ADAHRS Mount and Pitot Line Bracket

The ADAHRS units need to be mounted in the same axis as the airplane and since the sub-panel sits at an angle I designed a mount for them.

The ADAHRS mount is simple, two extrusion pieces make up the legs and the rest I bent from sheet metal. The second ADAHRS will install above this one in the empty holes.

The side view shows the different lengths of the legs which makes an angle in the mount. This angle allows the ADAHRS to sit straight with the aircraft while mounted on the angled sub-panel.

I added a piece of j-channel to the back to prevent any vibration movement in the plate and thus the ADAHRS unit.

Once the ADAHRS was installed I could finish running the Pitot, Static, and Angle of Attack lines.

I made a small bracket to hold the pitot line Y-fittings. I didn't want to drill any holes in the small flange of the longeron so the bracket actually installs on the instrument sub-panel flange and then a leg bends aft to attach the fittings. Having the Y-fittings allowed me to install 90 degree connectors into the ADAHRS which provides more clearance for the big screen that is going to be installing in front of it. I just need to go back and add silicon tape to the tubes to prevent any abrasion against the outer skin.

Summer Travel and Wing Building

I  haven't posted in a while because we were visiting family in Colorado. I got a lot of work done before we left, but never had a chance to write it up. I discovered, while arriving home from work, on the Friday before we left that I had a leak in the main water line going into the house. I'll spare the details but after digging, being covered in mud, discovering it was two leaks, and a night without a shower...I finally got it fixed. So needless to say I didn't find time to update the blog prior to departure.

Here is the summary:

Mon 6/24 - 0.75hrs - Sanded skin lap joint, deburred edges of skin

Tues 6/25 - 1.25hrs - deburred edges of skin, cut pitot mount hole

Wed 6/26 - 1.25hrs - dimpled LH ribs, drilled and tapped pitot

Sat 6/29 - 1.0hr - dimpled RH ribs, test fit pitot to mount

Sun 7/7 - 2.5hrs - Finished dimpling skins

 

 

I cut the hole in the skin for the pitot tube using a variety of tools including a step drill and a dremel. Drilling the holes into the pitot tube was nerve racking. I was really worried about hitting the pitot and AoA tubes, but with a stop drill and luck there wasn't any damage. Tapping was easy and I used four short MS51957-41 Screws I ordered from Aircraft Spruce to attach it.

 

 

 The wires from the control box are long enough to poke out the bottom of the pitot mount. So the plan is to leave them hanging out when the skin is installed, connect to the wires to the pitot tube connectors and then slide the pitot into place. This will make future disconnects really easy.

 

Here is a better view of the tubing and wiring. The tubes will be held in place by the disconnects. Notice I made a tube guide for the blue line around the bellcrank. The power wires will go into the conduit. And the control wires are held by an adel clamp.

 

 

 

All the skins are dimpled and ready for install. The end of the wings is near. 

 We flew commercial to Colorado. The next flight to Colorado hopefully will happen in my own plane, but renting a slow airplane for this long trip just wasn't economical. Looking at the math I can fly us there cheaper and faster (no layovers) than the commercial guys. And when Ayla is older and we actually have to pay for her seat it would only be even more expensive making flying ourselves even that much better. We really love the Rockies and plan on doing a lot of westerly flying when the plane is finished.

 

 



We hiked around a reservoir that was at 9000' elevation....that's a normal cruising altitude for me! The hike was 15 miles and took 6 hours, but it was beautiful.

 



Pitot, Lower Skins, and a Fuel Tank

It's been productive around here...I really want to finish these wings.
Tue 18th  - 1.5hrs - Started aileron actuation section, cut and drilled long pushrods
Wed 19th - 1.25hrs - Drilled RH lower skins
Fri  21st   - 2.5hrs - "Deburr Party" deburred all lower wing skins
Sat 22nd  - 5.5hrs - worked on pitot mount, worked on pushrods
Sun 23rd  - 6.5hrs - Primed parts, installed RH Fuel Tank, riveted pitot mount, worked on push rods

Total time for this post = 17.25hrs 

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My Dynon stuff arrived! It was like Christmas in June.

I received the heated/AoA pitot tube, it's controller box, the autopilot roll servo, mounting bracket and wiring kit. Everything look to be of very high quality. Really nice pieces of equipment....good job Dynon!

