That’s it, at least for now. The two empty spaces are going to be filled with two ‘standard’ 10″ Android tablets. The right one will be used for navigation, running EasyVFR. The left tablet will run a Pyxis avionics system. That’s avionics that I develop myself.

I tried not to drop stuff in my cockpit, while the floor panels are partly open. However I failed and dropped parts twice in there. Since it’s a tailwheel the parts immediately roll towards the seat bulkhead (under the floor panels. The only way to get these parts out is lifting the tail and knock gently on the bottom.

The Co-Pilot stick is detachable, with the help of a DB9 plug, the switches on top of the stick are connected.

Routing the wires from the sticks to the Console hardware is a challange. Also I installed the Flyleds main board right under the floor panels.

Now that the Wind shield bar is installed, the Canopy can be final fitted. Note the holes in the Forward Top skin. I’ve inserted them in case I need de-fog air flow.

As part of the aircraft registration in the Netherlands, a fire-resistant identification plate is required. I’ve taken the liberty to also add the main aircraft information on the plate.

Time: 8 Hours, Rivets:  0/0  (2021-02-07)

Time: 7 Hours, Rivets:  0/0  (2021-02-10)

Time: 3 Hours, Rivets:  0/0  (2021-02-12)

Time: 6 Hours, Rivets:  4/0  (2021-02-13)

Spoiler alert: I didn’t test thoroughly enough. Sure the wiring is all ok, but it turns out the ECU cannot communicate with the EFIS, Something I could have detected by just looking at a indicator led and if I had read the ‘fricking’ manual. More on this frustration in another post.

I have drawn the schematics myself, so what we do is check all the connections source to sink and mark them of on the schematic.

Besides the top skin, I also need to install the bar that connects the windscreen to the rib in the forward fuselage. This is hard, because it has to be done in conjunction to each other.

With all the wiring checked (we had to make a few adjustments, but nothing severe), we can now fasten the Top Skin with cleco’s. As you can see there are two access panels in the skin, so we can still reach the power bars, the ECU and the RDAC’s.

Ok, I forgot to paint the bottom side of the skin that is part of the panel in the cockpit. It was primed just like all the other (non-visible) parts, but once I saw the tqp skin in its place, it became apparent that it needs to be black. Since I already tear down my paint booth, I had to ‘wing it’ with a spray can.

Making sure the bar fits, I thought I’ll install that one first, but that doesn’t work since it needs to be inserted in the skin. But if it is in the skin how can I reach the nuts.

Right, we can gently bend the skin without really bending it to fasten the nuts and bolts.

Yes sounds really easy, but this took a considerable time. If you over-stress the Aluminum skin you can damage it permanently.

I figured out that I could indeed insert it later and crawl in the cockpit to fasten the bar (sigh). Ok with that established, let’s cleco it all together.

Some holes didn’t align nicely, so I decided to enlarge a few holes from #40 to #30 and use a bigger rivet. The Forward Top Skin fits very tight (almost to tight if you ask me).

The ‘new’ bigger holes also need to be dimpled. Because I don’t want to remove the (very tight) skin again, I decided to use the pneumatic squeezer to dimple the skin and the Firewall.

Now we can start riveting from the top middle to both sides.

Now it’s time to insert the bar, before riveting the rest of the skin.

Except for the row in the longeron, you can rivet everything by (again) gently bending the skin, so the hand with bucking bar can reach the rivet. The bottom row of rivets that are attached to the longeron can only be done by crawling in the forward fuselage. It resulted in a really bad night’s sleep, because my back was sore of laying on the main spar.

Time: 5 Hours, Rivets:  0/0  (2021-01-13)

Time: 7 Hours, Rivets: 74/0  (2021-01-16)

Time: 8 Hours, Rivets:  0/0  (2021-01-20)

Time: 8 Hours, Rivets: 79/0  (2021-01-24)

Time: 6 Hours, Rivets:  0/0  (2021-01-27)

Time: 5 Hours, Rivets:  0/0  (2021-01-29)

Time: 7 Hours, Rivets: 98/0  (2021-01-31)

Time: 6 Hours, Rivets: 40/0  (2021-02-03)

Video

I used Kicad to make the schematics. The Avionics schematic was rather easy, as it’s just browsing through the manuals of the various Avionics and merge the schematics.

