Category Archives: Sensors

External Trim, Fuel Tank Calibration, Glare Shield, Sensors

Wednesday 24th July 2019

24/07/2019 Trevor Mills Leave a comment

Music: Turin Brakes

Today I finished off the fuel tank calibrations and Ian did some inspections and sign offs so I could add some trim and send some paperwork to the LAA.

Starting again with the calibration screen,

I repeated the method described yesterday but the battery went flat as it had been run the night before for quite some time but I’d forgotten to turn the batter charger on. So I lost the calibrations., which meant…

I had to drain the tanks and start again but on the second run the third fuel add didn’t register so I had to drain the tank and start again. I’m not sure if by this time the heat was getting to me as it was up in the 30s by this time with the sun blazing into the workshop. Luckily the third attempt went well and the I managed to finish off the calibration – thank god…

I’ve added a couple of trims to the rear of the plane. First the top…

…and then the bottom. The trim motor cover will be added after we’ve done all the control surface checked.

Last on the agenda today is to fit the glare shield as I won’t need to take that off again as all the electric have been checked and signed off.

Ian Daniels, ID Plate, Peter Sharpe, Radio Licence, Registration, Sensors, System, Wings, Wiring

Wednesday 17th July 2019

17/07/2019 Trevor Mills Leave a comment

Music: Gerry Cinnamon, Stereophonics, The Libertines

6 months to the day since I took delivery of G-MLSY and it’s coming to the end of the build… but I say that every day to be fair. The next major stage is the testing and lots of paperwork to do and approvals to gain before it can fly.

A few people have dropped by to view how I’m doing and some have sent messages. All I can say is “Thanks”. It’s been a bit like a marathon and the support from those that have taken the time to visit or send messages is very much welcomed and keeps my motivation topped up.

I’ve decided to use the light function on the switches so each switch require an earth lead to be attached to the third contact to enable the function. It required a bit of back tracking but was fairly easy to do.

The wings need to come off again so Ian is called to action again helped by Pete Sharpe I need to run the fuel level sensor wiring in, polish the wings and apply the registration before refitting for the final time.

When I arrived home the stainless steel ID plate and Radio licence had arrived ticking off another couple of items from the list of Admin that accompanies the build.

Electrics, Instrument Panel, Landing Lights, Sensors, Sensors, Strobes, Wiring

Wednesday 19th June 2019

19/06/2019 Trevor Mills Leave a comment

Music: Spotify Daily mix

The wiring continues today with a couple of other items that I had put on the back burner. The tail strobe circuit was completed and wing strobe wiring started. One being the wiring of the extension wire for the elevator trim and the other the pressure plumbing for the G5.

After shimming the ADAHRS unit last night I replumbed the pressure system to make it tidier…

…allowing me complete the plumbing to the G5.

I thought I’d start on the trim motor wiring but unfortunately DPD failed to deliver the wire I’d ordered so will do that another day!

One of the jobs that I had been diverted from was the wiring up of the elevator trim so first thing is to solder them together and make sure that the colours match what I did for the aileron trim motor.

ADAHRS & GMU, Autopilot, Electrics, Oil System, Oil Tank, Sensors, Sensors, System, Wiring

Tuesday 18th June 2019

18/06/2019 Trevor Mills Leave a comment

Music: The Pretenders – They were the support to Fleetwood Mac on Sunday at Wembley. I’d forgotten how good their music was!

Time for a short break from wiring but not for long before continuing the battle of the wires!

The Rotax engine comes with 4 litres of Aeroshell oil which I thought I’d add to the oil tank as a short break from wiring!

*I managed to get 3 litres in the tank but I will need to add more when the engine has been turned over a bit as there are a lot of empty oil pipes at the moment!*

After that very short break it’s back to wiring. This is the transponder loom which is a bit overkill for my needs.

As you can see by the coil of wire there is a lot of unused wires but and a lot more has been trimmed from the length of the wires that are used! Once I had checked that it worked as expected I cut the unused wire off and covered the unterminated ends with heat shrink.

Before adding a GPS receiver the SkyViews have no idea where they are in the UK, in fact they think they are in the USA! So I’ve taken the power and serial data leads from both SkyViews, spliced them and will connect them to the GPS.

There’s a lot of cutting of wires and terminating them, mostly with fully insulated spade connectors using a special crimping tool.

Once the GPS is connected a check is made on the connection to make sure it’s not reporting any errors and picking up satellite receivers ok..

…and if by magic the SkyView now knows it’s in the UK! The system is reporting height and position correctly from my checks. If you look at the slip indicator you can see that its not in the middle and that’s because the ADAHRS isn’t quite level. There isn’t an adjustment that can be made to correct this so I’ll shim the unit.

I’ve positioned the aircraft on a piece of level ground and I’ve shimmed the unit to make sure that it’s level and reporting correctly which it now is.

Autopilot, Electrics, General, Instrument Panel, Sensors, System, Wiring

Monday 17th June 2019

17/06/2019 Trevor Mills 2 Comments

Music: Fleetwood Mac – Saw them in concert at Wembley last night. A little treat from Karen – Absolutely fantastic!

The wiring continues, after each circuit is wired up a check to see if it’s working as expected. All good so far!

As mentioned previously I need to protect the SkyView from a surge from the Amp Shunt so I’ve purchased some 1 amp inline fuses. They are very small…

… and make for a very neat protection solution when positioned inline.

With all the wires ‘under the bonnet’ it’s difficult to make it all tidy…

…but I layout all wire first to see where best to route them before trimming to correct length and terminating. All these will need to be secured too with stand-offs as required.

The servo looms are next. I’ve installed the looms as far as the cockpit and now need to terminate each wire and make up the connector. It requires crimping the pins on each wire with a 4 way crimper.

After crimping they are inserted into the D9 block…

…and the backshell is added. Fairly straightforward but you have to make sure that the crimps are secure. There are two of these, one for roll and one for pitch. Once made up they are plugged onto the SkyView network hub.

Next up is to finish off the engine sensor connections. The correct pinout from the D37 connector is identified and the wire routed as described before trimming to the correct length and terminating. In this case a uninsulated spade connector that slips over the sensor connector. This is the LH CHT sensor…

A quick check that everything is working. The CHTs, EGTs, Oil Temp, Fuel pressure, Oil pressure, Voltmeter, Ammeter and autopilot have now been completed and work as expected.

Electrics, Instrument Panel, Sensors, Sensors, System, Wiring

Friday 14th June 2019

14/06/2019 Trevor Mills Leave a comment

Music: Take That

I decided to visit Air Expo at Booker yesterday but I can honestly say the show was a complete waste of my time. It was raining all day and a lot of the exhibitors had scaled down their stalls and some hadn’t turned up at all! I did buy a Sky Echo II there so I’ll see how that works when I finally get the plane flying.

The aim for today was to continue the wiring and connect a few of the sensors.