Wiring

Tonight I made and installed a ground point for the instrument panel ground leads, and wired up the FlyLED “The Works” controller board.

The ground point is on the sub structure between the firewall and the instrument panel. Since the rib in that area is thin, I installed a plate on each side of the rib, secured with rivets in each corner. Before installing I removed the primer from both sides of the rib. Tomorrow I should be getting a bolt in the mail which will fit nicely here, securing the ground wires. This was the first time I needed to go on my back, up under the panel. It sucked. I removed the passenger side stick and used a cushion, but it was still very cramped and uncomfortable.

With that job done, I wired up the FlyLED controller board. I’ll need to mount this behind the panel somewhere, so I’ll be doing more crawling under the panel to install I’m sure.

Tonight I installed most of the panel components in an effort to test-fit everything. I wanted to ensure I identified any interference issues, and verified I had enough length on the various cable runs.

I started by installing a bulkhead attach for the Nav antenna in the right wing. To make this as strong as possible I installed a bulkhead fitting under the passenger seat, where there will be no sheer loading on the fitting or the rib. The fitting from the wing will be too wide to pass through the outer rib without taking the snap bushing out, so I cut a slot in the snap bushing to allow it to be removed, the cable and fitting installed, and then the snap bushing can be opened up to go over the cable, and be reinserted in the hole.

Next I started installing components. I started with the switch panel, which required some adjusting around other panel screws, but eventually fit perfectly into position. I installed the flap switch handle and plugged in the connector from the ignition switches.

Then I installed three PFD, no problems. Then the G5, which again went in without difficulty. Everything looks good on the pilot side. I took the opportunity to power up the G5, since it has a standalone battery. It was cool to see the airplane “come alive” for a couple of minutes.

Switching to the passenger side I installed the MFD, and noticed a problem. The d-sub connector on the back of the MFD is very close to the connector on the back of the engine monitoring box. There clearance will be ok if I can find a way to route the MFD connector cable around the outboard side of the various equipment boxes. There’s just not enough length on the connector to do that right now. It’s possible once the wiring harness is in its final location that I can do just that.