The Console is almost completely designed by myself. The Lights are integrated with the Flyleds board. Although the space between the seats of the RV-7 is small, I really wanted a console with a Throttle quadrant, seat heaters, Lights and Flaps.

The last schematic is the one for the Engine, which is loosely based on Figure Z-19 of the AeroElectric Connection from Bob Nuckolls and the manual of ULPower.

Some of the standard electronics do not have a proper brackets to attach the to the panels. To solve this I use my 3D printer to crate brackets. This one is for the (internal) USB power supplies.

The Panel only has the bare minimum of Avionics and Switches. The two big spaces in the middle are preserved for two ‘standard’ tablets.

Now I can start wiring up all the components. I created several power bars (and a ground bar) to distribute the power of the battery via the fuses to all the Avionics.

The ECU of ULPower comes with two wiring harnesses, one from the Engine to the ECU and one from the ECU to the Avionics. The wires are all color-coded and bundled with colored heat shrink sleeves.

It took me almost 60 hours to complete all the Avionics and Wiring.

Time: 4 Hours, Rivets:  6/2  (2020-12-21)

Time: 7 Hours, Rivets: 10/0  (2020-12-22)

Time: 6 Hours, Rivets:  8/0  (2020-12-24)

Time: 4 Hours, Rivets:  0/0  (2020-12-26)

Time: 8 Hours, Rivets:  0/0  (2020-12-29)

Time: 8 Hours, Rivets:  0/0  (2021-01-01)

Time: 8 Hours, Rivets: 16/0  (2021-01-06)

Time: 5 Hours, Rivets:  0/0  (2021-01-08)

Time: 5 Hours, Rivets:  0/0  (2021-01-09)

To be able to continue with the windscreen, we first need to install the last piece of Aluminum skin, which is the Forward Top Skin. However, I do want to install the Avionics first, because it is so much easier to do while that skin is still of.

I decided to place all the (back panel) Avionics on the three ribs that connect the Sub-panel to the Firewall. I don’t want to use the sub panel itself, because I want te leave that space for my own designed Avionics and for optional fans to defog the windscreen.

There are not so many Avionics to install, but still I want to install: the ECU of ULPower, an MGL RDAC specifically for ULPower, an MGL general purpose RDAC, a TRIG GPS module, the Trig Radio and Xponder, the MGL EMS end EFIS and the Airmaster propeller controller.

All Avionics are going to be installed with platenuts, so I can easily change or replace them.

Turns out the ECU needs to be lower, because the platenuts of the access plates are in the way. I forgot the top skin had these access plate doors with platenuts.

The middle rib between the Sub-panel and the firewall is going to hold the power buses. There are three power buses: the main bus, the Avionics bus and the E-bus. The latter holds the power for the ECU and Fuel Pumps and must be fault tolerant. Because NO ECU, NO Engine!

It’s like Christmas, unpacking all the packages with the Avionics.

Most platenuts can be riveted to the ribs with the Squeezer, however a few need to be done with the rivet gun and bucking bar due to space constraints.

When all the Avionics are installed, I need to wire them all up. I created several schematics to guide me while connecting all devices. After installation the Panel looks like this. The two empty spaces are reserved for standard Android tablets, that I’m going to install later.

These will be the main screens of my own Avionics. As you can see I tried to minimize the number of switches and led’s. I use rotary switches in case of multi functions (in this case the Fuel Pumps and Ignition Coils). The Lights and Flaps will also be rotary switches, but they will be placed on the Center Console.

Apparently, it is mandatory to have a fire-resistant identification plate installed on your plane. So I decided to design a nice RVS plate for my RV-7.

Time: 8 Hours, Rivets: 28/0  (2020-11-22)

Time: 6 Hours, Rivets:  0/0  (2020-11-25)

Time: 8 Hours, Rivets: 14/1  (2020-11-28)

Time: 7 Hours, Rivets:  0/0  (2020-11-29)

Time: 3 Hours, Rivets:  0/0  (2020-12-01)

Time: 4 Hours, Rivets:  0/0  (2020-12-02)

Video