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Dave's RV-7A Builder's Log
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Date:  7-31-2016
Number of Hours:  4.50
Manual Reference:  
Brief Description:  Avionics ventilation

This session focused primarily on adding a couple of ventilation holes in the glare shield. I don’t know how much heat to expect from the avionics that are located forward of the panel, but both display units and the GTN 625 have integral fans, so I assume there must be at least a little. With that in mind, I decided that two vent holes would provide an avenue for rising heat to dissipate, and if it’s not quite enough, it should be pretty easy to add a vent fan if needed to pull cooler air up from the floor and out through the glare shield vents.

Not wanting to weaken the structure by making the holes too large, I elected to use my 2” hole punch for the task. There really wasn’t a lot of debate on where to put these since the only logical location was centered between the middle and outboard ribs, halfway between the panel and sub panel. This location would provide easy access for attaching the base plates, was in an area where the glare shield had no curve, and would allow decent ventilation. With that, I punched two more holes in perfectly good sheet metal.

The final step was to fabricate a couple of brackets from .050 aluminum and drill them to the glare shield. I still need to find some type of mesh or grate to sandwich between the glare shield and the grates to prevent stuff from falling through, but not having anything on hand, I decided to start working on fitting the windshield. This clearly is going to take some time to get right, but with at least two more months of hot weather, I should have plenty of time to fit, drill and attach the plexiglass to the frame.
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Yes, I'm about to make a hole...two actually...

Yes, I'm about to make a hole...two actually...

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Vent holes cut

Vent holes cut

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Missing only some wire mesh to finish

Missing only some wire mesh to finish

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