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It took me a while to figure out where to put it. It would not easily fit under the baggage floors because it's too tall (after you make a mountng bracket). Ended up in this location - about 8 inches aft of the pivot point on the bellcrank.

Why this location? In case I wanted to mount a pitch servo down the road, it had to be far enough aft to clear the servo and its mount. I went to the Tru-Trak Flight Systems home page to get the right distance.

You can see in the picture that I made a spacer from .063 aluminum. This is to clear the rivet heads on the keel beam. Lastly, I enlarged the holes and countersunk to use #6 screws.

Got this cool Bussman fuseblock from Fabian at Affordable Panels. I like it because it has slots for 20 fuses and a nice cover to go over the front. I just wish they gave you a template for the cutout.

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While I was crawling around in the cockpit, I decided on where to put my strobe power supply and how to mount it. A few months ago I made a mount like Dan Checkoway shows on his excellent site. Well if you put the CreativAir Avi-Pak on that mount, it sits too high. The total height has to be under 3.125 inches to clear the baggage floors.

Here's my ingenious solution. Simply inverted the power supply and used pieces of angle riveted to the floor ribs. One side uses 1 x 1 1/4 angle and the other uses 1 x 1 angle cut down to 1 x 7/8. The angle butts up to the nutplate. Holes were drilled in the angle to clear the screws that go in the nutplate. Still have to rivet the angles in.

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These pictures show a lot of things:

Mounted the Grand Rapids AHRS unit like Walter Tondu did. I used a piece of 1" angle between the ribs.

Received another Bussman fuseblock and their output terminals. Mounted it next to the first one. These fuseblocks are a great design because they can have a split bus (14/6) and be panel mounted.

Mounted the E-Bus diode near the fuseblocks.

Also mounted the B&C LRC3-14 on the angle between the front deck ribs. It's situated so that I can get to the terminals very easily.

Lastly, I glued on the NACA vents using some of that great Weld-On #10 adhesive. Before I did that I removed the paint in the area to be glued. They're stuck on very well.

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Made the battery box this morning. A few notes here: use a good hole saw to make the lightening holes. I tried an el cheapo one from Harbor Freight and it just plain stunk. Got a 'Blu-Mol' unit from Aviation Depot (Home Depot) and it cut right thru. I scuffed the surface and repainted it using Rustoelum High Heat flat black.

Some of the rivets are hard to dimple and squeeze in the battery box because the flush head goes on the inside. This called for the use of the monter squeezer. Check out the size of that yoke.

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Installing the Comant comm antenna was not a difficult task. Just make sure it's parallel with the longitudinal axis of the airplane. You can see the backing plate I made for the ground plane.

I also have the transponder antenna (CI-105) ready to install but am now questioning the location I chose on the aircraft. Will wait to decide what's best.

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It felt really neat to get the propeller ordered. I went with a 3 blade (66 dia by 76 pitch) from Catto Propellers. Craig seems like a nice guy to do business with and his propellers have become so popular that the wait is now at about 5 months! He mentioned he had 100 props on order, 80 of which are for RV's.

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After Jeff showed me how to put the nose gear together, the main wheels came together so much easier. This is a one man job. I just used a lot of baby powder (hey, the baby wasn't using it) and then got the nuts started on the screws. I made sure the tube wasn't pinched and torqued the bolts. A few quick inflate/deflate cycles and the tires are set.

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Forgot to put the brake part on! Had to remove all the powdercoat in order for it to slide on. Remember to prime or paint the steel because of the material differences.

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Yeah - now the fun part. I spent forever coming up with a good plan to run wires around the control sticks and to the aft of the plane. Here's what I ended up with.

Drilled 5/8 snap bushing holes behind the control sticks. Also used a piece of 3/4 Vans conduit to get past the seat floor. I made this .032 bracket to hold the front in place.

Spent about 20 minutes and I used some Breyden lacing to tie the magnetometer wires together. Then I ran that and the ELT control wire (a telephone cord of all things) to the back of the plane.

