Another productive session at the hangar as I finished up the riveting on the ADS-B antenna doubler and then fabricated and installed the doubler for the primary GPS antenna. Along with that, I finished up the Cherrymax rivets joining the VHF antenna doublers to the seat pan ribs for additional support. Busy day.
The ADS-B antenna doubler was a bit of a challenge due to the fact that my pop rivet dimpler wasn’t going to do much good in the thick skin under the forward floor. I decided that I would countersink that area and go with AN4 rivets for added strength. After countersinking, I used the same back riveting technique that I had employed previously and got the doubler installed pretty quickly. Next I got another piece of the old panel and fabricated a doubler for the main GPS antenna. This antenna will be mounted externally on the upper part of the aft fuselage. After putting the canopy back on to ensure clearance, I decided that the center section, just aft of the canopy track was the best place. Match drilling, dimpling and priming were pretty standard and after getting all that done I went ahead and riveted the doubler in place.
I finished up by using an angle drill in my Dremel tool to drill six holes in each VHF antenna doubler to facilitate the Cherrymax rivets intended to help stabilize the assembly. After finishing that and cleaning up the shavings, I riveted those in place. With that done, the only other antenna left to install is the ELT antenna, which will go on the aft fuselage. Time to start focusing on some serious wiring at this point.
