Lighting Test

With the aircraft outside, we took the opportunity to test the lights and other systems. I tested the landing lights, taxi lights, navigation lights, strobe lights, wig-wag function, magnetometer, satellite reception, canopy fans, canopy flood light, comm radios, and GPS receivers.

There were some issues with the lighting which I’ll need to investigate and fix: one row of red nav LED lights were intermittent, the wing tip strobe lights were weak, and the right side, leading-edge, landing lights were in-op.

Aside from that, everything else worked as expected.

In order to test everything I made a wiring harness that was 7 feet long and allowed me to connect the wing lighting from both wings while they remained in the wing cradle. I positioned a couple of workbenches behind the fuselage so I could plug in the tail light, and the wingtip lights. It’s possible the extra 7 feet of wiring had an adverse effect on the lighting voltage, contributing to some of the problems, but I didn’t attempt to troubleshoot.

G750 receiving GPS signal
GPS signal from the GA-35 antenna
Magnetometer connected, but not yet calibrated. Note, all lights are on, and current draw is 16.5A
The wing connection setup
I had to drop the left wing down out of the cradle to connect the wiring
Nav light test. The intermittent LEDs are on the bottom left of this image, which is actually the top side (the top is upside down here)
Right wing nav lights looking good

Landing lights and fuel tanks

Tonight I installed the landing lights into the wings, and then started the process of dropping the tanks to seal and test them.

The landing lights were already built from the last set of wings. Before I installed them I spend some time rerouting some wires to avoid any possible chaffing. Once I run the wires through the wings I’ll install a clamp to hold the wiring. I need to check that these lights are still working, but skipped that step in my hurry to get the job done. I should be able to plug in my power supply and get it working.

Left wing landing lights installed in their cove
View from inside the wing showing the landing light installed in the left wing

Next, I started the process of dropping the tank on the left wing. There are around 80 screws, and 18 bolts, per tank to remove to get the tank off the wing. Access is a problem with the wing in the stand, so I will need to move the right wing somewhere to finish removing all the screws from the left wing.

My plan is to drop the left wing tank, install the fuel sender, then use soap and water to inspect for leaks. If it all looks ok, I’ll then reinstall onto the wing, and then do the right wing.

Unscrewing tank screws