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Today I realized that I was dumb to drill snap bushing holes right where the crotch strap kit will go. Doh! So I removed the wires and tried to fit the darn crotch strap kit on the left side. This thing sucks - how are you supposed to drill the holes? Every angle drill I had was too big and I ended up enlarging the holes. (Sorry I don't have a pic). In the end, I pretty much gave up using Van's crotch strap kit. I checked on Dan's site and he doesn't use one. Anyway, I now have some #30 holes in the seat rib. I may rivet on some strip aluminum just to give it some strength.

Onward ho! So I started running wires to the wing root and back of the plane. Ran out of 14 awg for the landing lights ans shielded strobe wire. Mounted the wig-wag flasher from CreativAir. Bill was very kind to send me one for some inconvenience I had earlier.

And I mounted the GRT magnetometer. The wires are run to the tail but I have yet to secure the very end. I went along the bottom and then up and around an aft bulkhead.

I need to think about a crotch strap and if I really need it. I saw some pictures of a homemade mount that looked pretty good.

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Decided to start sorting out where different wires will go. Making temporary bundles and placing adel clamps to route the wires in the best manner. I added a piece of 3/4 angle on the front and back of the sub-panel. On this angle I'm placing the adel clamps to get the wires on the backside.

Also I made a cutout for the DB connector on the transponder. I t was kinda iffy so I decided to make lots of clearance.

Fabricated a 4 conductor wire bundle for the flaps (power, ground, extend and retract). Ran it to the general location. I almost have all the wires routed to the back of the plane. Soon I hope to connect them to the devices and switches. I'm planning on making wing root disconnects.

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Just like I did on the right side, I added a piece of conduit under the seat floors on the left side. Ran the strobe wire for the left wing and flap wires through here.

Permanently mounted the starter relay and fuse holder after making the copper bars that join them.

And here's a pic of the general state of wiring at this point. I cut the leads extra long so I can run them to the switches later.

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I remember what fun (not) it was putting in the control sticks - more specifically the tiny washers between the bearing. Anyway I removed the sticks and cut them down so the CH grips would look as normal as possible. I forget how much I trimmed... there's about 7.75" remaining after the trim (measured from the top of the reinforcing gusset).

Also drilled a 3/8 snap bushing hole on both sides. I did the right side in situ (sometimes you hear that phrase in aircraft maintenance and basically means on the plane).

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Went to two different boat stores (Boat US and West Marine) today and came home with these. I've seen the Hella LED offerings on the web but wanted to see what they look like in person. Also picked up this Suncor Stainless MicroStar.

Waited for it to get dark then did some experimenting lighting up the baggage compartment. The Hella lights were OK but of the three, the MicroStar did the best and was the cheapest. I also experimented putting the led's in different places in the plane trying to see what they could illuminate.

The LEDs are bright and for cockpit lighting/map reading they should be behind or over you because they do have a super bright concentration of light in one spot.

I liked the MicroStar because they are the cheapest and take only a single 1/4 hole to mount.

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OK I stole a title from one of Dan's log entries... it's the only one I remember. Paul came over and helped me dive into the wiring game.

Before he came over, I picked up a Brother P-Touch labeler from Office Max (I think it was Max not Depot). The guys on the web recommended the 1750 model but I found the 1950 model for the same price, $49.99 or $20 off. Pretty cool.

Anyway, taking pictures of wiring is unexciting and hard to show exactly what we did. We hooked up the nav light, strobe light and landing light circuits. I'm using the CreativAir Wig-Wag flasher so we had to take that into account.

In the second picture you can see the Delphi Output Terminals which go into the Bussman fuse blocks. And you can see how I made the labels and secured them with clear heatshrink.

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More of the same. Hooked up the grounds to the firewall ground block. The black ones are for the avionics and are all labeled with my cool new .

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Buy lots of tie-wraps. In the end I will end up lacing all these but tie-wraps help you keep the bundles neat while you run the wires. I usually run a wire or two then bundle them with tie wraps. Then cut the tie-wrap off when I need to run more. It's starting to come together.

