Help, I'm Drowning! HOBBS 1574.5 hrs

Well, I am now getting more deeply into the task of wiring...and feel pretty overwhelmed...intimidated even. I feel like I am drowning when I look at the entire wiring task as a whole, its suffocating. I have to remind myself, take a deep breath and relax...just focus on one wire at a time. Same as with mountain climing...dont look at the entire mountain...just put one foot in front of the other and before you know it you'll be at the summit. 

As with most things on this project, it almost always seems intimidating at first...fiberglass, rudder, fuel tanks, canopy, FWF, you name it...they all felt overwhelming until I got into it and broke it down into little pieces. Afterward, I looked back on every one of them with the thought, "what was I so worried about? That wasn't so bad." Its human nature to think things are much worse than they actually are in reality. My advice...step back, deep breath, smile and dive right in. Its a learning process, revel in it.

My strategy for wiring was to tackle the easy stuff first...the CHT and EGT probes seemed very straightforward so I started there. These connect directly to the 25 pin harness on the Dynon EMS module. I crimped my blade connectors (the SportAir wiring class is finally coming into some use...and I'm glad I took it), then shrink tubed them for added security. They shouldn't go anywhere. 

Notice that, for right now, I am using cheap nylon zip ties to keep everything manageable. Later, when I know all wire routing is final, I will cut those off and install special high temp (blue) zip ties. They are cheap...use 'em as needed.

Here you can see they route right behind my oil cooler. I could've routed them on the other side of the engine mount...not sure it matters a whole lot, but you may ponder it on your build.

Moving over to the other side...I temporarily installed my SCAT tubing so that I could route around it. My wiring path comes right up the side of my Air/Oil separator tank and then through the firewall.

Time to crimp the three pins for the manifold pressure (MAP) sensor. This was a little tricky to do...I had a crimper for the job, but it was still kind of a delicate process. I think it turned out pretty good though...here is a pic of the finished product.

And a shot of it plugged into the MAP module mounted on the firewall.

I bought these special crimpers (remember I love tools!) for the heavy duty 4 AWG wire that is used for the battery/solenoid/starter. B&C has a cheaper version ($30) that you hit with a hammer if you don't want to spend the $50 I spent on these. Or I suppose you could try and crimp them with heavy pliers...not on my plane, but thats your call. Proper crimping is very important to me and I believe you should always get the right tool for the job. Wiring your airplane is not something you want to do half-ass. I was able to get these from a local electronics store here in Boulder...so no shipping costs. They worked great!

Here you can see how it looks when crimped.

From the battery ground to my "forest of tabs" on the firewall. The other wire goes to a ground point on the engine case. I didn't put protective boots on these connections...not sure I could fit them, but I am still considering adding them later.

Looking closely, you can see where I attached the ground wire to the engine...its an empty hole right next to the oil filler (filler removed...duct tape over the hole). Make sure you remove the paint from the engine for a good ground contact. I used a wire abrasion tool chucked into my dremel...worked perfectly since its such a tight space. 

I recommend you get a shrink tube labeler for your wiring. It will give your project a nice professional look and make future servicing much easier. I bought this one for $80, its a K-Sun Bee3. I was aggravated when it then went on sale a month later for $40...so look around for a good deal. Also, be sure you order the actual shrink tube cartridges (vs. just the label). This particular labeler was recommended to me by fellow RV10 builder Mike Rettig...thanks Mike, I'm happy with it.

A shot of how it looks...notice the "oil temp"...maybe not needed for this wire since its pretty easy to see where its going, but I still like how it looks...as I mentioned, nice and professional.

FWF Wiring Begins HOBBS 1576.0 hrs

Before I get into this week's progress report, I wanted to mention the nice visit I received from Dan and Beth Green from Westcliffe, CO...about 50 miles west of Pueblo. Dan and Beth are also building an RV7, and just ordered their finishing kit. Dan is a retired triple-7 captain with approximately 14,000 flying hours and 36 yrs of experience. It truly humbles me to be around a pilot that has this much experience, but you would never know it from talking to Dan, he was a very down to earth guy. It makes my ~180 hrs look awfully insignificant to say the least. Dan and Beth both invited me to fly down and visit, I just may take them up on that generous offer when Wablosa is flying. Thanks for visiting!

Back to the project...this week I finished up mounting my sub-panel components. The Vertical Power ECB box is in place. Now for the Garmin GDL 39, this is my ADS-B weather/traffic receiver module. I will hard wire this to the Garmin GDX and simultaneously connect my iPad to it via bluetooth. I will also attach a belly mounted antenna to it for much better reception. 

