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Dave's RV-7A Builder's Log
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Date: 8-13-2017
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Number of Hours: 7.00
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Manual Reference:
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Brief Description: Wired control stick & checked magneto timing
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Today was focused on wiring the control stick and deconflicting the wire bundle from the flight controls on the pilot’s side. I also had the opportunity to have Tom come out and check my magneto timing (good) and give the overall firewall forward a thorough inspection.
I had chosen Ray Allen control stick grips due to the fact that they were 100% compatible with my pitch trim servo, and I’m not terribly picky about custom grips. The wiring was pretty straightforward—with one exception—and the first picture shows the end result. There were two downsides of the process, the first being the need to solder all of the connections in the stick grip control head. Soldering is something that is not hard to do, but doing it wrong can lead to all sorts of electrical gremlins down the road, so I took my time and checked everything twice. The major issue turned out to be a short phrase in the wiring instructions: “The G207 control stick grip has two additional pushbutton switches…we do not supply wiring instructions for these additional switches”. In other words, if you follow the wiring diagram to the letter, you will still have two unwired switches. I got so focused on the plans that I failed to double check that, and when I had it completely installed, I realized that I hadn’t wired the control wheel steering interrupt switch. That should be fairly easy to fix, but after wiring everything, securing the bundles and then ops checking the trim and push-to-talk switch (all worked great), it was a bit frustrating to think about undoing some of it to wire one additional switch.
During this process we checked the magneto timing in preparation for first engine start—spot on—and I got two thumbs up from Tom on my firewall forward work. I’m pretty pumped, first engine start could come as early as this week.
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Control stick head with wire bundle
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Stick grip installed in aircraft
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Wire bundle detail
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