339A Panel Upgrade Begins

[339A]

After being on the road for a while I have finally made it back to Littleton and my airplane. Upon arriving back home a few items were delivered by Mr. Brown. Most of the parts/equipment that I ordered showed up. So now I can get started on the IFR panel upgrade for 339A.

What I thought I would do is to keep a running post here, of the event as I progress along and throw in an update when something interesting takes place.

I do have a general plan of attack for this project. Obviously I want to limit the amount of down time for the plane. I would much rather be flying than working. So the first step is to get the electrical design done. That is complete and I'll post a link to the drawings when I get a chance. I have been playing around with ePanel Builder for the last year and have a layout that I can live with. One of my objectives is to limit the amount of re-wiring that I need to do. That being the case the placement and reuse of existing equipment had to be worked into the layout.

Here is the panel as it is today. It's had a few upgrades since it was first completed in 2005.

Here is the new panel design. Trying to make use of existing wiring and layout.

Since I'm a cheap guy (just ask my wife), I will be cutting/fabricating the panel myself. Plus this allows me to have the existing panel right where I can look at it and get measurements as needed. I made the original panel in about two nights of cutting/filing. I began this task last night and I'm off to a good start. Note the can of Bush's beans in the upper right corner...just happens to be the perfect size for a 3 1/8 inch instrument.

More to follow as I get further into the project.

 

[zilik]

Progress

I see progress has been made since Saturday. Looking good.

 

[Brantel]

Thanks for helping finance my RV addiction!!!!

Keep eating those beans!!!!

Note the can of Bush's beans in the upper right corner...just happens to be the perfect size for a 3 1/8 inch instrument.

 

[RV7Ron]

I'll have to stop by and take a look at this, looking good so far.

 

[Danny7]

Thanks for helping finance my RV addiction!!!!

Keep eating those beans!!!!

you own stock in bush's?

 

[abrandt]

Scott,
I wish you would have mentioned your intentions earlier. I would have given you my unused panel from my kit.
Andrew

 

[logansc]

Scott: I have tried a couple of times to copy the picture of the panel I am working on off of ePanel so I could paste it into a Power Point presentation (or similar). Looks like you are using ePanel as well, so I was wondering how you did it. I don't seem to have broken the combination so far.

Thanks!

Lee...

 

[DeltaRomeo]

Scott: I have tried a couple of times to copy the picture of the panel I am working on off of ePanel so I could paste it into a Power Point presentation (or similar). Looks like you are using ePanel as well, so I was wondering how you did it. I don't seem to have broken the combination so far.

Thanks!

Lee...

Lee, download this free program: http://www.wisdom-soft.com/products/screenhunter_free.htm

It's what I use to capture parts of the screen (from any program). I then paste it into Photoshop (or anything else). I use it about a million times a day to gather all the pictures for the front page of VAF. I chose the setting that allows me to crop/copy the portion of the screen that I'm interested in, not the entire screen.

 

[accuratemac]

SCOTT Fabricating your Panel

Scott,
Bill Souza here, RV-10, owner Accurate Machine Company.
Since you and Deb are a close friends, Send dimensions and panel to me, I will layout your panel in Solidworks & Gibbs Cam software and cut your panel in 2 days. no charge buddy. Call me, you can get my # from Rosie.
Bill
RV-10
N279RB

 

[339A]

Thanks for helping finance my RV addiction!!!!

Keep eating those beans!!!!

Deb and I will probably eat that can of beans on Saturday. The plan is to work on panel, then watch a movie on the big screen. Supposed to be a rainy weekend here in Denver. There's a whole case of Bushs beans at the hangar and hot dogs in the freezer....mmmm good, Saturday night hot dogs and beans.

Scott,
I wish you would have mentioned your intentions earlier. I would have given you my unused panel from my kit.
Andrew

Thanks for the offer Andrew. I'm not done yet and may need to start over.
BTW when is your 9 going to fly? You must be close.

Scott: I have tried a couple of times to copy the picture of the panel I am working on off of ePanel so I could paste it into a Power Point presentation (or similar). Looks like you are using ePanel as well, so I was wondering how you did it. I don't seem to have broken the combination so far.

Thanks!

Lee...

I like Dougs suggestion. Just yesterday one of my co-workers was using that same program. I had never seen it before. Makes this a lot easier. I did it the "old fashioned way". Hit the PRTSC button on the computer, then paste it into MS Paint and edit out all the junk you don't want, save as a jpg. A bit of a PITA, but it works. From now on I'll do it Dougs way.

