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.
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