Mar 12, 2023     Riveted cockpit light bracket - (.1 hour)       Category: Lighting

There are new versions of the Chapter 40 (Lighting) than the one that came with my lighting kit and it was a little confusing because the instructions for installing the eyeball cockpit light have you wiring up a potentiometer and a housing for it. I didn't get that. Browing around Van's website, it seems clear that it's either included in newer kits OR available as an option for $110. Since I'll be flying under light sport/sport pilot rules, I can't fly at night so I don't need to spend $110 to dim a light I'm not going to use in the first place.

I also traced various wiring up around the cockpit rollbar that doesn't exactly match my instructions. There is a two wire lead coming out of the connector at the canopy latch unit and I THINK that's designed to be wired to the eyeball light; it appears to be a common ground, which makes sense.

I found a bag with two ES-00141s -- butt splices for 22-26 gauge wire. But my standard crimpers won't crimp a butt splice that small -- it's a tiny wire. So I'll have to come up with something (a pair of pliers?).

So, anyway, all I got done besides shoveling more snow at the hangar was riveting on the eyeball light bracket.

  Mar 10, 2023     Miscellaneous puttering - (1 hour)       Category: Lighting

I added the RTV red silicone to the #1 exhaust springs and added a little more to the other three.


I finished off the throttle quadrant handle. Stupidly, bought a handful of stop nuts thinking the nut on the handle was a different size than I already had.

I then moved on to the cockpit lightning and drilled out two rivets in the rollbar, clecoed on the eyeball holder, match drilled two other holes and then countersunk the three holes that hold the eyeball and brought it home for priming and painting.

The rest of my time was spent looking for the instructions and connector bag for the White Lightning Power Unit. Didn't find them and the replacement connectors has shipped. What a mystery this has become.

  Dec 24, 2022     Completed right wing electrical connector fix - (.2 hour) Category: Lighting

I only had a few minutes to spend in the hangar after helping to pull a car out of a snowdrift from the blizzard of the last three days but I was able to crimp on a new connector for the ground wire and insert it, then screwed the terminal to the wing rib. That completes part off the stuff-to-do-in-the--winter list for this year.

I really should get going on finishing the "lighting" section.

  Dec 05, 2022     Completed AOA installation, wire ID. - (1 hour)       Category: Lighting

Th RV-12iS HIC module replacement kit finally showed up so I can get going on that next now that I finished the AOA installation in the left wing. That was made possible by getting a tube of Molikote (aka Dow 4 lubricant) and inserting the 2" aluminum tube. Seem a little wobbly but it's in as far as it can go. And now I'm wondering if there's supposed to be an O-ring in there like there is on the fuselage side. I'll bet there is.

Anyway, I wired the stall warning switch and took off the nav/strobe light and used the multimeter to identify all wires. I labeled the ones at the light, but I'd just stuck the labels at the wing root and they eventually fell off. So this time I put some clear heat shrink over them. And I'm posting extra pictures in the event I want to identify things in the future.

Shortly I'll put on a new connector and this time be sure all the wires are in the proper receptacle.

**update***
One of the problems with the Van's instructions and wiring diagrams is that it only uses numbers for wires rather than a description of what the wires actually DO. In the picture below, the Black, Yellow, Green, and Red wires are not in the Molex connector in the same order as in the Van's KAI. So I had check and doublecheck to be sure that they went to the correct pin at the wing route. And I'm making this update in case me or the plane's future owner needs to repeat the search.

First, the Aeroled Pulsar EXP wiring:
The Black is Ground
The Yellow is Strobe Power
The Red is NAV light Power
The Green is Strobe Sync.

Depending what version of the KAI you have, the wire numbers could be different. I THINK the wiring comes in a harness now whereas before, we had to make our own wiring.

The pre-2019 wire numbers are as follows (left wing):

Strobe Power - B203 (Yellow on the fixture) Goes in Pin #8 at the wing root. On new harnesses: White wire at the wing root.
Nav Power - B212 (Red on the fixture). Goes in Pin #6 at the wing root. On new harnesses: White/orange at the wing root.
Strobe Sync - B318 (Green on the fixture). Goes in Pin #7 at the wing root. On new harnesses: White/blue wire at the wing root.
Black, of course, is ground and is locally connected.
The other wire in the left wing harness is B218 (stall warning). That is now W217 on the Van's wiring chart. Goes in Pin 2.

Pre RV-12iS has a landing light only in the right wing so I have not included that here.

  Dec 26, 2021     Fixed some wire connector issues - (1 hour)       Category: Lighting

Back when I was installing the two connectors on each of the wing Roots I for some reason put them in different numbered connections then what I was supposed to. And it might have been because I put one in the wrong connector and then that just led to it Cascade of plugs in the wrong connectors and I figured it would be no big deal I would just compensate with a connector when the avionics come so that all the wires would match up properly. I'm still waiting for the avionics to show up so I'm still working a little dinky things and I figured I might as well try to put those wires in the right connectors so I ordered a molex tool to remove the wires which worked okay and I put the right wing wires in there correct connections. The left wing was a little bit different I had the ground wire and the number three connection instead of the number one connection so I took that out and then I realized why I had it in the number three connection which was that I had somehow buggered up the number one connection so I ended up putting it back in the wrong connection and documented it on me instructions so that I would know next time why the number one connection is actually now the number three connection. Latest on the avionics is maybe sometime in january. I ordered it last May.

