Well, it is the middle of winter with two feet of snow around the hangar but we are still making progress! Here is a shot of the completed panel. Just a couple of labels to add. The panel is a tan color with a dark green accent along the bottom.


We bought seats from Oregon-Aero because none of us would admit we knew how to sew. They build the seats and send them to you to verify the fitting. Then you send them back for the final fabric to be added. They are really nifty. Light foam outside and memory foam inside.


Here is our last slat. As soon as it is done we can fit the wings.


We still plan on flying this spring!

Glass sure makes for a neat and clean panel. Nice going.
tom

One suggestion, set a magnetic compass on the panel where you are going to mount it. See if it swings away from what is right. My V bars in the windshield carried residual magnetism up from the welding of the engine mount into the cabin and screwed with the compass. I had to degauss it with a radio shack magnetic video tape eraser. It would be easier for you to do now, if necessary, before the windshield is in place.

I couldn't see the flaps handle in the photo. Mine was unhandily short and hard to reach, you had to really want them.
Your project is coming along and looking good. What is your engine choice?

Two handles on the stick and two throttles? That is some cockpit resource managment

Looks great!!

dirtstrip wrote:One suggestion, set a magnetic compass on the panel where you are going to mount it. See if it swings away from what is right. My V bars in the windshield carried residual magnetism up from the welding of the engine mount into the cabin and screwed with the compass. I had to degauss it with a radio shack magnetic video tape eraser. It would be easier for you to do now, if necessary, before the windshield is in place.

I couldn't see the flaps handle in the photo. Mine was unhandily short and hard to reach, you had to really want them.
Your project is coming along and looking good. What is your engine choice?

I second what dirtstrip said.... Set your compass where it will live and see if you need to degauss. sp? the cabin frame... I didn't even think of that issue and when I went to the compass rose to tweak my magnetic compass it was 90 degrees off . I tried to remove the magnatism but didn't get it all out. I don't know if the initial welding did it or the powercoating process but the poor compass hated it for sure. it is for sure easier to fix it with the windshied not mounted. YMMV.

On my 701 I swapped out engines and had to rebuild and weld up the engine mount to fit but I also had the mount powder coated. The magnetism could just as well have come from the powder coating process when they polarize the mount to cause it to attract the powder. Either way the test will be the same. You will have to bolt up your mount to the firewall and set your compass in place and see what happens, then go from there. I reread your initial post and your engine plan was for the 912S. You should have a great performer.

Do you need a whiskey compass with the Dynon?

Required for part 91 standard aircraft and experimental category are two different dogs. Certain equipment lists are required under part 91 standard category aircraft but this is an experimental aircraft and part 91 does not apply. Nothing at all is required for day VFR in an experimental, VFR night operation is another matter.
One requirement that does exist is if you do install the compass, it must have a deviation card. To go that one better, since you have the electronic panel, consider using a compass that does not have liquid, like a vertical card. The cheap standard compass has been known to leak out fluid, shorting out what is below it.

The Dynon 100 I have does have a back up battery in case of electrical failure. It is offered as an option. Those that do not have a back up battery can install a diode and a small separate battery so that the juice flows only in the direction of the Dynon. That works too.
You are a builder who's goal is not just to meet minimum equipment so you are looking for elimination of single point systems failure. I installed a vertical card compass and a simple curved glass slip/bank indicator as back up systems. I am comfortable with that even though when you come down to it they can all single point fail at the pilot seat.

Here is the equipment required for amateur built aircraft under 81.30.

http://www.periheliondesign.com/downloa ... EMENTS.pdf

dirtstrip wrote:One suggestion, set a magnetic compass on the panel where you are going to mount it. See if it swings away from what is right. My V bars in the windshield carried residual magnetism up from the welding of the engine mount into the cabin and screwed with the compass. I had to degauss it with a radio shack magnetic video tape eraser. It would be easier for you to do now, if necessary, before the windshield is in place.

I couldn't see the flaps handle in the photo. Mine was unhandily short and hard to reach, you had to really want them.
Your project is coming along and looking good. What is your engine choice?

We have mounted a Jabiru 3300. We bought it as part of a firewall forward kit. Had some fun with the guys when it came in because it was mounted upside down in a wooden crate. Several guys asked why it was upside down. I told them that was because it was made in Australia and they are on the other side of the world. You know - down under! So when they packed it there, it was right side up!

The Dynon has a built-in compass as part of the feature set so we weren't planning on putting a liquid compass in. The plane is being built for Day VFR. However, it might be a good idea to check for magnentic issues anyway. Thanks.

The Dynon, as you point out, has its own magnetic remote compass. In the Tundra we mounted it overhead and behind in the cabin where we hope it is unaffected other magnetic fields. However a magnetic field or residual magnetism that follows up through the steel structures of the cabin will affect this compass the same as a standard one and by checking now for residual magnetism in the cabin area you can fix the problem before other structures are in place. It's a good decision on your part to check for that now whether you add a standard compass to the mix or not..