The servo just has 7" or so of wire coming from it, nothing has a connector installed. So my first order of business, with my new avionic,s was to install the connector on the servo and on one end of the wire bundle. The wire bundle will run down the conduit I installed in the wing and therefore one end of the wires need to remain without a connector installed to fit through the conduit. Having never installed a connector and it's pins before I recruited Mike, a coworker and friend of mine who happens to be an electrical engineer dealing with avionics integration everyday, for help. So I walked down the hall to Mike's office for a lesson on pinning connectors. Turns out it's really easy and we finished the job on our lunch break.        

No problems installing the connectors to the servo.

Drilled out the RH lower skins.

Installed the RH Fuel Tank.

 

Friday night the wife and I had a "Deburr Party", yep it's what you think it is, you stand around and deburr wing skins into the wee hours of the night. Of course the party can't get started until the baby is sleeping. Grab the monitor and sneak out to the shop, she'll never know we were gone : ). We finished all of the lower skins in a single night!

I got a lot of the aileron actuation section complete as well. I cut and primed the push/pull rods and attached the ends, which I etched and alodined, looks nice.

 

 

I needed to mount the pitot controller near the pitot tube so I made a mounting plate to attach to the rib. It rivets into place using four 470AD4 rivets which minimizes the size of the holes cut into the rib. The controller then screws into place using four #6 screws into the nutplates. There are two angles attached to the back to stiffen the plate and provide attachment points for Adel clamps to hold the pitot and AoA lines and wiring. The power wires run from the bottom of the controller and are held in place by an Adel clamp mounted on a spacer to the hole on the lower side of the mount (LH side of the picture below). More pics of the installation will come later when I get everything finished up.

Here is the single picture I have of the install more pics will follow when I finish up the wiring and such...kinda looks like a mess right now.

Finished Flaps and Other Stuff

I finished up the flaps on Saturday. These were a really easy build and they look great. I riveted the trailing edges with proseal and with the rivets altering directions, facing up, facing down, facing up.... I did this to prevent any warping in the part during riveting. (I also did this on all the other trailing edges I have made, so nothing new). I laid some blankets down inside the fuselage and stored them in there for now.

Saturday June 15th - 4.25hrs - Finished Flaps, Riveted trailing edges.
Sunday June 16th - 5.25hrs - drilled skins, pitot tube mount, drilled holes for pitot lines, installed fuel tank

Finished Flaps Total Time = 26.25hrs

I installed the LH Fuel Tank yesterday, RH will come later. This was easier than what I thought it was going to be. I imagined lots of sweat and grunting to be required, but everything lined up really well. I first spaced them up using boards underneath the jigs they were sitting in and then after lining up the first hole I inserted a cleco into the nutplate to hold that end. I then raised the other end and did the same. I few more clecos and everything was lined up. Then I started installing the 56(?) screws...there were a lot.

I drilled out the LH skins and I got some help marking holes I drilled. Then we did the big cleco migration, where every cleco moves over one hole, to final drill the unmarked hole it was previously installed in.

 

 

 

The pitot/AoA lines are installed. I am using the Pitot/Static kit from SafeAir1. It provides tubing, connector, etc for cheaper than if you buy the stuff seperately (trust me I researched it). The tubing is nylon and can withstand -40F to 200+F, very durable. I had to drill new feed through holes for the green line, which will be my pitot line. The blue line will be my AoA line and I used the existing feed throughs made per the plans.

 

 

I worked on my pitot mast installation. I am using the Gretz pitot mast kit to install the Dynon pitot. The instructions for the install are decent, but it leaves a lot up to you, which was fun.

I used an old rib part I messed up on to scavenge an angle bracket.

Here are the 2 main parts. The angle bracket and the backing plate. (Note: This pic was post drilling, the parts don't come with holes)

 

I match drilled the backing plate to the spar first, removed it, then clecoed the skin in place. Reclecoed the plate to the spar on the outside of the skin and with the angle bracket clecoed to the spar I match drilled through the plate, skin, and bracket at the same time.

A picture with the parts clecoed in place. The skin will install over this.

I am installing in the third bay from the wing tip on the outboard rib.