qmdv wrote:I like your floor covering. Who makes that?

Tim

I got it from American aircraft products. It's light and tough as nails (6lbs lighter than the factory carpet). I held a flame up to it and it doesn't burn. It feels like rubber but is something else. It was the first mod I did and crawling in and out of the plane a thousand times has produced no wear whatsoever!

Jim

Well, I'm making some progress. Some of the instruments were back ordered and so I worked on some other things while waiting for them to arrive.

Powder coated the wheels:



I bought a commercial bluing kit for the retention nuts. I really like the finish and as you scratch them you just put the solution on and it looks good as new:









Got started installing the instruments now that I have them all. I like the way it's coming together:

So the next thing I did was placards and the yokes. I basically bought a pantograph engraver and layed up some carbon fiber. Engraved all of the placards then painted them. Wiped excess paint off and the painted them again with epoxy resin. I love the way they turned out.

Here is one before I put the epoxy resin on:



Then I started on the yokes. They were white but I wanted them black. I also made PTT panels out of carbon end epoxyed them in place. To get the most durable black finish I sprayed them with acrylic black and then painted them with epoxy resin. No way you'll ever wear the finish off.

Before:



After:






More to come. Starting on the G5's...

Gorgeous! Thanks for taking us along.

Panel starting to come together... Pretty happy with the looks so far.







What do you all think?

Looks pretty sharp!

I'm interested in installing a GNS430 and a G5 in my bird. I'd like to know what advice you may have to offer.

Nark wrote:Looks pretty sharp!

I'm interested in installing a GNS430 and a G5 in my bird. I'd like to know what advice you may have to offer.

A few things to be aware of with the G5's... If you decide to ditch your vacuum system, the GAD29/G5 will not provide pitch and roll to your autopilot. Also, the testing procedure for the GMU11 is critical! Moving the magnetometer just inches can produce excessive interference. So I would have your tech run the testing procedure in a bunch of locations; we found the tail of my bird to be the best position, but its going to be different in each bird. One more thing to consider is the cost of the install. It's not a cheap swap (unless you are only using the attitude indicator). Expect 6-10 hours for AI/HSI/GAD29/GMU11.

430's are an easy upgrade unless you are OCD like me. I wanted every old wire stripped out of the airplane. That means all new harnesses which means $$. I think a lot of tech's just cut the old wires and tie them out of the way. That's fine, but not what I wanted. One last thing: If you are ADSB compliant and using the 430/345/G5/GAD29 combo, you will lose traffic on your 430's. There aren't enough ports on the 430 to accommodate the install and keep traffic.

I think it's a great install but make no assumptions on what the G5 can do. I think they will fix some of the lacking capabilities with future software upgrades, but you never know how long that will take.

Jim

Did you do the avionics installs yourself, or farm that out to a shop? When you say magnetometer interference is that just from EMI in the airframe, or something else? I'm planning out my rewiring with shielded runs everywhere, but that was mostly to eliminate audible noise on my end of it. Maybe it'll help with sensor issues as well.

Thanks for the quick reply.

The plan is to take the single VOR, out and install a G5 HSI, tie it to a GPS unit. No autopilot. I can keep the current AI I suppose. It will require reorganizing the panel though.

colopilot wrote:Did you do the avionics installs yourself, or farm that out to a shop? When you say magnetometer interference is that just from EMI in the airframe, or something else? I'm planning out my rewiring with shielded runs everywhere, but that was mostly to eliminate audible noise on my end of it. Maybe it'll help with sensor issues as well.

The testing procedure requires turning avionics, lights, etc on and off over 7'ish minutes of testing. In my case, the the tail LED's were the biggest cause of interference. Executive air is doing the avionics. I'm doing the other stuff and helping as they need it. My hangers are a 30 second walk over there.

Text me next time you are out there.

Jim

Nark wrote:Thanks for the quick reply.

The plan is to take the single VOR, out and install a G5 HSI, tie it to a GPS unit. No autopilot. I can keep the current AI I suppose. It will require reorganizing the panel though.

If you don't have an autopilot, you're in bidness! It would be a pretty easy thing to ditch the vacuum system! All it takes is money and patience!

Jim

Spent the morning restoring the trim housing and flap handle. The Selkirk tunnel looked unfinished to me, so I made a boot to cover the opening out of some left over leather I had from the seats. Then I wrapped the handle in fiber and painted the trim housing cover. To make the finish durable, I painted epoxy resin over the carbon, paint and stickers. Turned out ok.

Here is what it used to look like:



Here is the finished product:

A little tip for photos so that they'll appear properly rotated:

Remove the portion of the URL that says "original." So instead of /originalphotos/ it's just /photos/

That will use the photo that gets processed by the gallery software for proper rotation.

https://backcountrypilot.org/forum/a-quick-solution-to-the-rotated-photo-problem-16791

Zzz wrote:A little tip for photos so that they'll appear properly rotated:

Remove the portion of the URL that says "original." So instead of /originalphotos/ it's just /photos/

That will use the photo that gets processed by the gallery software for proper rotation.

https://backcountrypilot.org/forum/a-quick-solution-to-the-rotated-photo-problem-16791

Right on Z! Thanks for the tip!

Here we go on the last mod... Flint tip tanks. Adds 24 gallons, which this bird desperately needs. Pretty involved install.

Here's one of the tanks:



Inner Rib removal:



Strap for the tank:



Going smooth so far...

Pilot side tank in the wing...

Sweet! You guys crawl across that 421 to get it in there?

Last mod... LOL

A nice easy mod to the flap handle I did to keep it from perpetually needing re-painting. Get a large diameter heat shrink tube off Amazon or the like and shrink it over the last 10"-12" of the handle. Keeps it from getting rusty from sweaty palms. It has the added advantage of being not so cold when you reach down and grab it barehanded on chilly days. Stays looking good forever and an occasional application of an amor-all type plastic treatment keeps it nice and black.

colopilot wrote:Sweet! You guys crawl across that 421 to get it in there?

Last mod... LOL

It's a tight fit dude!

HAHA! The only thing left to do might be an autopilot?!?

dogpilot wrote:A nice easy mod to the flap handle I did to keep it from perpetually needing re-painting. Get a large diameter heat shrink tube off Amazon or the like and shrink it over the last 10"-12" of the handle. Keeps it from getting rusty from sweaty palms. It has the added advantage of being not so cold when you reach down and grab it barehanded on chilly days. Stays looking good forever and an occasional application of an amor-all type plastic treatment keeps it nice and black.

I wrapped this one in carbon and then painted epoxy on it. Pretty sure it will never rust, but heat shrink wrap is a darn good idea!