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Sorry no updates in the last week or so. Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. We did and the last week and a half has been a blur with family & friends, traveling, cooking, putting up Christmas tree, you name it.

Been able to get to the shop in tiny increments of time. No real work, just sorting out wiring. Found out that my brand new SL-30 nav/comm is not functioning -- the comm side is not getting power at all. I think the internal fuse blew and it's on it's way to Garmin AT to get fixed right now.

That's it. Hope to get some work done this weekend.

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This probably took more time than required. But I think I figured out a good way to run the wires for the CH grips with built in relays.

I am making good use of 3-conductor 22 awg shielded wire. I am using two wires (3-conductor) for the buttons other than the trim hat switch. There's also two regular wires for power and ground and then two 3-conductor wires with one wire removed for the servo power. They all go to two 6 circuit .062 Molex.

Up front, I put a terminal strip in for the servo position indicators. Each servo gets its own 3-conductor wire since the other two wires are power. Hope this all makes sense.

Again, sorry for the lack of updates. Our little one had a pretty high fever all weekend culminated with two trips to the doctor.

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My order for 3-conductor wire arrived along with some eyeball cockpit lights. Ran the wire for the elevator trim and flap indicator as well as copilot stick (PTT function). Installed the wires on the terminal strip near the firewall. Still have to hook them up to power and EFIS.

Tested the eyeball cockpit lights really quick. They seem like they might do the trick. I was unhappy with the NuLites that I got from Spruce and the map light from B&C was kinda clunky.

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Finished up the copilot stick by putting the 2 circuit .062 molex connector on it. The PTT works! The stick has an index finger button but I'm only going to use PTT on this side.

Then I worked on the trim indicator terminal strip. Soldered in 1/4 watt 1K ohm resistors on the power side per the GRT wiring diagram. 12V regulated power from the EIS unit will drive these. Also ran the wires to display unit #1. I had to put pins on three wires and stick them on connector #2 (pins 16, 17 and 18). Will have to do the other display unit as well since the trim positions are not communicated over the display unit interlink (yet).

Apologize for lack of pictures - there's nothing too interesting to see. Will post pics of my wiring as it's wrapping up.

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My parents were in town Christmas-New Years week and the in-laws before then so that's why no work was done on the plane. My dad and I did manage to sneak out to the workshop to wire some circuits (bat/master switch, fuel pump, fusible link, etc). Here's the current state of wiring. I hope it all looks OK!

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Figured I'd start the day off with something easy. Here's what I did to light the baggage compartment. I put a switch on the upper panel I made so I can turn it on/off as a courtesy light. It will be wired to the battery bus so I can turn it on as I'm getting into the plane at night. It's easier to reach the switch up here than on the panel when you're getting into the plane.

Tonight I started wiring up the dimmer pots. I purchased the LC-40E dimming controller from Spruce last week. I'm starting with only two dimmed circuits - the flood lighting for the instrument panel and map lights. The EFIS and avionics have built in dimmers so I think I'll be all right.

You can also see a 12V aux port I purchased from Radio Shack.

I like putting connectors on everything so they can be removed easily. Maybe it's all my time working in the airline industry.

Just a quick shot of the panel showing the Pictorial Pilot installation and the LED's I purchased from Radio Shack. I may add one more. We'll see.

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Here she is. On the test truck in Kamloops, British Columbia. Notice those nice Canadian Rockies in the background. Sue at Aerosport Power said my engine will be ready to ship next week. Right now they have it coming to the Vitran Express depot in Atlanta. I have to figure out a way to get it to the house though. Ohhhh and I have to send her a big check first. Ugh.

Also, tonight I continued wiring. Spent time on the 12V aux port, autopilot and courtesy light circuits.

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Got some connectors with the shipment of my firewall forward kit. Put them on the strobe power supply. Also made a little harness for the strobe wire shields which will attach to aircraft ground. You can see I crimped and soldered three 20 awg wires to a knife splice. This will go to a nearby local ground. I don't think I can easily run any more wires back to the firewall ground.