  Aug 26, 2017     Finished right wing light fairing - (3 hours)       Category: Lighting

I doubt the time spent taping the area around the light fairing is worth the effort for the "perfect" fillet of ProSeal, the super sticky fuel tank sealant used as an adhesive on the bottom of the fairing. Once you start riveting it, the sealant squeezes out. Then you create a fillet with a Popsicle stick, with the extra sealant going into the electrical tape, which is quickly removed before the sealant sets up. Meh.

Also, of course, I labeled and double checked the pin assignments for the three wires from the wing root and added female molex connectors and placed them in the male molex housing.

[Update: Notice anything wrong in these pictures? Yep, I forgot to bolt the light bracket in place before installing the fairing/extension. It's not impossible to do it after the fact, but it's no fun. Bending some wrenches and using long pinky fingers, I was able to get all of the nuts to start on the top screws and tighten them down.

Of course, by then I realized I also forgot to add the washers to stand the bracket off the fairing enough for the locking mechanism of the light to work. I loosened them all up, put two aluminum shims under the bracket and tightened the top two screws down (actually bottom screws once the wing is flipped rightside up.

The problematic nut/screw, of course, was the one where the clay plug makes a space for it in the flox/epoxy. I was eventually able to get the nut started, but that was about it. So after getting it in place, I mixed up more flox/epoxy and carefully put it in place around the nut and screw to, essentially capture it and lock it in place.]

  Aug 25, 2017     Completed left light fairing - (1.5 hours)       Category: Lighting

I popped the right light fairing off and sanded the extra flox away , drilled the two middle holes to the rib and then filled a small gap with SuperFil.

Later, the ProSeal shipment arrived so I went back out to the hangar, mixed up a bunch, slathered it on the flange of the light fairing, clecoed and then riveted it to the wing closeout and rib. I used the Popsicle stick "tool" to make a little fillet.

There's nothing that's every going to be neat about ProSeal but it went OK.

  Aug 24, 2017     Started on right wing position light installation - (1 hour)       Category: Lighting

Patrick had an appointment in South St. Paul this morning, so he stopped by the hangar this morning to exchange the left wing on the table for the right wing, allowing me to mix up some epoxy/flox and cleco the light fairing on just as I did for the left fairing after adding the little clay "plug" where a nut is to go.

I heard back from Van's regarding the difference in the bracket light sent with the AeroLED lights and they've told me to contact the company because they think the wrong mounting bracket was sent. I have done that.

Update: AeroLEDs said it's the right bracket for the lights. I informed Van's. Sounds like the instructions need the illustration to be updated.

  Aug 23, 2017     Epoxied the lighting fair (left) - (5 hours)       Category: Lighting

Been messing around with the left wing lighting fairing for the last week or so and after positioning it and drilling all the usual holes, I mixed up some epoxy and flox and strengthened the attach points per the instructions etc.

Removed the fairing and sanded the new epoxy smooth in the appropriate spots. Drilled out the access hole, drilled the two middle holes where it attaches to the wing closeout rib.

The brackets supplied are not as those in the instructions and they're just thing enough that when screwed onto the fairing, the light itself will not engage in the three posts. So I removed the bracket and added a thin washer under the bracket at the three attach holesand it worked fine.

I removed the light, added molex connectors to the wires from the wing root, fabricated ground wires and clecoed the fairing in place, then added the wide strip of electrical tape on the closeout and a wing pieces on the fairing itself.

I'm waiting for an order of ProSeal.

  Aug 13, 2017     Cut access hole in left wing for outboard light - (1.5 hours)       Category: Lighting

Not much to do while I wait for a few replacement parts to show up (maybe by early next week) so I cut the access hole for the outboard strobe/position lights in the right wing using the template. Use the hole saw for the radius of corners, then my Dad's Dremel with a cutoff wheel, then shaped it with a sanding wheel in the Dremel, finished it up by sanding by hand and then shot some primer.

I cut the fiberglass light cover to the scribe line but I need to consult a few builder sites because the scribe line-- if there is one -- isn't quite clear to me on the outboard edge.

Also, the only holes where there isn't a mark in the fiberglass to indicate where a hole should go are the three holes where the rivets are already removed in the wingtip cover. Not sure why that is.

  Jul 23, 2017     Finished landing light. Started out inboard top skin - (5.5 hours)       Category: Lighting

I crimped connectors to the wires coming out of the landing light, then polished out scratches in the lens as best I could and installed the light and then the lens. I ran a tap through a couple of nutplates to try to allow a little wiggle room for the screw where there's a hole slighly misaligned that might put some pressure on the plexi hole. Will keep an eye on it.

I riveted on the flaperon brackets in two locations. This was a good spot to use the old 12-inch #30 bit which flexes enough to be able to line up the holes without the drill rotor accidently scratching up in the inside of the botton skin.

After that I started on the top 1201 piece (inboard) and prepped the edges then riveted. No problems encountered.

  Jul 22, 2017     Began installing landing light - (5 hours)       Category: Lighting

I've installed two landing lights before so it's not a big deal but it's always weird to cut into a perfectly good wing to install it. Good hot day today; perfect for cutting Plexiglas. Can't leave any nicks at all or it will crack as soon as the temperature drops.

Got everything done except actually put the light in. I'll do that tomorrow.

Because I have to build exactly to plans, I only have one landing light. After I get the airworthiness certificate, though, I'll put a light in the other wing so I can have a wig-wag system (like I had in the RV-7A) to increase visibility in the air.