Aug 13, 2022     Avionics List and Power Distribution - (2.5 hours)       Category: Instrument Panel

Logged 12.9 hours and met the weekly requirement of working more than 12 hours for the week ending 8/13. I was in town Sunday, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday so the requirement was 12 hours. I left town Thursday AM and returned Saturday around 4PM.

This evening I:
Reviewed the Stein avionics quote and compared prices to Garmin list. Reviewed proposed changes. Started work on response with list of questions and changes.

Reviewed Carl's power distribution power points, word docs, and email to understand it more fully. Reviewed PC-680, PC-625 and TCW capacity and size. Thought about power distribution strategy.

Unpacked grips for control sticks that I had ordered at Oshkosh and received today. See photo. Both have a hat switch for pitch and roll trim, a Push-to-talk switch and one other button. And the pilot grip has two other switches.

  Aug 09, 2022     Panel, Paint and Electrical system - (1.5 hours) Category: Instrument Panel

Received information about how to print the panel full size. Discussed printing with FedEx Kinko's and sent instructions and request for price and lead time.

Received email from Scheme Design about restarting the paint design. Started back in 2011 and I discussed completing the design when I was at Oshkosh this year. Reviewed all but the last two designs which had a broken link.

Requested and reviewed email and documentation about an electrical system design by Carl Froehlich.. There are some interesting ideas and I need to study it more and consider using some or all of it.

  Aug 08, 2022     Instrument Panel, Avionics, External lights - (3.2 hours)       Category: Instrument Panel

Glanced at Stein Quote for Garmin avionics. Sent spreadsheet with Garmin parts list to Aircraft Spruce after they responded to my Sunday contact request.

Clecoed the panel structure to the fuselage to look for best fit for "center" radio stack. Decided to shift it to the right of center (about 4 inch shift total). Boy that original panel layout looks outdated now. Compare it to the panel layout from a few days ago.

Updated and printed PDFs of the panel, but found out the scaling was wrong when I took it to Kinko's to get a full size printout. Sent request for help to panel planner. Sent picture of panel to Stryker.

Unpacked FlyLEDs strobe, position and landing light kits and started assembly of control board.

  Aug 07, 2022     Avionics and Electrical - (3.2 hours) Category: Instrument Panel

Today was the start of week 1 of Project Restart Phase 2. This phase will last through 12/31/2022.

I cleaned up a copy of my Garmin avionics list to remove prices and notes and all the different configuration options except for the two I am considering. I sent the list and some questions to two suppliers for quotes.

Added max and typical currents to each of the items on my list. Added strobe, position and landing lights and current to the list. Added up the maximum and typical or minimum value for both configurations to estimate what alternator size I needed. Max current was 63 and 65 Amps. Minimum or typical was around 32. So I think I had better get the 60 Amp alternator and figure out how I am going to handle an alternator failure. The next step will be to create a list of essential loads.

  Aug 06, 2022     Avionics and Panel - (5.6 hours)       Category: Instrument Panel

Updated Garmin Avionics spreadsheet with three final configurations and two of them are real possibilities. Reviewed documentation and identified which parts needed to be on the panel and which could be remote mounted. Continued working with Panel Planner and dropped key components on two different panels to see how the two different configurations fit and look. Read the Panel Planner documentation and sent questions to the support email address. The third configuration was just a dream and I can't really afford or justify the extra $5,800 so I didn't even create a panel mock up for it.

Started researching lighted switches and found some built already included in Panel Planner and dropped them in as place holders. Need to find something better.

  Aug 05, 2022     Started Instrument panel design - (.5 hour) Category: Instrument Panel

Installed panel planner and started using it. Also reviewed and organized all the cards, brochures and notes I picked up at Osh.

Documented my plan for phase 2 and sent it to the grandkids.