We had a really exciting day today with a ton of work done on the aircraft. Glasair put all hands on deck to help us get ready for taxi tomorrow. It was especially fun because all the parts are pretty much on the airplane now--which means we were in a fight for elbow room all day!
Here's some of the major stuff we worked on today:
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Tracy spent a good portion of the morning on cables. The cables for our GPS antenna
had to be hand-cut and have the fixtures put on the end. Who knew we would learn how to put a
coaxial cable together here? In
this shot, Tracy and Ryan are affixing the GPS antenna (the little white bubble
antenna) to the top of the roof.
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Here’s the GPS antenna mount from the inside. Tracy affixed the antenna fittings by
hand.
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In addition to the GPS antenna, Tracy and Ryan ran both
radio antenna wires today (the antennas are external and on the wings). After the wires (gold-colored) drop through the strut
they converge in the floor seam and are routed up to the avionics panel. You can see it’s starting to get pretty
busy in there!
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| While that was going on, Matt put together our exhaust. The exhaust is a 4-into-1 system that collects exhaust air from each cylinder in a single exhaust tube. |
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| Here’s the exhaust mounted on the airframe. Just bolt it on—pretty easy for the most part. |
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We also mounted the prop today! Our propeller is a 3-blade, 72” composite propeller
built by MT propellers. A
three-blade prop is actually slightly less efficient in cruise than a two-blade
prop—we will see about 5mph slower top-end speeds on our airplane than we would
with a 2-blade prop. On the other
hand, with a 3-blade prop we get better climb performance and reduced noise
& vibration—so longer flights will be less fatiguing. Well worth it to us. On a side note, over Bryce’s head you
can see one of the wing-mounted radio antennas Tracy cabled today.
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Bryce and I are tightening the prop bolts in this
picture. Getting it right is like
a very meticulous version of changing the tire on a car. There are six propeller bolts that are
tightened in a star pattern, torqued to a specific torque value, then
safety-wired.
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Well folks, here’s our ‘complete’ panel—minus the backup
iPad that will go on the right side.
From left to right, top to bottom:
-Advanced Flight Systems Electronic Flight Information
System
-TruTrak Autopilot (does altitude find & hold, course
following, and instrument approaches)
-Dynon D10 Electronics Attitude Indicator with Airspeed
& Altitude
- Old School Standby Airspeed Indicator…for tradition!
- Garmin Intercom—controls the radios & intercom setup
- Garmin G650 touch-screen Primary Flight Display
- Backup Radio
- Transponder
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| Here’s the panel with the EFIS and the ADI booted up. Today we did a full avionics run-through to make sure the entire electrical system on the airplane works. Everything worked with only one hiccup…when we turned on the landing lights, the left fuel boos pump came on instead! Ryan was able to trace it to a mis-labeled wire in the cockpit connectors—he fixed it in about 30 minutes and we are all set for tomorrow! In this picture, notice the EFIS shows us in about 60deg of climb and 35deg of right bank.... |
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…that’s because we haven’t attached the Attitude Heading and
Reference System (AHRS) to the airframe yet—it’s attached to one of our
inspection port covers but not screwed in yet. Notice the diagonal tilt to the bracket the AHRS is on—this
bracket is specifically designed to be perfectly level and forward facing once
it’s installed for aircraft startup.
Right now it’s hanging…so our EFIS looks wonky!
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Well, tomorrow is the last day of the "Two Weeks to Taxi" Program. I am betting our engine will start on the first attempt...any takers? Have a great weekend! -zen
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