of labels.

I then grabbed some coffee, fired up the heater in the shop, and was just getting ready to change into my shop clothes when I noticed a text from my local canardian buddy Guy Williams, who was going out for a quick hop in his Long-EZ and was asking if I wanted to go.

So I played hooky for a few hours and went out for a scoot up to Ocracoke Island and back.  Guy was testing out his old trusty Garmin 496 to drive his EZ Pilot autopilot for some upcoming cross countries that he wants to take.  He was having some issues with them talking to each other, so I had the stick and flew nearly the entire flight as he troubleshot the units.

After helping my wife and stepson assemble some Christmas gifts, I finally got back into the shop a bit later in the evening.  My focus was knocking out the heated pitot tube wiring.

Here you can see the power wire coming off the top left corner of the Battery Bus terminated and connected to the Common terminal of the heated pitot tube’s relay (RL005).  Below this power wire input on the relay is the red power wire to the heated pitot tube (Normally Open tab) that enters the nose battery compartment with the other large power wires in the lower outboard corner.  Terminated on the same connector going to the relay NO tab is a yellow/blue wire that goes to the “PITOT HEAT ON” LED indicator light on the instrument panel.

And, again, I labeled all these wires.

Not much extra to show you inside the busy nose battery compartment, except the new red heated pitot tube power wire, labeled but not terminated yet.  And the black heated pitot tube ground wire, labeled and butt-splice crimped/heat shrank to the heated pitot tube lead.  Both of these wires end in the lower right corner of this pic.

I then spent nearly half an hour slowly and carefully sanding the nose-tip end of the inside of the G10 tube that secures the pitot tube, since some paint got in there during painting.  I was able to get it, but not without making my pitot tube look a little rough in the process… I’ll need to buff it out to get it back to nice and shiny (before Marco, who made it for me, sees it!).

So… my nose battery compartment wiring is pretty much done, minus a couple of labels and a few FastOn terminals getting crimped on.

The last bit of wiring to add will be the 10 AWG cable from the battery contactor (on the exposed stud next to the “KB” on the yellow tab, lower left) to the Master Bus on the Tri-Paragon.  Cable #2 will be another 10 AWG size black cable from the battery’s negative terminal to the main ground bus on the Tri-Paragon.  The last wire will be the small power wire, that will connect to the Battery Bus, from an ammeter sensor on the 10 AWG Master Bus feed cable above.

These 3 wires will all traverse the Napster bulkhead at the top transition thru-hole where the yellow zip-tie is shown.

Tomorrow, I plan on getting at least another round of layups done on the sidewall rudder cable conduit “trenches.”  I’ll also press forward with my nose area wiring as well as I move aft towards the instrument panel.

I’ll note that Jess and I are taking off to Charleston, SC to ring in the New Years the day after tomorrow, so that will be a good few days off the build.

Pressing forward!

Happy Christmas Eve my peeps!

I started off today sanding the minor half-conical external bumps where the rudder cable conduit exits the sidewalls much further aft than previously… at least 5″ further aft.  I sanded the pour foam to make the conical shapes, with the widest, furthest forward part of the “cone” consisting of the 1/16″ G10 “washer” that I embedded halfway into the sidewall, with the cable conduit transiting through the center of it.  I also sanded the paint around these conical bumpouts to allow better adhesion with the 2-ply BID layups.

Here we have both the right side (pic 1) and left side (pic 2) prepped for glass.

Which I did next, laying up 2 plies of BID on the aft EXTERNAL conical bumpout on each side.  I emphasize external since forward of the G10 “washer” I will make an INTERNAL conical shape (i.e. into the sidewall) with the widest part again starting at the washer, but then narrowing as it goes forward.  This will provide a scooch more space for the rudder cable spring to reside and better angle the cable for the rudder pedal conduit.

Again, peel plied 2-ply BID layups on both the right (pic 1) and left (pic 2) sides.

The outside temperature was a pleasant 60° F, but for epoxy work I wanted that bumped up a bit more.  So I turned on one of my Kerosene heaters and let it blast for a bit.

Since the shop was a good temp for layups, it was clearly a good time to do another epoxy-based task in adding a threaded RivNut to the upper right sidewall inside the nose’s battery compartment.  This threaded hardpoint will specifically be for securing the rather robust inline fuse that is for the hung starter warning alarm circuit inline fuse (I’m kind of wishing I had used an old-style glass inline fuse for this guy… these inline ATC fuse holders are quite chunky).

Note that I first swapped out the front top corner bolt that secures the starter contactor (anodized gold box) to add an Adel Clamp for the first inline fuse lead.  I then drilled a hole, prepped the RivNut and floxed it into the hole (pic 1).  Fast forward a few hours later, and here are the taped wide AN970-3 washer and greased-threaded screw removed, showing the RivNut floxed into place (pic 2).

Another hour’s worth of cure later I secured the inline fuse onto the sidewall… much better.  Yes, it’s very busy in this nose battery compartment, but let’s try and keep it all as tidy as possible, shall we?!

While all the layups and flox were curing, I took about half an hour to gather up my tools and hardware to install the right rudder into the winglet.  You can clearly see it hanging open a little bit, as I need to remove it and sand some internal mating surfaces down at the bottom inside rudder and pocket for it to close all the way and seat in place.  Paint, once applied, has a way of making tight surfaces get knocked even further out of spec tolerances and such is the case here.

Also note that I installed the Nav/strobe light mounting plate on the forward wingtip.

Another quick kill task was lopping off the way-too-big diameter stock terminal connectors for the CTEK battery charger leads that are getting permanently connected to the battery with the pairs’ quick disconnect connector.  I sized the correct FastOn ring terminals and then crimped them on, replete with the correct color heat shrink applied… of course <wink!>.

My last task of the evening was running the wiring bundle through the transit hole at the bottom of the Napster bulkhead before installing the TCW Technologies IBBS (Integrated Backup Battery System) unit.  To be clear, this wiring will need to be pulled out to allow me to widen that wiring transit hole, as it needs to be just a tad bigger in diameter to fit all the wires exiting and entering the nose battery compartment.

And with that, I called it a night.  If I get a chance tomorrow, Christmas Day, I’ll shape the forward rudder cable conduit sidewall channels and get those glassed.

Either way… moving forward!