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30 DEC 2007 Instrument Panel Marking (Continued)

Finished up marking the panel, these look very good.

29 DEC 2007 Instrument Panel Marking

I've been beating my brains out trying to come up with a good way to get nice instrument panel markings.

This turned out to be the simplest and least expensive solution.

One of the members of our local EAA 582 chapter had a Brother P-Touch printer he loaned to me. I downloaded the latest editing software and drivers from Brother web site.

The printer is a Brother PT-1500. It plugs into the USB port. Use the Edit software to design the label, then print it.

I'm about half way done, but it looks good so far. WOW, I'm impressed. The tags look almost professional.

28 DEC 2007 Fuel Vent and Pump

Floxed the Sump vent tube in place.

I changed out the original mechanical fuel pump. This was a low pressure unit used for carburators. The new unit is a high pressure unit used for Fuel Injection. I wasn't comfortable with using the original fittings on the pump, so a couple trips to our local Parker Store, and I came up with exactly the right fittings and angles.

27 DEC 2007 Happy Birthday

Today is my Birthday. SO, My wife ordered me a special "Vanity" plate for my truck. I think I can remember the number :-)

26 DEC 2007 ICOM Knobs - Fuel Sump Vent

ICOM A200 Radio Knobs

My ICOM A200 is about 10 years old. I like the knobs as they have those little rubber "tires" on them and have a good fell and grip.

Unfortunantly, the Little rubber tires seem to have experienced a blowout. :-( Over the years the rubbers has gotten a little hard, it shrunk and the tires finally broke.

A call to ICOM parts department, and they solved my problem. The technician knew immediatly what I needed and made up the order. Here are the part numbers. The small ones are about $0.55 and the large ones are $1.10.

2 each - #8010001170 Knob Cover N76 N174 A20 A200 (small)
2 each - #8010011600 Knob Cover N175 A200 (large)

Fuel Sump

The key to keeping debris to a minimum is to drill and prep as much of the hole on the fuselage side (all of it in this case) before drilling the final hole that penetrates the skin of the tank.

To minimize the amount of debris that would enter the tank, I first drilled a 1/2 inch hole on the fulesage skin only. Using a dremel, I cleaned foam out of the hole, then carefully ground (roughed up) the inside surface of the tank skin. I also ground the inside surface of the fuselage skin. This would form a good mechanical bond for the FLOX.

I then used a vacuum and blow gun and got the hole as clean as I could. After inspecting the hole (look up inside and make sure I had good glass exposed on the inner surface of the tank skin, at least 3/4 inch in diameter, I carefull drilled a 1/4 inch hole through the inner skin and into the tank. While drilling the hole, I had the vacuum running to suck up the small amount of debris that came from the tank skin.

24 DEC 2007 Nose Battery

I needed a way to secure the Aux battery in the cavity. SO, I ran a tap through a nut plate to destroy the self locking capability. I then installed rivets in the mount holes. Correct, its not mounted to anything, the rivets just give FLOX something to grab onto in the next step.

I used a 1/4 inch right angle drill to clean out a small slot on both sides of the forward wall of the battery compartment. This forward wall was originally made out of left over instrument panel foam.

Slide the nutplate in the small slot and then install a AN3 bolt through the nutplate to hold it in place.

Squegee flox into the small slot, make sure it gets all around the nutplate, layup two layers of BID all around.

Knife trim, then after cure, sand any sharp edges.

Make a metal strap out of a strip of aluminum. Use stainless screws to secure the battery in the cavity.

I mounted the Transponder antenna on the aft wall of F22. This is the only place I could find that has the best overall visibility.

23 DEC 2007 ELT - DYNON - Nose Battery

ELT

Finished routing the wire for the remote indicator for the ACK ELT.

BATTERIES NOT INCLUDED - One of the neat features about this ELT, it uses standard "D" cell Alkaline batteries (8 of them). It also needs a special 6 volt battery thats mounted in the remote indicator unit (Model # PX28L). None of these batteries are included.

I put the antenna in the headrest using the included cable.

DYNON

One of the neat features of the Dynon EFIS and EMS, is the ability to share the screens, i.e. I can display the EFIS information on the EMS screen, and vice versa. This is a really powerful feature.

IMPORTANT - You must "configure" the DSAB buss to make this communication happen (This isn't real obvious in the documentation). Step through the SETUP screens on the EFIS until you get to the DSAB entry. There is an option to "search" for other devices. After you do this, the EFIS and EMS can share, swap, and display each others screens, COOL

DUAL BATTERY

Because I have two electronic ignition systems, I thought it prudent to have two seperate batteries, The main battery normally supplies everything, and does a small trickle charge to the AUX battery. The AUX battery is wired to supply one EI system, but can also be cross tied and supply both EI systems.

Left to right - This is the normal battery compartment, I then cut out a recess in the front of the compartment. The third photo shows (hard to see) the AUX battery in the recess.

I need to glass the recess (two layers of BID, also two nut plates for a bracket to secure the battery in the recess (tommorrow).

