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

Right wing wiring

I spent time securing the right wing wiring today. Zip ties along the length, and some RTV in some places to help secure everything and keep it from rattling around in places where the wiring bundle was loose within the snap-bushings.

Autopilot roll servo

Today I installed the autopilot roll servo. Having done this on the previous set of wings, this went quickly. I also installed the bell crank, the adel clamps, and torqued all the bolts.

Installed and wired up
Install finished except for wiring tidy up.

Right wing systems and spare wiring

Today I spent time running the wiring harnesses through the right wing, and installing the spare wiring molex connector bracket. This is my own (Vans approved) modification to make it easier to add more electrical devices in the future.

Riveting on the spare wiring bracket. Look at that grey hair
Bracket installed
Autopilot roll servo wiring

Wing systems

Tonight I enlarged one of the wing systems holes to 5/8ths to allow two pneumatic tubes to fit through the first 4 ribs. Then I installed my additional spar wiring molex bracket, ran all of the wiring in the left wing, and installed adel clamps in the area where the wiring runs along the spar.

The additional molex connector bracket is supporting the two additional molex connectors, one for the pitot heater, and one for spare wiring. The red and clear tubes are protruding from the enlarged 5/8th holes
At all stations on the main spar, I have an adel clamp like this one installed. These have slightly longer AN bolts, and right now they are not torqued. The clamp keeps the wires from moving, and protects them from chafing on the spar waffle plate edge

Wing systems

Today I started installing the wing systems. I ran some of the cables out to the wing stops, but then discovered I made one error on the routing and had to undo some work. Unfortunately I ended up snapping some molex crips, so I need to order some replacements from Vans to finish the wing tip lighting runs.

Fuel sender wired. I tested the connection, seems ok
One of the left wing wiring harnesses installed
The first, and incorrect, routing of these wires. These need to run along the spar one more bay before stepping aft (up). I fixed the issue

Wing systems hole enlarging

Tonight I used my step drill to up-size two sets of wing system holes in the left wing. one will carry the AOA and Pitot pneumatic lines, and the other will carry the addition wiring for the pitot heating unit.

Circled in red are the holes I enlarged, arrows indicating that the holes are in each rib extending to the wing root