Scott,
Bill Souza here, RV-10, owner Accurate Machine Company.
Since you and Deb are a close friends, Send dimensions and panel to me, I will layout your panel in Solidworks & Gibbs Cam software and cut your panel in 2 days. no charge buddy. Call me, you can get my # from Rosie.
Bill
RV-10
N279RB

Hey Bill,

How goes it? I didn't know you could do that. Thanks so much for the offer. I had been contemplating sending it off to someone, but decided it would be easier/cheaper to do it at the hangar. I'm almost done. I'm going up to Mr. Zilik's house this afternoon to cut the 2.25 inch holes, make a couple of Bob Archer antennas and bend a piece of angle for the new switch sub panel. Then maybe have a beer.

 

[339A]

Panel Progress

So here is the latest update on my panel progress. Thanks to Gary Zilik and his handy little shear, I managed to get the Bob Archer style antennas made and tested. Gary donated the .025 aluminum and some of his time. We sheared up enough to make about four antennas. Gary needs one for his RV3B project too. Total cost of materials ~ three bucks for brass/nylon hardware. Now the kicker to all this: One of my co-workers is also a Ham radio guy and has an antenna analyzer. The Array Solutions AIM 4170 to be exact.

After making the first antenna I thought it a good idea to test it. And a good idea it was, because initially it tested terribly. To make a long story short, after about five hours of playing with it, at the office, we finally got the VSWR down to 1.78:1 over the range of 100-130 mhz. Not too bad. Once they're installed in the plane, we will test them again and tweak as necessary.

Gary shearing aluminum

Here is a pic of the completed antennas. Way nicer than the store bought ones. Cheaper too.... unless you consider the engineering time for three guys @ $600.00/hour for five hours. OMG, $3000.00, don't tell my boss.

It was quite a learning experience with the antenna. What I will say is that I'm lucky to know someone who understands them. Had I just made them and stuck 'em in the plane, they wouldn't have worked. One of the critical parts is the thickness of the insulator and length/size of the element. Varying this with different materials varies the capacitance and changes its performance.

Next, I finally found a good place to mount the magnatometer; right behind the baggage compartment. Matched it to the angle of the panel and "boom done". I still need to add a piece of angle for a down leg stiffener. I tested this placement with a compass and got no interference at all. Of course, this is a on a tip-up. A slider with the rail above it might present a different problem.

The 430 rack FINALLY showed up this week. I managed to make all the final big cuts in the panel. Who needs a CNC/water jet cutter?! Real guys build their own panel!

Scott cutting holes

So here it is now. I have a few miscellaneous holes still to cut, but this is pretty much the final shape. Looks like everything should fit. I think there are more holes than aluminum in the panel. Pretty happy with the way it's coming out. Next up will be to finish the small details. Then on to pulling wires for the antennas and magnatometer, etc.

More later ...

 

[339A]

Latest Panel Progress Update

Finally got some free time and managed to get Phase 2 of my panel upgrade complete. Phase 2 involved getting all the extremity wires pulled in and terminated where possible. I also managed to finalize the electrical design, here is a link to the pdf files of the drawings.

A couple of pictures of the recent work.

Good times trying to pull the Coax through the existing grommets

New wires everywhere

Shot of the Magnatometer and its new wires laying on the floor

Oh my aching back... really

Archer style antennas mounted and wired. (one in each tip) Still need to test them.

Next up is Phase 3. This will be the "Big Swap Out". Given that this will probably take two weeks of solid work, the original plan was to do this after OSH. We now have a trip planned to Lake Mohave for mid August. I don't want to get started on this and then have to miss the trip because the plane is still apart. Hmmm what to do? Wish I had more vacation time....

 

[339A]

Phase 3

Well I finally decided to bite the bullet and start phase 3 of my panel upgrade. Hopefully I won't get called away anywhere and can get this done in a reasonable amount of time.

First an update on the antennas. Here is a screen capture of the installed SWR's for all three of my antennas. Notice the nice curved one, that's the store bought Comant CI 122. It starts dropping down around 114 mhz and has a nice downward slope. Note it doesn't cross 2.0 on the SWR until 122mhz! The other two are obvious... they're the ones I made. Not doing as well as the original bench test led us to believe they would. I did connect one to my ICOM on a recent trip back from Boulder City. It worked well enough to pick up AWOS from about 40 miles out. I could communicate with Gary so as a secondary com antenna it should be OK.

