| day |
notes |
hours |
| 1 |
LEDs etc arrive from Antics. Try one out on the 12V battery and it looks quite promising, although it's too late in the day to see how obvious it might be in bright direct sunshine. The panel holder has a secure feel and shrouds the LED well from side lighting. I'd forgotten that the solderless holders for the LEDs have flying leads and so have not ordered a 10-way barrier strip specifically for the 5 that I expect to install (1 per MGL instrument). However, they will have a common supply line so I could probably stack some of those and use an 8-way strip. Trying to get 5 terminations onto a single screw to use a 6-way strip is probably going too far. Actually, just remembered that I'll need starter engaged and alternator warning lights too so will need to think again. Edit the main circuit diagram to show both CHT sensors, and the trim governor; save as v02. |
|
| 2 |
M4 screws & nuts arrive from Buck & Hickman but the holesaw is outstanding. The 8mm button-head screws are a little better than the 10mm ones but will still need shortening to attach the gyro panel to the rubber mounts. Barrier strips arrive from Farnell; the 6-way lot is duplicated. Phone Farnell and they say it's not showing up on their records. Agree to keep the extras and will get invoiced for them. Order an ex-demo twin strobe system from Airworld at a reduced price. |
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| 5 |
As it's quite sunny this morning, hook up one of the 12V LED lamps to the 12V battery and see how it looks in direct sunlight. Not as bright as I'd hoped, and fairly easy to miss unless pointing directly at the eye. Look at what else is available on the Farnell website. Wide choice of brightnesses available, but it looks as though about £5 is the threshold for really bright ones; some are over £10 each. Observe that the barrier strips are quite heavy and feel like a significant item compared to the MGL instruments they are intended to support. May just use blade connectors in some places, although that is not so tidy. Order ignition switch and a cranked fuel filler funnel from LAS Aerospace. Start to modify the parts and manual pages database for the FWF manual pages. |
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| 8 |
Ignition switch and cranked funnel arrive from LAS Aerospace. |
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| 9 |
Strobe arrives from Airworld, less the wing-root connectors which are out of stock. |
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| 11 |
Grit-edge 57mm holesaw arrives from Buck & Hickman. Order constant-speed prop controller CSC-1/G from Smart Avionics website. |
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| 15 |
 Rotax 912ULS engine arrives. Slide it off the lorry tail-lift onto the trolley and wheel it round to the back. Construct a ramp up to the studio patio door from bricks and a paving slab. Cover the door tracks with a couple of layers of carpet. Roll the trolley up until the front wheels are just over the threshold, then slide the pallet off and onto a carpet offcut (to protect the vinyl floor covering). Prise open the fittings around the base and lift off the box. Look at the contents of the smaller boxes inside and cut off the polyethylene bag around the engine itself. Everything looks fine. Start reading the manuals, including the one from Skydrive, which strongly recommends a fuel pressure gauge. Do some research on fuel pressure gauges. The mechanical ones are quite cheap but I don't want a line full of fuel coming to the panel. Also, as space is getting tight, even a 2.25" gauge will be hard to fit in. Eventually settle on a 1.25" UMA type from Airworld and place order for it and matching sensor online. Order a carb heater kit from Skydrive online. |
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| 16 |
Order vacuum pump kit from Europa. Buy some switches, including illuminated ones, from Karparts and Maplin to see how suitable they will be for the panel. Also buy relay & socket for crowbar circuit, and a panel-mounting cigar-lighter socket for a 12V outlet. Pete Smoothy of Airworld phones to say the fuel pressure sensor is out of stock; I say hold off delivery until available. CSC-1/G prop controller arrives. Realise while reading the manual that I should have ordered a manifold pressure sensor. Send e-mail to Mark Burton to check if my understanding of the 2 types he offers is correct. He replies to confirm my assumptions so place order on Smart Avionics website. Draw up UMA 1.25" instrument and NSF heavy-duty toggle switch in CADintosh and place on radio & switch panel drawings, re-arranging radio panel again to remove now-redundant Woodcomp prop controller and place fuel instruments in a line together. |
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| 17 |
Draw up cigar-lighter 12V outlet and add to radio panel. Modify main circuit diagram in CADintosh, adding the fuel-related instruments and separate fusing for prop controller power and logic. Split fusing for MGL instruments to give one each. Need to check if more fuseholders will be needed. Add "Hobbs" timer. Will need to get an oil-pressure switch for use with that. Send e-mail to Mark Burton asking for clarification about how the CSC-1/G switches behave after the logic fuse blows. Check the LED brightness in the switches bought yesterday. All seem pretty good indoors in artificial light. Wonder about the long-term reliability and robustness of the plastic toggles - even the chrome-finish toggle is plastic at the critical pivot point. It would be most frustrating to have a switch toggle break off in my hand when operating it in a hurry. The rocker switch from Karparts might resist rough operation better, but is just a bit small, and its terminals are 0.18" rather than 0.25". Check the high-brightness UK19 bare LEDs from Maplin (shown as 150mcd on the website). On a 1.5V cell, they seem similar to the ones from Antics but on 2 off 1.5V cells in series they are very satisfyingly dazzling. |
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| 18 |
Manifold pressure sensor arrives from Smart Avionics. Carb heater kit arrives from Skydrive. Check what B&C fuseholders are available from Airworld. Notice they also stock panel-mount LEDs. Send e-mail to Pete Smoothy asking if they run off 12V and if he knows the light output. |
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| 24 |
Vacuum pump kit arrives from Europa |
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