I decided to go with a Flight data systems GD-40 carbon monoxide sensor. This will connect directly to my SkyView and display right on the screen. It's quite possibly overkill for this plane...you can buy the cheap stickers to stick on the panel, which a lot of people do. I wasn't going to ruin the nice look of my panel with one of those. There are some, who know more about this than I, that argue that any carbon monoxide sensor really isn't needed in these planes. The argument goes something like this, the CO levels, even with a leak would not be enough to incapacitate you. Not sure about that...for my piece of mind, I bought this...another decision for you as the builder whether you think it is worth the extra ~$200.

My SkyView backup battery will sit directly above the CO detector...and the cable will rub so I used some protective sleeve with shrink tube over the top.

CO detector mounted...

SkyView backup battery mounted...

My next task was to start assembling the VP-X cables into their connectors. Vertical Power has an absolutely GREAT free planning program on their site. I highly recommend it...for a guy that knows little about wiring, this software does a great job of planning it all for you. Nice job Marc, and thanks for providing this free of charge!

I bought the optional wire harness from VP. The cables come crimped, all you have to do is install them into the connectors. Otherwise you will need to rent of buy the expensive crimp tool to do it yourself.

Lastly, here is where I plan to mount my GPS antenna's...one for the Garmin GDX (with an XM antenna built in) and one for the SkyView. I didn't like the idea of mounting them in the hot engine compartment, but really couldn't come up with a better location that I liked. On the top of the fuse would destroy the look of the plane since you aren't supposed to paint them...those white hockey pucks would really look out of place on a red airplane. Same deal with mounting them in the upper baggage compartment under the plexi...they would still stick out like a sore thumb. Many guys mount them inside the cowl without issue so I will follow suit. My mounting tray is similar to Jason Beaver's mounting scheme, although he only had one...some guys fabricate a 'shelf' on the firewall, but that idea was in the way of a lot of things for me so I went with this route instead.

Panel Work HOBBS 1565.0 hrs

I needed a break from messing around with the baffle/plenum, it was wearing me down, so I decided to start getting things mounted in and behind the panel. My first order of business was cutting a clearance hole for my Garmin SL40 radio since it is too long to fit in the space provided. This design is silly to me...why Van's has the sub-panel so close to the panel is beyond me. Almost every builder has to hack the sub-panel up in some way to make the radios fit.

Here you can see, I have it in place to mark the location for the hole...

And after some cutting with the die grinder...we have a clearance hole for the comm.

A view from the backside

Placing the SkyView and GDU 375 in place so I can make layout plans for several electronic boxes that need to mount behind the panel. 

And yes, as you can see, I still haven't removed my seats...I kind of like looking at 'em. ;) I need to get them out of there soon though before I do something to damage them.

I made sure I had nice flat surface (no bowing) on my panel support. I then reattached the support pieces (green primer) that I cut off earlier in the project. You can see one of them in the shot below. I had to strategically reposition these to get around my EFIS/GPS units.

The biggest electronic box I needed to mount behind the panel was my Vertical Power red box, so I tackled that first. I used a scrap piece of fuel tank baffle material to make a shelf. Worked good. Keep in mind, anything you mount has to be able to withstand +6/-3 G's. 

More to come next week...my EMS module and the GDL39 module will be next. I will probably mount my remote second PS Engineering comm and the remote transponder behind the baggage compartment bulkhead. 

Plenum & Ram Air HOBBS 1554.5 hrs

Last week was more of the same jockeying with the plenum...trimming, fitting, etc. On and off, on and off, on and off a gazillion times...definitely kind of a pain trying to get this all just right. But, I am making progress...its slowly getting to a point where I am more or less happy with it.

Here is some of the details around the oil cooler mounting scheme I devised...

I cut this rear "ear" off the plenum as I mentioned I had planned to do in an earlier post. Not sure if I will reattach that or come up with a different scheme altogether...stay tuned.

This was my dilemma with the plenum. If I cleco-ed it to the rear baffles, the angle of the mounting flange caused it to sit high in the front. Really less than impressed with this plenum fit...

During my fit checks I realized I didn't have the plenum sitting low enough...it was rubbing on the top cowl. But this mounting bracket for the rear baffle was preventing it from moving downward. So...I decided since it wasn't really needed with the plenum since it would give it plenty of support, I would trim it.

That's better...again, this is an iterative process...later pics will show the rear baffles getting trimmed even further.

Ok, now I am starting to get somewhere...this is starting to look alright.

I have had a heckuva time with my Rod Bower Ram Air unit. When I decided to go this route, I had no idea that its really not designed for a downward facing sump combined with a crossover exhaust. Both of which make the install difficult. If you decide to go this route, please realize you will need some mods to make it work. 