22 DEC 2007 ELT

1) This view is taken from inside the front of the left strake, looking toward the rear. Note, The hole that the wires are routed through leads into the bottom channel of the seatback/headrest/rollover assembly. (I notice the ELT is sideways in this photo. No problem, I still need to install the batteries, I'll then make sure itsmounted upright)

2) This view is taken from the back seat. looking forward. You can just see the back end if the ELT up inside the strake. I used four #8 bolts with self locking nylon nuts. I then used a Dremal to cut off the excess bolt and cleand the edges so they couldn't catch or cut on the passanger.

3) The ELT control module is located in the upper left of the instrument panel.

21 DEC 2007 Dynon Software - Hydraulic

I downloaded and installed the latest firmware updates for both, the Dynon EFIS 10A and the Dynon EMS 10. The new firmware (Version 4.0, I think) added some pretty neat features.

I still can't get the EFIS to share screens with the EMS or vice versa. I'll look at that tommorrow.

I cleaned out the inside of Hydraulic overflow bottle and got it remounted. A couple cycles of the gear to repurge the pumps resiviour. Looks good.

I received the new ACK ELT tramsmitter in the mail. AFter an hour of trying to figure out where to install it. I finally decided to put it in the left strake. I'll mount it high on the fuselage (inside the strake) between the front and rear cockpits. I'll can drill a hole that leads into the front seat headrest. Theres a "V" shaped cavity where the front seat rollover assembly mounts to the seat back.

The ELT will be up against the top skin of the strake and the wires can be pushed into the roll over cavity. This should work out OK.

20 DEC 2007 Dynon Remote Compass

Installed the Dynon remote compass transmitter in the pilots right thigh support. This area was cleared when I removed the original low pressure electric boost pump.

I installed the OAT sensor in the top of the nose wheel well. The sensor sticks down into the nose well. Tire clearance is no problem. There should be enough air circulation inside the wheel well to get valid OATs.

I noticed a little puddle of hydraulic fluid under the nose gear. After some looking, it appears my Hydraulic overflow bottle has a small leak.

I drilled out the old connector and redrilled and tapped for a new connector. This should take care of the leak.

19 DEC 2007 Front Cockpit - Pitot System

This is a side console I made during original construction. It has cockpit lighting, landing/taxi lighting, Intercom, and built in Oxygen flow guages.

Note the two light fixtures to the left. These are standard automotive "dome" light fixtures. I used red bulb dye to paint the inside of one of the fixtures. The Red light is used for instrument lighting. The White light is a map light. Similiar fixtures are on the left side and in the rear cockpit.

I still need to mark the switches, but the front cockpit instrument panel is just about complete.

The rear seat instrument panel is also from the original construction. I replaced the Pitot and static hoses. The top is a magnetic compass, the bottom is an airspeed indicator.

The wiring is cleaned up in the nose. I also replaced all the original pitot and static lines hoses. Note the large white "Fram Fuel Filter". This is in the pitot line, its purpose is to keep any bugs and other crap from getting up into the instruments.

Looking down into the Instrument panel cover. Note the white pressure switch that is plumbed to the Pitot line. This is used as a safety for the Infinity Gear. The gear will not retract unless the airspeed is above about 65 knots.

16 DEC 2007 Clean up wiring.

Replaced the coax coming from the transponder. It was RG58, I'm replacing it with the low loss RG400. I still haven't decided where to put the antenna.

Removed the old Facet fuel pump. It was just to the right of the fuel selector valve under the pilots thigh support. The new high pressure fuel pump will be located in the hell hole against the inside surfae of the firewall.

10 DEC 2007 Other Work.

Getting ready for winter, cutting / splitting wood. Storm windows, etc.

I moved the wings out of the shop and stored them on the back porch of the house. This gives me a lot more room in the shop. I'm off for two weeks during Christmas, so I need to get some major work done on the LongEZ.

I lost my thumb drive a couple weeks ago, it has the web site on it. Just about the time I was ready to break out the archives, a friend found it in his driveway. (I do routine backups)

EAA Member Database Program

Working on MemberDB program for the local EAA Chapter 582. I wrote this program about a million years ago and over the years have added new features and updates. One of the latest features, the "Keeper of the Database" clicks one button and the latest datafilesare uploaded to an Internet FTP server. The "Read Only" version of the program allows Chapter members to keep teir version up to date by simply clicking " GET", the latest files are then downloaded from the FTP Internet to their Read Only version. It has neat features like a Photo of the member. A photo can be imported, edited, clipped, and panned to get a good photo of the member, Chapter logo, Young Eagle Pilot data base, It can print Chapter photo badges, print mail labels, lists, chapter documentation, an annual Roster with member photos, etc, etc. Nice program.

If your interested in trying this program, send me an e-mail, If theres enough interest, I'll get the documentation updated and post it up here for downloading.

Send me an e-mail - WAITER at IFLYEZ dot COM

Waiter

1 DEC 2007 Winter is here.

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