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Dave's RV-7A Builder's Log
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Date: 11-23-2016
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Number of Hours: 3.50
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Manual Reference:
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Brief Description: Pitot/Static and electrical
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I took the day off of work to extend the Thanksgiving weekend and headed out to the hangar for a short session to finish up the pitot, static & AOA plumbing. Since I decided to add an alternate static switch to the AOA system, I was one “tee” short, so I stopped by the aviation supply department at Lowe’s and bought a fitting. Even if the replacement fitting isn’t perfect, it allowed me to install everything and I can always get a new one from Steinair, I just didn’t want to pay $8 to ship a $3 part. We’ll see when I do a static leak test. I also didn’t want to pay five bucks for a tubing cutter, so I made my own for free out of a piece of phenolic block…worked like a champ.
After finishing the plumbing, I turned back to the electrical system by running the lead from the aux battery to the main power bus. This lead allows the aux battery to charge anytime there is ship’s power from the main battery or alternator. Once that was done, I connected the aux battery power lead to the switch and ran a quick circuit test on the PFD. With power to the proper pin (pin 31 if you are scoring at home), I decided to power up the PFD and ensure that all the circuitry was working properly. The aux battery directly powers the PFD, GSU25 (ADHRS) and GEA24 (engine monitor), so theoretically I should be able to fly on aux battery alone if I ever lost all of my primary power sources. The system design allows the battery to charge with main power, so checking all of the sequencing and switching had to be done at some point.
With the GDU 465 in the panel and the harness connected, I flipped on the aux battery switch and waited for something to happen. After a couple of seconds the Garmin splash screen appeared and then the full display powered up…very cool! With all of the circuits now tested, I will work on finishing up the autopilot harness and putting BNC connectors on all of the RG 400 cables to allow me to power up the full system for checks. More progress!
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Who needs fancy tubing cutters?
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GSU 25 plumbed with pitot (red), static (white) and AOA (blue)
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First display is powered!
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