13.7.4 It’s always something…

This entry is part 44 of 67 in the series 13 - Electrical / Instruments

gilda112912

 

Just when you think everything is going okay…

Last year when I was laying out where all the avionics was going, I made up foam blocks that were the size of all the different boxes.  Then tried them in different locations to make sure that I would have the correct clearance with the displays, elevator push tube, and everything else.  I came up with the layout pictured here:

2014-04-19 IMG_20140419_110502292a

 

 

This is the view from inside the cabin looking forward.  That vertical box in the center is the PS Engineering PAC15EX audio panel. It comes with mounting hardware that allows it to be mounted horizontally or vertically.

After I had gotten everything installed, I was still waiting for the GPS from Grand Rapids.  But it was beginning to look like vaporware.  Whenever I called, I would hear that it’s going to be available “soon”.  Which is what I had been hearing for almost two years since I first learned of the GPS. So I figured that I needed a “Plan B” in case the GPS never materialized.

I decided on a Garmin GNS400W.  There are tons of them in service (which means that I should be able to find one used fairly cheap) and I’m very familiar with the user interface. The problem is that there was only one spot in the panel (upper center) that it had a chance of fitting, but even there, the audio panel would be in the way.

So I had to relocate the audio panel.

2014-08-26 IMG_20140826_170407171 (Large)

This is the view from the front of the plane. You can see that I’ve re-oriented the audio panel 90 degrees and mounted it just forward of the Com and Nav radios.

Fast forward about two months and I get a box from GRT with my shiny new IFR GPS!  So I moved the audio panel for nothing.  But that’s okay.  No reason why it can’t stay in it’s new location, right?

Wrong.

One of the first things that I did once I got down to Sebastian was mount the wings and canard. Once the canard was on, I realized that I hadn’t considered correctly estimated the pitch trim spring area of movement.  The upper cable of the audio panel is now  interfering with the travel of the spring.  Which means that I’m going to have to move the audio panel back to it’s original position.

Except (at the time) I couldn’t remember why I moved in the first place!  This resulted in many a night trying to remember why I moved that audio panel.  Otherwise I might move it back and realize that there was a good reason I moved it in the first place.

Eventually I searched though my emails and found one to Malcolm (with that picture) telling him that I had moved the audio panel to accommodate a possible install of a GNS400W.

So on the next trip down, I’ll move the audio panel back to the center of the avionics shelf.

 

 

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