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Marc Zeitlin

Exalted Grand Poobah
Joined
Dec 11, 2015
Messages
1,520
Location
Tehachapi, CA
Folks:

Not sure that "Completions" is the right sub-forum for this, but I didn't see anything more appropriate.

So for the past (holy Nug, mother of Cthulhu) four months and about 400 hours, I've been working on my plane. I've completely sanded and repainted the interior (well, I paid a friend who works in an auto body shop to do it, as I've had enough sanding for a couple of human lifetimes), which after 18 years had become pretty ratty. I also replaced the instrument panel, which over the course of 18 years had become a mishmash of steam gages, Dynon legacy instruments, and bits an pieces of other nonsense (Garmin 195 on a stick, homebrew landing gear operation panel, switches, lights, etc.). And since I was doing all that, I also ripped out 99.3% of the electrical system and put in a whole new system based on Bob Nuckolls' Aeroelectric Connection diagram Z-14, which is about the most complex electrical system a single piston engine aircraft can have. Dual battery, dual alternator, X-feed, etc.

Rather than letting stuff grow organically, as the previous system had for 18 years, I spent a LOT of time planning both the panel and the electrical system, because at 62 years old, I don't EVER want to have to do this again. Except for the engine rebuild in 4 - 6 years, depending upon how many hours my engine actually decides to go, and the concurrent SDS EFII system install that will happen at that time, this is the last thing I'm going to do to the plane except flying it and keeping it flying.

If I had to guess, I spent 100 - 200 hours designing and tweaking the IP, and probably close to that designing and tweaking the electrical system. THEN the ~400 hours doing the installation, and that's with an electrical harness fabricated by SteinAir (with a LOT of supervision and review).

I've placed pics of everything on Dropbox, here:
Since the pics were taken, there's been a bit more work - new seatbelts and O2 tanks installed, the canopy re-installed with new foam seal, covers installed, ELT antenna installed, Fuel/Cabin Heat panel installed on seat-back, etc., etc.

Longer term (within the next year, as $$$ becomes available), a Garmin 175 will go in the center stack opening, and the right hand sub-panel will come out and be replaced by a 2nd Dynon 10" HDX screen.

There's a lot to look at, and rather than write a tome of everything I did to the plane, feel free to ask questions as they come up.

Hope this is interesting to folks.
 
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