Rod has been working with me to make it work and really has been very responsive with me to work our way through this. You will notice two machined plastic spacers in this pic...a white one and a black one, there is also a third custom spacer mounted directly to the servo. All of this is so it would clear the crossover exhaust. Good news is, it does...but its tight.

I soon realized I would need some modifications to my SJ cowl to make it fit. I did some trim work as you can see here. It was then, that I realized I had ordered the wrong cowl from Sam James...let me explain.

http://www.jamesaircraft.com/

In this pic, you can see the bottom version is the one I ordered...for "forward facing injected engines". Mine is an "updraft" version...I should've ordered the top cowl in this pic! dangit, pisses me off. I did this, completely and utterly out of not knowing what the heck I had...or at least the proper terminology. Lesson learned...hopefully this post will help one of my readers avoid the same fate. Its much too late to ship it back for an exchange now...we will make it work.

My first thought was to do my own fiberglass work...this is what I started playing around with. But I soon realized two things...one, it would need a bigger area than what I have here and two, I'm not sure how to make sure it is just the right size...big enough to fit, but not too big. I remembered that Rod Bower sells a lower scoop (I know...more $$$) that I could just buy instead and glass it in place. That way I know it will fit the Ram Air unit perfectly. I am still pondering this idea...haven't made a decision yet. I'll work on the plenum some more in the meantime while I reflect.

Hot Music Video! HOBBS 1545.0 hrs

Is it just me, or is this video pretty 'HOT'? There's just something about a beautiful woman flying aerobatics and singing...again, maybe its just me? :) Although, unfortunately Betsie Larkin wasn't actually flying the Eagle in the video as she describes here in her blog. I do commend her choice of environment. But hey, just use your imagination and pretend she actually is flying...and then read the first sentence again. ;) And, oh, by the way...that's a fine looking Christen Eagle...one of my Dad and I's first loves when it comes to homebuilts. Have a good weekend!

Oil Cooler HOBBS 1545.0 hrs

The hours worked last week were a little on the light side, but I have an excuse. I again, headed up to Estes Park on the motorcycle, but this time stayed in the Elkhorn Lodge (amazingly established in 1874!) Saturday night. Yes, I kind of took the weekend off from building and it was worth it...although I did knock out a few hours Saturday morning before departing.

In other RV news, I stopped by Jim Gray's hangar (a few down from my future hangar), where my future hangar mate Bob Markert was cranking away on his RV8 fuse while Jim gave him a hand. Bob and I discussed the logistics and timing of my upcoming move to the hangar. It was great visiting with the guys...I look forward to when they are my hangar mates/neighbors.

I have agonized over where and how I was going to mount my larger 9 row oil cooler for a few months now. It was too large to fit where the 7 row is supposed to mount...on the baffle. So I was stuck with mounting to the firewall or to the engine mount like Jason Beaver did. Both of these options are quite simply a pain...and more work, you need to build plenums and route SCAT tubing...and then find a place for it. I finally said, screw it...lets make a decision and move on! I have a tendency to overthink things sometimes.

Searching VAF, I found a builder that had mounted his oil cooler on the baffle...with some modification. I emailed him (I apologize, I cant recall his name right now) and he said it worked great for him. I liked the simplicity of this.

Basically, what you need to do is cut a notch in the flange to get around the engine mount...see the pic above/below. Make sure to allow for engine movement. Not only normal engine movement, but also when pulling G's. Pretty easy modification to do.

Getting it situated to drill my bolt holes...I wanted to keep it as high as I possibly could to maximize airflow through the cooler. You can see in the pic below that I have doubled up the side piece for support...more on this below.

Cutting the access hole...like the side, I put a doubler in here for added strength. If you go this route, make sure you beef up the baffles as some guys have reported getting cracks when mounting to the baffles. Remember, you have to consider a full oil cooler while pulling 6G's. I think it will be ok if you take the necessary precautions. In fact, the new RV-14A mounts like this also...but Van's did beef up the structure similar to what I have done.

I added a riveted flange at the bottom...block off airflow and strengthen it. I will come up with something similar for the top also.

Bolted in place...looking good, I like how this is turning out. I just need to come up with a way to block off airflow to the cooler for cold weather ops. More on this later.

A couple shots from my weekend in Estes Park. My friend Jeff and his girlfriend Cat drove up for the day to meet me. We had some Colorado wine by the river, followed by dinner...awesome!

The view from my room at the lodge on Sunday morning. That lenticular cloud looked pretty sweet! Those are caused by the high level airflow or "mountain wave" coming over the Rockies. Being a Rocky Mountain pilot, you certainly know these things...most non-pilots probably have no idea. Either way, whether you know the significance of it or not...it is cool looking.

Early morning stroll through downtown Estes...before the huge crowds had arrived...very nice, and not half bad scenery don't ya think?