I also spent time adding K1000-4 nutplates to the mounting angles for the strobe power supply. Don't know why I didn't do it earlier but at least it's done.

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I finally figured out how I wanted to mount my cool eyeball lights in the F-704K upright cap strips. I'm a firm believer in making everything accessible. Paul put his capstrips on with all nutplates... I didn't feel like going to that extreme. So I made a removable face plate. This way I have access to the lights if I need in the future. Plus I can add more stuff there, like an ipod dock or whatever. After all the nutplates were on, I used the specified LP4-3 blind rivets to attach the cap strips.

I also received my order from SteinAir for some of his new really neat LED lights. Ended up mounting one overhead to illuminate my few analog instruments. These really work and are totally positionable.

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Tonight I hooked up my new instrument flood light to the switch and dimmer. Works like a charm. Although I should have thought before hand and just use the dimmer knob as my switch.

Started running the RG-400 coax for my antennas. At first, I'll need three lines - comm, nav and transponder. Might add provisions for marker beacon.

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After sneaking out to the workshop tonight, I tidied up the coax runs and installed BNC connectors on the radio side. Additionally, I used a BNC bulkhead fitting to 'break' the comm antenna so I can tap into it with a handheld radio should the need arise. I put the bulkhead fitting on F-982 cover (right side) so it's somewhat out of the way but accessible.

Engine is sloooooowly making its way across Canada. It left Kamloops on Tuesday and its currently in Calgary. Only about 2,450 miles to go.

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Well we were supposed to go to TPA for the day to see my Grandpa (so Heather could meet her Great Grandpa). But in the end, it was not meant to be. Some cancellations the nite before meant a full flight in the morning, even on a bigger plane - a 777.

Worked on the annunciator lights. Wired them up as shown after running to Fry's to get a 12 pin Molex - good for 6 lights.

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Finally drilled the hole for the fuel line exit now that the engine mount is on. It's in the same location Walter used. ThenI fabricated the remaining fuel line past the flow scan fuel flow sensor.

Tidied up the wiring around the pump and put Molex connectors on both the pump and sensor.

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Taking lots of pics of wiring isn't really useful since everyone's plane will be different. But here's how I installed a terminal strip for some EIS functions such as 4.8V excitation output, fuel tank levels and fuel pressure. The rest of the wires such as oil temp and oil press will go straight to the sensor on the other side of the firewall. The big wire bundle you see is for all the EGT and CHT probes.

Yeah, I got to use some of my RC skills and equipment. Fabricated the pushrod for the Ray Allen 1.2 position sensor. Installed it just like Dan and Mike did. Spent a long time trying to get it configured in the EFIS. I was seeing varying voltages with varying flap positions - which is good. But I just wasn't seeing the bar move on the graph! The only gripe I have with the GRT EFIS is that the manual is not up to date with the latest and greatest features this amazing EFIS has to offer. Trim position was added in the last software update.

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Some latest panel shots. Hangar flying as I like to call it.

Finally figured out how to set up the trim and flap indicators in the EFIS. You set the high/low limits on the General Setup page in the trim calibration menu.

You can see how the flood light really illuminates the steam gauges but it's hard to get a true capture of the real thing. You can also see the low volt indicator LED working away. And the flap position on the EFIS screen.

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Due to CG issues, I thought it was best to move the ELT ahead of the CG. My prop only weighs 17 lbs - a far cry from the 40 lb Sensenich or heavier than that Hartzell. Moving the ELT from about 40 inches aft of the CG to about 14 inches ahead can only help. And it doesnt even have batteries installed (yet).

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And I finally got around to routing the main power cable. It's not totally secured at this point but this is how I plan to run the 6 AWG wire. Total length to 40A fuse is just under 6 feet.

And I also was able to get the rear tie-down tapped. Would be easier if I did that before I riveted it on the rear bulkhead. But it wasn't too bad. Inserted tie down per plans (DWG 27A).

