Over 500 hours into the project and I'm only just now realizing I should have been paying more attention to the resources on Van's website. To wit, the avionics update that came out in February of this year. In this notice there are a slew of subkits that Van's offers, or will offer when the kits are available and I have questions that some of you may be able to answer. First, I intend to install all Garmin products including auto pilot. I see among the list that there are yaw dampener and aileron trim kits. Just from the title it sounds like that would be in addition to pitch and roll. Are these kits necessary? It sounds like they are more nice to have rather than need to have if installing a 2-axis autopilot system. In fact the yaw dampener sounds like it would turn this into a 3-axis system. The next question regards the GMU 22 magnetometer install. I've seen several posts on this website where people have complained of interference with the magnetometer due to the nearby high current wiring for a heated pitot. This seems nuts to me that if this is a known problem why the magnetometer mount is not designed for the right wing. Or is it? I have no way to know whether it would fit equally well in the right wing. Can anyone address this too?
I have tried to be as vigilant as I can to make sure I address all of the things that I want to include in my plane while it is still easy to install. The service bulletin for the inboard aileron hinge is a prime example. Easy peasy to install now, but a HUGE pain if trying to install it later in the build or after flying. So far I have found the plans to be excellent, but the one glaring omission (at least from my perspective) is some discussion or notes in the plans that might say something to the effect of 'if you intend to install x capability, now is the time to do it.' For some of you repeat offenders it might be obvious, but to me it isn't. My biggest fear is to realize at some point in the build that to install some capability that I'll have to undo part of the build to have access to where it is to be installed simply because I didn't know when to do it. I can't be the only one with these sorts of questions.
Thanks for any feedback.
I have tried to be as vigilant as I can to make sure I address all of the things that I want to include in my plane while it is still easy to install. The service bulletin for the inboard aileron hinge is a prime example. Easy peasy to install now, but a HUGE pain if trying to install it later in the build or after flying. So far I have found the plans to be excellent, but the one glaring omission (at least from my perspective) is some discussion or notes in the plans that might say something to the effect of 'if you intend to install x capability, now is the time to do it.' For some of you repeat offenders it might be obvious, but to me it isn't. My biggest fear is to realize at some point in the build that to install some capability that I'll have to undo part of the build to have access to where it is to be installed simply because I didn't know when to do it. I can't be the only one with these sorts of questions.
Thanks for any feedback.