Smoke check: Good

Funny, but the closer I got to finishing the more I found myself dragging my feet. I knew that if I had anything wired wrong I could burn tens of thousands of dollars with the flick of a switch. And if it was really bad, I might burn the damn thing up. It was getting late in the afternoon, a good time to move OspRey outside, just in case....

 In this case, red Xs are a good sign. No smoke.
 

Back inside, her red beacon is beating again. 

Get Juiced.

Christmas in May. 

I had sent the ACI Power Buss away for a checkover, while it was there Ben & I worked together to change some of the assignments, decrease some of the PTCs and increase others. Fun to have a customized electrical system.

 

I'm getting better at my linesman splices, too. Practice makes perfect. 

LEDs, again. The VAF guys turned me on to another supplier of LED warning lights, Oznium. I ordered a few different ones and holy cow, are they bright.

The thing I really like is that they screw in from the back, making replacement easy. 

And they look good from the front. Way too bright, though, we'll be working on that.

And let's run them wires. This is just temporary for testing and fit, when installed on the panel the adel clamp will be mounted from the top.

Changing the runs will result in a lot of extra wire that will have to be trimmed. Should save a couple of pounds.

Blue for signal wires, in this case, audio from the Gear Alert System and ACI Buss warning annunciators.

And a new toy, 2020 GPS/ADS-B receiver.

Question: is the positive screw on a capacitor a Phillips so you know it's a +, and the negative terminal a blade so you know the - by feel??

Rack it up.

Power lines from buss to the switches all colored and grouped.

And now for something completely different. Time to install the radio rack.

From past experience I learned the rack had a front lip that extends to be flush with the panel, but the sides go BEHIND the panel.

So to line things up, hang the lip over the edge of the workbench.

Of course, I've had a couple spectators. I love birds, but I've discovered swallows make a hell of a mess if they hang out in your hangar. Anyone got any ideas to keep them out?

Braces from the top, but...

shit. Bringing in the braces from the top doesn't leave enough room for the LED night light rings.

Ok, back to the drawing board. How about from the bottom?

That works.

Now, let's mount those rings.

This is a really cool tool Syd loaned me, you tighten a bolt against 2 discs, and they cut into the metal.

Takes a lot of force, I was worried I had torqued the panel and bent it. The front wrench is my dad's old one, one of the few tools I have left of his.

Nice clean cut.

Some day I'll drill a perfect pilot hole that doesn't skate on me and end up misaligned.The rings ended up about 1/16" to the left, oh well.

And another toy from the museum to line up the mounting holes.

No tools to line up the holes from the Dynon, I just had to put it in place and drill very carefully.

Whew!!

Perfection is attained by slow, obsessive strokes of a file.