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Sweeeeet. A new Garmin 396.

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Decided to move the ELT back to it's original location. Remeber I moved it to just aft of the firewall due to CG issues but now that I have a 22 lb. prop spacer on there, CG should be OK. Anyway, maintenance of the ELT is easier in the back as well as antenna placement.

Put the antenna on the F-706A-R bulkhead, parallel to the F-632A canopy channel. It can clearly see the sky through the plexi. Thought about putting the antenna under the empennage fiberglass fairing but I didnt want a piece of steel so close to the remote compass (magnetometer).

Fabricated the 1/4 inch brake lines on the outside of the plane. I had to install a 45 degree AN fitting on the brake because we didn't put a 90 deg one on there when the brakes were originally installed. Don't feel like taking them all apart.

Should work out.

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Got the transponder antenna on the plane. Woohoo.

Did some wiring on the firewall side. Hooked up my batt/alt switch. Also put the diodes on the master and starter contactors. Made a 4 awg cable from the battery to the contactor.

Tested the batt/alt and e-buss switches. Seems to work just fine. Now I can run my stuff off the ships battery in the hangar.

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Fabricated an engine ground strap from 2 AWG and installed it as shown in the picture. Paul's handy dandy super-crimper made easy work of crimping the terminals.

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For some reason, I cut the wire to the fuel level sender units at the wings a little too short (actually I know the reason... it was because I thought I'd put them in the wing root connector... later I thought it's just better to take the wire straight to the sender).

So I pulled some new wires through the 3/4 conduit and to the wings. Also pulled a 22 AWG wire for the OAT probe which I'll put in the right wing... well clear of any hot exhaust.

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Well the wires were already there. I just put pins on them and then connected them. Here you can see how I put heatshrink over each individual pin and then heatshrink over the whole bunch. Should make it fairly painless if I have to remove the elevator.

Once it was all hooked up, I made sure it works from the stick grip. Also set up the EFIS to display the trim indication. Works great!

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Used some 1/4" foam to protect the fuel and brake lines. Also put another layer of 1/4" foam over the brake lines before I put the covers on. You can also see I used some of the foam to make spacers between the lines as well. I just CA'd (superglued) them in place.

The foam is the "super soundproofing" foam from Aircraft Spruce (ACS).

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Finally solved the OAT location. Here's a really simple and elegant setup. The probe sits quite nicely in a snap bushing (7/16 OD... forget the ID). I simply put it in the first inspection panel on the right wing. Used a spare pin in my autopilot wire harness at the wing root to hold the wire. The other wire is grounded locally. Used a two circuit molex to connect them at the inspection panel. Very cool!

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Borrowed Mike's brake filler setup so I can get some fluid in my lines. Later I borrowed Mike for some real help. Also worked on hooking various items up on the engine preparation for a possible engine run tomorrow.

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Drained the fuel I had in the tanks so I could start the process of calibrating the fuel senders. GRT has you do an IRS like form to come up with offset and scale factors. My empty tank reading was 137 and full fuel reading was 190. Using these numbers I came up with my SF factor of 321 and OFF factor of 877 in the EIS4000 engine monitor.

The tanks hold just a tad over 21 gal! Thanks to Gordon and Dave for loaning me some fuel to get me to full tanks!

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Skip from Dumont Aviation came by to do the IFR check. Many say this is not necessary for first flight but I wanted to have confidence in the system. We spent the first two hours fighting leaks in the system. It was mainly due to how he tapped into the system. The little spider had a hard time getting a seal on the static port and his adapter was too big for the pitot probe.

After we got that all situated, the transponder and altimeters checked out very well. We used the calibration screen on the GRT to make the EFIS as accurate as possible... to the foot!

Happy to say that N410S is IFR certified - at least for the next two years.

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Comments that appear on this website should not be interpreted as instructions on how to build any aircraft. Please consult with the manufacturer.

2004 Scott Will.