Can you hear me now?

One of the last pieces of the electrical/avionics system arrived, the connectors for the avionics bus. These are custom made and tested by a company called Approach that specializes in avionics wiring.

They get attached and laced into the existing system, with a little help from a friend. 

The PAR100EX comes configured for a 28v DC system, changing it over to a 14V system requires opening up the case and moving a jumper.

The headset jacks get a LOT of use and force applied to them inserting and removing the cables, plus the jacks are a bit shallower than the foam panel. Once again, the Dremel hollowed out a cavity on the back of the panel, which will be filled with epoxy for reinforcement and redrilled. That bit would go through the panel in an instant of inattention, which made me nervous, which made my hand shake, which made me more nervous, which made......

Good thing I'm not a coffee drinker. Steady as a rock, the jacks fit fine. A little epoxy will be applied to reinforce the holes before mounting the jacks.

We're pushing to get this done in time to ship out, hopefully late next week. I came down Wednesday right off a Tel Aviv flight and was only down for 36 hours, I'm back out to Mumbai Friday night. Earlier in the day Thursday Jim asked if I was going to be around at all Friday, I said I had to leave very early to be in position for my trip. He stayed much later than usual, for some reason....

Even with the wiring harness and everything laid out and accessable, some things are just a pain to get to.

But he was really happy when he was able to tell me why he had stayed late

First power up of everything. This was very, very late, and it was damn nice of him to stay and get it done so I could be there.

Couldn't test the radio since we didn't have an antenna, but the intercom sounded great, and all the lights blinked correctly.

I'll be your right seater anytime, Jim.