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Supporting wire in a finished vertical stabilizer

I

idubrov

Well Known Member
I'm considering adding a "rotating" red beacon to the top of the fairing of the vertical stabilizer of an RV-7.

The wires will have to go through the forward "bay" of the VS, and the good thing is that there are only two ribs I need to go through: the top and the bottom one. The bottom one has a lightening hole, so all is good there. The top one I can drill for a wire, no problem.

However, the question is, how do I support the wires inside that bay?

Doing a surgical operation through the bottom lightening hole to glue some cable tie supports on the front spar sounds a bit unrealistic.

I can tie wire to something stiff, maybe, a solid carbon rod, then attach the rod with two clamps, at the top and at the bottom. How does that sound?

Other options?
 
Ivan

I just ran the wire inside a conduit fixed on both the ribs of the fin.

Regards Peter
 
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can you use snap bushings and run the wires through the bushing? From the top light, put a strain lease loop before running the wires
 
First, if you plan to fly at night, consider that the VS mounted beacon is going to shine through your canopy and illuminate the wings as well. I have one in my C-150 (strobe type) and had to block a lot of it off on the front side because it was so distracting. Obviously negating some of the benefit of a beacon.

I ran a coax inside my VS for a top mounted XPDR antenna (Canada diversity requirement), but fortunately before my VS was mounted. I had to de-rivet the bottom front and rear ribs to get access and used a couple of MS21919 clamps to attach the coax to the mid VS spar.

On a flying airplane a rigid conduit fastened (proseal) to the top and bottom rib seems the best way. In my wings I used 3/8" x .035" aluminum tubing. Light, small and rigid. I wouldn't recommend corrugated tubing, to great an unsupported length.
 
I was pretty irreverent about unsupported length of the Nylon corrugated conduit. I can’t envision the movement over the lifetime of an RV being an issue. In this particular case the worse thing that could happen the tail beacon would fail. It’s so easy to use and support. If you drill holes in the ribs to the minor diameter of the corrugations it locks in place and acts as a snap bushing.

Vans suggested using the corrugated conduit draped through the lightening holes in the wings supported by zip ties which is what I did on my QB wings.

https://www.vansaircraft.com/faq-technical-builder-items/wing-wiring-routing-wires-in-the-wings/
 
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Thinking outside the box or conduit

Nothing says the wire needs to be inside anything. Why not wrap the wire around a carbon fiber arrow shaft and support the shaft at both ends to the two ribs?
 
Use brake line

Drill top and bottom rib for snap bushing. Use 1/4” aluminum brake line tubing.
Flair the top to keep it from falling thru. Install top bushing and insert tube. It’s much easier to get the tube thru the hole at the bottom if the bushing is not in place so install the bushing after getting the tube thru the hole. Use an awl to put a small flair on the bottom of the tube to keep it from slipping back thru.

On the bottom, I used an awl to back the tubing out and slip the bushing in. Then pushed the tube back thru while still on the awl.

When ready to run the wire, put a dab of RTV on the ends to secure the tube and protect the wire where it exits.
 
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It took longer to write it up on an iPad than to do it.
 

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