Yesterday was the condition inspection. Today was the smoke system.
I ordered the Smoking Airplanes smoke system (SA-100H) with dual injectors. John was infinitely helpful both with ordering as well as installation and operational questions. I ordered the system a week ago Friday. It arrived on Wednesday.
We reviewed the plans and thought through the installation on Saturday after finishing the condition inspection. I spent an hour or so that evening after Scott left looking around the cockpit and thinking of where to install everything and how to place the switches in the most user friendly locations from a pilot's perspective. With RV-8 panel space at a premium, my original idea was to place the smoke switch panel (and breakers) on the left side angled panel just forward of the fuel selector valve. As I read the installation manual further, I realized that the remote switch for the stick (or throttle) was a momentary switch, activated by holding it down, not an on-off switch. So I began to wonder if the toggle switch location that far down would be inaccessible during maneuvering should I need to turn the system to "continuous" operation. I put the seat cushions in the aircraft and spent a while hangar flying, trying out various locations for the smoke switch panel.
I began to think the ideal location would be just forward of the throttle quadrant. Then as I began looking beneath those panels, thinking about clearances and everything, I realized this is a very busy location, and while great for in-flight access, not at all ideal from an ease-of-installation standpoint.
Finally my wife called me and wondered why I wasn't home yet, so I gave up for the night. But on the way home, I called John from smokingairplanes.com to get his advise. My question to him was: "from an operational standpoint, how much of the time am I going to activate the system by using the toggle switch to 'on' vs. the remote momentary switch?" His answer was that he only uses the toggle switch for something like a missing-man formation, where should his finger slip off the switch it would cause an unsatisfactory outcome. That made up my mind. Back to plan "A".
This morning, Scott, my trusty A&P, began working on the brackets, nut-plates, injectors that side of the project. I followed through with my thoughts from the night before and handled the switches and electrical.
I finished 95% of the electrical installation by 8pm tonight. Scott did everything else except for beefing up the front baggage shelf, which he will do at his shop tomorrow.
Time involved so far:
thinking/planning: 3 hours yesterday.
Installation today: 14 man-hours (which included about 2 hours running back and forth for parts)
estimated time remaining: 3 hours for completion and testing.
Next time (if there is a next time), we can do it in half the time, I'm sure.
I'll post more details when we're done.
I ordered the Smoking Airplanes smoke system (SA-100H) with dual injectors. John was infinitely helpful both with ordering as well as installation and operational questions. I ordered the system a week ago Friday. It arrived on Wednesday.
We reviewed the plans and thought through the installation on Saturday after finishing the condition inspection. I spent an hour or so that evening after Scott left looking around the cockpit and thinking of where to install everything and how to place the switches in the most user friendly locations from a pilot's perspective. With RV-8 panel space at a premium, my original idea was to place the smoke switch panel (and breakers) on the left side angled panel just forward of the fuel selector valve. As I read the installation manual further, I realized that the remote switch for the stick (or throttle) was a momentary switch, activated by holding it down, not an on-off switch. So I began to wonder if the toggle switch location that far down would be inaccessible during maneuvering should I need to turn the system to "continuous" operation. I put the seat cushions in the aircraft and spent a while hangar flying, trying out various locations for the smoke switch panel.
I began to think the ideal location would be just forward of the throttle quadrant. Then as I began looking beneath those panels, thinking about clearances and everything, I realized this is a very busy location, and while great for in-flight access, not at all ideal from an ease-of-installation standpoint.
Finally my wife called me and wondered why I wasn't home yet, so I gave up for the night. But on the way home, I called John from smokingairplanes.com to get his advise. My question to him was: "from an operational standpoint, how much of the time am I going to activate the system by using the toggle switch to 'on' vs. the remote momentary switch?" His answer was that he only uses the toggle switch for something like a missing-man formation, where should his finger slip off the switch it would cause an unsatisfactory outcome. That made up my mind. Back to plan "A".
This morning, Scott, my trusty A&P, began working on the brackets, nut-plates, injectors that side of the project. I followed through with my thoughts from the night before and handled the switches and electrical.
I finished 95% of the electrical installation by 8pm tonight. Scott did everything else except for beefing up the front baggage shelf, which he will do at his shop tomorrow.
Time involved so far:
thinking/planning: 3 hours yesterday.
Installation today: 14 man-hours (which included about 2 hours running back and forth for parts)
estimated time remaining: 3 hours for completion and testing.
Next time (if there is a next time), we can do it in half the time, I'm sure.
I'll post more details when we're done.
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