Brief Description: The Start of Mounting the Avionics
8 hours, Oct 19, 2013 While I was letting epoxy dry on the cabin top I decided to start working on installing some of the basic avionic units in the sub panel area of the front panel. The GTS-800 weighs about 9 lbs and I was very concerned with the weight and balance issue and where I could mount the “brick” with good structural integrity. The GTS-800 comes with a tray mount to make the unit as a Line Replaceable Unit -LRU. I decided to used the bottom tray since it would hold the unit nicely and allow for a somewhat easy way for me to mount everything. Although the tray added more weight this was the best option since I had to span a distance from one of the cross members in the panel to the firewall. The picture explains what occurred to get tit mounted. I had thought about mounting it back on the empty spot on the air conditioner tray but the weight and balance numbers weren’t very favorable for this.
I moved on to mounting the VPX Pro. I thought I could mount the box near the right side of the sub panel but I quickly realized this wouldn’t work because of the wires coming off the unit plus there was minimal room with push pull cables in that area also for controlling heat vents. I decided to locate it very near the center of the sub panel just behind where the veneer controls would go and this is also the location where I am placing the GMA-305 autopilot control panel. I hinged the VPX box to the middle support structure and hard mounted a tab that the VPX will attach to near the front panel. This should allow for access to the avionics equipment mounted higher in the panel.
