Geek's STi Build

[Geek]

Mounted the Safety Trim Boost unit on the rack. The other unit that I want to mount on this rack is the IFF. The piece of plywood is cut out to the same footprint as the GTX-45R that I am installing. The antenna for the IFF is farther forward, just behind the passenger seat so it is not close to the autopilot servos. My question to others who have done this before me is whether or not you had interference to the autopilot from the IFF unit itself or if the interference was from the antenna being located close to the servos. Since I don't have the 45R in hand (it's coming next month I believe), I have time to adjust the location should I need to.

Thanks to all who weigh in on this.

Gary

Rear Mount Rack 4.jpgRear Mount Rack 5.jpg

[VictorV]

This may be a stupid question but what is IFF?

[Eric Page]

Identification, Friend or Foe. Some military transponders transmit encrypted code blocks that permit friendly radars to identify them as friendly; absent the correct code for the day/mission, they're ID'ed as hostile.

[Geek]

Not a stupid question at all Victor and I apologize. As Eric points out, it's a military thing and I am guilty of thinking what I know it as and not what the civilian world calls it. I'm working on it. Really. The only thing wrong with Eric's explanation is how they're ID'd - We didn't call them hostile - they were "Targets"

Gary

[Geek]

Have been working on routing my wiring from the tail forward. Found some aluminum channel that I decided to use to keep from just hanging the wiring. Also installed (temporarily) the seat and center console just to be sure I didn't miss something in my planning. My daughter (Navy pilot) is home on leave and during our "Happy Hour", the wife (pilot in training) and daughter decided that I needed a pic with pilots installed. Part of the process I guess.

Geek

Wire chan 1.jpgWire chan 2.jpgPilots.jpg

[VictorV]

I was aware of the IFF acronym as military but wanted to make sure that was what you referring to

A friend of mine had a transponder that was not configured correctly and was identifying as a Russian aircraft
so ATC was a little confused. I guess that's "Foe".

Victor

[Geek]

I have been fabricating various mounting brackets for the avionics and getting a better handle on how I will be running the wiring up to the front of the fuselage. Completed the mount for the GPS-20 unit behind the pilot seat and built up the two plates where I will mount the headset sockets for both the pilot and copilot. Still have to drill the holes for the connections but at least have the brackets built. I Hysol'd in the aluminum channels that will go under the seat and support the wiring going forward.

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[Geek]

Installed the GPS-20 mount behind the pilot's seat and also did a final fitting on the headset mounts. All that's left there is to drill the holes for the jacks and the USB power I am going to put on the pilot's side. One of my issues in setting up the wiring is figuring out how long the various wire runs should be without having a lot of the stuff actually mounted (like the panel and the left/right avionics trays). I saw this idea on You Tube (where else?) and thought it might have some merit so I gave it a go. Ran paracord from the various places that I know things are going to be mounted and how the wires will be routed forward to the panel/trays. You run a main line from the farthest aft item to the front and then tie on offshoots from that main to the other items moving forward. For example I ran the cord from the trim power/transponder all the way up to the panel area just like I expect to run the actual wire. Then I moved forward and tied a piece of cord from that main cord over to the GPS-20. Did the same for the control stick wiring, head sets, etc. Once you have all that done, you remove the cord and what you have is a "tree" that lets you figure how long the wire needs to be to get from the panel/avionics trays to the various items and hopefully not have a lot of extra wire you just cut off or worse, wire not quite long enough. I did all that and it seems to be a pretty easy method of getting the wire lengths dialed in.

GPS-20 Mount.jpgHeadset Mount.jpgWire Lengths 1.jpgWire Lengths 2.jpgWire Lengths 3.jpgWire Lengths 4.jpg

[Geek]

Took another good look at the mounts I had made previously for my headset connections and realized that they weren't going to work with the baggage bag and they were about a half inch away from the flaperon control rod that runs through that section. So I came up with a different bracket. This bracket fits much lower in the same area by the rear windows but is cut to allow the baggage bag attachment, farther away from the flaperon control rod and will clear the connectors for the headsets when they are installed. The bag will fit over the plate that gets Hysol'd on to the frame and I'll just cut holes in the bag to pass the connectors through. On top of the bag after it's installed, I have a second plate that is drilled to mount the connectors themselves; normal headset and mic jacks, a LEMO connector and a 3.5mm jack that I can connect GoPros to and record the intercom and radio. The plate will screw into that lower plate that has nut plates installed. The plate will also squeeze the bag between the two plates to keep it from fraying. I also managed to get the roll servo wired up as well. Tomorrow it will probably be the GPS 20 that gets some wiring done to it.

[DesertFox4]

Looking good Gary.
One thought on headset jack placement. If you put headset jacks behind the pilot's head, they will be virtually unreachable in flight. A jack or headset failure in flight will become an issue. Many now put both sets of jacks behind the co-pilot's seat so they may be reached easily in flight by the pilot. I had my pilot push to talk switch die on final once. Just reached over and unplugged my headset from the pilot's jacks and plugged into the others and used the co-pilot's push to talk switch to complete the landing. The control tower never knew the difference.