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January 19-20 2008:
(5.0 hrs.)
My order for various antennas from Aircraft Spruce arrived, so I
decided to focus on those. I will have two belly mounted whip
style comm antennas. I decided to mount them just behind the spar
and in the bays to the outside of the control sticks.
I fabricated some mounting plates to really stiffen up the mounting
point for each antenna. Here you can see the mounting plate
installed on the right side of the aircraft. I am using nut-plates
to except the 4 10-32 screws that hold each antenna in place. Note
the flange I created along the length of this mounting plate to assist
with its rigidity.
It hard to tell, but I etched and alodined these mounting plates to
help prevent corrosion and create a good ground. |
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Here is a picture of the right side
antenna installed. The same process was used to install the left
side antenna. Why 2 comm antennas you ask? Because I will have two
communication antennas for flexibility and redundancy, and they don't
share a single comm antenna via a splitter very well. |
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Next I moved on to installing the
transponder/DME antenna. This antenna will be located along the
centerline of the aircraft but positioned farther aft of the comm
antennas.
I made mounting plate for this antenna as well, albeit smaller than
those for the comm antennas. Here you can see the mounting plate
installed just below the bracket for the pitch auto-pilot server behind
the baggage compartment bulkhead. |
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Here is a picture of the blade style
transponder antenna installed. |
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January 26-27 2008:
(4.0 hrs.)
This is a really crummy picture, but if you look closely, you can see
I installed the ELT antenna on top of the turtle deck. Many folks
try to hide these antennas inside the canopy area or under a fairing, I
thought about that but than decided the performance penalty by induced
drag is so small, that I would mount it externally like the manufacturer
recommends.
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A while back I bought 2 mounting kits from
Van's that span the J-Stringers behind the baggage bulk-head and can be
used to mount various components. I decided I would use these to
mount the ELT and the strobe flasher unit. The installation
process for these is simple. Just install some nut-plates for
whatever it is you are going to mount and then match drill them to the
stringers, debur, prep, and prime. Here is the left side mount
installed. This is where I will put my strobe flash unit once I
purchase it. |
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Here is the right side mount
with the ELT installed. I went ahead and ran the wires for the ELT
remote swtich in the panel and coax for the antenna. |
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The antenna run for the ELT will follow
the longerons. I made a couple of metal clips to hold the antenna
wire securely (similar to what I did for the static line on the left
side). |
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My two youngest, Joshua and Katy came out
to provide a bit of support as I cleaned up for the afternoon. |
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