The other thing to consider with the Dynon ( and I'm not picking on just Dynon glass panels) is that everything reported on the screen relies on the screen having electrical power to it. Otherwise, if it goes black there are no instruments visible including the compass, or worse yet the airspeed. Without a backup source of electricity, either internally, with Dynon's internal backup option, or externally, with a builder installed battery and diode, all instruments can fail at the same time with just a single point loss of power to the system. I really recommend a back up battery for these systems.

Now for my latest mistake, locating the static port in a bad place on the Tundra. I had placed it on a portion of the sidewall of the forward cabin which is the same angle as the cowling and not at 90 degrees to the airflow going past it. The prop blast could actually cause a slight back pressure through the static end of the pitot system causing it to report too slow an airspeed to the Dynon. After sorting through this false reading with Dynon support I learned that nearly all information calculated and reported on the screen relies on the pitot static pressures being correct. Static pressure being wrong caused airspeed to be wrong,caused the altimeter to be wrong, caused the density altitude to be wrong, caused the true airspeed to be wrong and the list goes on. It's a great system but it goes back to that old saying related to anything computerized, "Junk in? Junk out", but when it's right you will love the system and you will love the 701. Good luck. It looks great.

Dirtstrip, that is good information on the placement on the static port. Thanks!

We bought the internal battery back up for the Dynon. My thoughts pretty much followed yours on the single point of failure.

At last! We are mounting the wings!



We fitted the slats and drilled and bolted them on. Then they were removed to hoist the wings.

There's a 601 and 701 in my hanger .Both with less than 40 hours in past 2 years. Owner also has a 310 whitch he flys 100 + hrs a year.
701 driver and I go out to Grand Canyon and it's slooooooww .With a Rotax 912 --high speed cruise is maybe 80-85 mph. A short cross country (under say 100 miles) is a 2-3 hour event. I've flown in both and they handle well -just different missions. I've got some videos of 70 ft. take offs and 40 ft. arrivals in the 701. Overall a great little airplane. Now they have the 750 which is slightly bigger.

You can spend all the time in the world in the building process trying to degauss your airframe, but once you are operational, you'll be using that frame as a ground, I assume?? If so, guess what: you are magnetizing the frame again. The act of the airplane moving through the atmosphere in flight will cause it to become magnetized to some degree.

In other words, don't bother deguassing that airframe. Find a spot where the compass swings and mount the compass there.

I have found that the Hamilton vertical card compasses with compensator balls and the S.I.R.S. compass work well in challenging mounting situations.

And, remember, if the power goes out, that compass may be a pretty valuable lifeline.

MTV

Cherry pickers to lift the wings! I am impressed with your work place. I would be embarrassed to show you mine. I only poured a concrete floor this past July and so I finished my Tundra on a dirt floor. Its amazing how much dust gets in the air from the floor and lands on the plane over the course of the winter.
Your 701 is looking like a plane now. Mine served me well for checking pastures and crops and being able to land where ever I wanted. More than once I jumped in and flew 12 miles for parts and landed close enough for less than a one minute walk in the back door of their shop. I could have driven there just as quick but what fun is that? Its all about the mission like Bill said. A larger plane would have sucked the fun factor out of all of it. You will be able to post some awesome videos of where you can take off and land. I wish I had some of what I did with mine. All I have left is the stories.

Just an ongoing update on this project.

We received our finished seats back from Oregon Air. They are dark green and light tan.


The wing root skin is being fitted. We are particulary proud of how this came out. It was no easy task to keep the skin smooth and crease-free!


The 701 is notorious for looking pretty sloppy in this area!


The root skin for the right wing is next.


The outboard half of the flaperon is hung on the left wing.


The inboard half is next.


As soon as the othe wing root is done we can install the skylight, hang the observer doors, and put the windshield in!

The 701 is looking GREAT !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

On my 801,,, the root skin was the hardest panel to fit,, by a factor of 5, at least.

You are only have way there with the root skin though... Now you need to trim it to fit the plexiglas top that you have not installed yet. Doing that and not scratching the glass is VERY time consuming for sure.


Keep us posted on all your progress.

Ben
N801BH
www.haaspowerair.com

It lives! The power was turned on for the first time!



The skylight, wing roots and windshield are fitted and in place!





The spinner was just cut and fitted and we are ready to mount the prop. A few more days and we will start the engine for the first time! Can't wait!

Man, she's really looking good. I really like the drop between the wings, as opposed to the straight across on my Savannah. The glass panels clean up the panel well. Some of the Savannah guys have been removing their slats and installing VGs. Have you given any thought to that?

tom