Next up are some pics of my no longer existing panel.

After some minor trimming details the new panel fits right in. Unlike the guys who built 6's where the panel was custom cut/fit, this is a Vans store bought panel. I tried all the major components and looks like I have plenty of clearance. It took a lot of pre-planning on my part, but it was worth it. Next up is to cut the hole in the sub panel for the 430 and get the racks mounted. Then on to wiring... I'm figuring about four (full) days to reconnect and add the new stuff. We'll see....

 

[zilik]

Sigh!

We'll I guess your not going flying with me in the morning, or Saturday, or for that matter Sunday.

At least progress is being made!

 

[BSwayze]

Can't wait to see your new panel in place, Scott! I'm finding all of this VERY interesting and informative.

I hope you got a lot done over the weekend.

 

[339A]

Phase 3 Almost Done!

Well it has taken a couple weeks, but the end of phase 3 is near. The panel is all installed/tested. I have even completed two flights so far. HUGE learning curve just trying to figure out all the info on the GRT. There is soooo much set up and calibration to do. I did manage to get the fuel tank level cals done. I came up with some good data for the EIS and the level indication seems to be good. We'll see how it looks as the tanks drain. BTW, they were both identical from zero fuel to about 12 ~ 13 gallons where they stopped changing. I started to see a change in the #s after the first gallon went in. Each tank took exactly 18 gallons.

On to bigger and better things. I also managed to get the mag cal and altimeter cal done. The magnetometer is spot on! Now I just need to spend a bunch of time deciding how I want the PFD to look and behave. Up to this point I would say phase 3 took close to 100 hours to complete. I spent about 14 straight days out at the airport. Worked until midnight~one o'clock after work. Then all through the labor day weekend...

Thanks to Stein as he gave me a great price on the Garmin 430, it should be here on Thursday. Then a whole new learning curve will start. Here's a few pics from the latest round:

Here is the panel going together before paint.

I tried painting it myself, but just wasn't happy with the results. Too splotchy.

Here's what it looks like when a pro does it. Yes it's powder coated.

Pretty much the final product. The labels aren't installed in this pic.

Here's a pic showing my original idea to the final design. Fairly close.

 

[scard]

Very nice! Obviously you're going to love it once you become the king of buttonology between the 430 and GRT. Get a safety pilot and do 6-8 flights with a little forced stress to hit the right buttons at the right time. Once the buttonology is fully under control, it falls away as a "task". And, Oh, the capability . IFR takes on a whole new meaning.

 

[RV7Ron]

Wooowee, nicely done Scotty! It really came out nice. Look forward to seeing it soon.

 

[339A]

Buttonology

Very nice! Obviously you're going to love it once you become the king of buttonology between the 430 and GRT.

"Buttonology" I really like this word Scott, because that's exactly what it is. I searched it on Google and came up with this link. Pretty amazing looks like it was coined for the 430! Now I have something to read at work today. BTW I'll be in Houston next week for work. Hope to get done before LOE, maybe we can fly up together... I'll let you know.

Wooowee, nicely done Scotty! It really came out nice. Look forward to seeing it soon.

Come on by this weekend, I will be trying to understand 430 buttonology... you have experience in this arena.

 

[339A]

Updated Drawings

Now that I have been flying behind my new panel for awhile, I just wanted to update this post one more time. It has taken several months to finally get a handle on all the technology at my fingertips. I am by no means a pro yet, but things are starting to gel. I'm a little slow...

I can command the A/P to fly approaches, go missed and fly a hold with a teardrop entry. I have watched as the A/P takes 339A all the way to the TDZE while flying the ILS. It really is amazing. I'm ready to begin IFR training now as I believe I have the bugs figured out.

On that note I have made some changes to the electrical design. I've added a back up battery to power up the EFIS while it sits on the ground. Added some tables to help with the communication setup between the GRT EFIS, 430, and 696. Made several other minor changes/corrections to the drawings. Here is a link to the Keep and Share pdf file. It's 9 sheets long and replaces the old file which had some mistakes as well. So if you downloaded it before keep that in mind.

Regards,

 

[jimpappas]

panel upgrade

Looks awesome!!

See it in person soon I hope!