Avionics (Apr 2020)

Avionics (April 2020)

Aerotronics delivered my panel earlier than expected and they did a great job. After filling out their survey, we came to an agreement on what I was looking for (full IFR with VOR/ILS). No backup alternator.  Here's the basic setup:

G3X

GDU-460 (2)

GTN 650xi Navigator with ILS/VOR

GTX45R Transponder/ADS-B

GTR20 Remote COM (Primary)

GTR200 COM (Secondary)

Garmin Autopilot

G5 Standby ADI

One Slick Mag

One E-Mag

Even though I took the EAA class, I'm still a real novice relative to avioincs setup. Therefore, I had Aerotronics provide as much of the wire and connections as possible. I had them run/provide enough wire to run out to all of the sensor locations, along with connectors where appropriate. I believe this saved me a ton of time, and didn't increase the cost too much at all. Why not have the professionals do what they do best?

Here's the mockup that they sent me.

Delivery Day!

Man, I really didn't want to have to take anything apart to get it into the airplane, but there was no way around it. Therefore, I took pictures of EVERYTHING to make sure that I knew where all the wires needed to be reconnected once it was in the plane. I decided to detach wires from the switches on the left side of the panel only and left everything attached on the right side but fed the wires through the "glove box" area on the copilot side. That seemed to work out fine.

More documentation to make sure I knew where it belonged once reconnecting. Tons of pictures not included here!

I was initially a little baffled on how to secure the GTN650 and GTR200 to the center portion of the panel. I carefully clamped the trays in position (without the avionics installed) and then drilled the holes. I had to drill some holes in the trays themselves and dimple as well to make sure the avionics would slide back into the tray easily. They aren't -perfectly- aligned so that there's an even gap all the way around the stack, but it's close enough.

Installed!

I needed some help cutting zip ties in the tailcone and who better to do that than an 8-year old with some side cutters??

Flap position sensor setup. Make sure you drill that hole in the flap arm before it's installed. I can't imagine the pain associated with getting an angle drill in the proper spot and going through that powder coated steel.

Selfie time!

Wings are wired, minus AOA/pitot tubing. I had to change some of the snap bushing hole sizes to get all the wiring through. Everything was done IAW Van's recommendations on extra/upsizing holes in the ribs through the wing.

Remote transponder tray modifications required to get it in the proper orientation and secured aft of the baggage area wall.

This was my first idea about the transponder placement. However, there would have been too much flexing of the .063 aluminum "table" without going to extraordinary lengths to secure it. So I scrapped the idea and went with a vertical placement along the centerline.

The defrost fans have an extra wire that needs to be cut IAW the plans before it can be connected to the canopy harness.

I went with a GMU11 magnometer for my setup. The GMU22 would have worked fine too, but this is what Aerotronics sent me. I bought a wingtip mount from SteinAir and went about securing it with -4 rivets being careful to make sure that it's aligned and leveled properly.

For antennas, I ordered a RAMI AV-74 DME XPDR Antenna (XPDR and ADS-B) and two bent-whip RAMI COM antennas for the standard mounting locations per plans.

BTW, getting the RG-400 cable snaked through the center tunnel and out to the antenna locations was challenging. Fortunately, the cable is fairly stiff and capable of making some of those turns, but wow, sometimes it's the little things that take a lot of time and leverage.

Not a lot of room in these snap bushings that run underneath the seats to the tunnel. I'm expecting to have to find another location to run the large amount of wiring/tubing in from the wings. I ordered some grommet edging from spruce that will hopefully give me some options in the lightening holes. Updates on that later.

Here's a pic with the control cables attached. Except for a few panel screws and wire cleanup once the wings are attached and wired into the cockpit, things are looking good here.

I elected to keep the canopy release handle on the panel. However, Vans doesn't sell a handle that has a vertical orientation, so I need to have a local welder fix that for me.