Van's RV-9A in Aurora

The Big Picture

The Big Picture
Flying! 8/28/2011

Monday, January 3, 2011

3 hrs
Although I spent a bunch more time researching stuff before I started touching the plane. That's been the case for the past two weeks. Probably 3 hrs today looking up how to hook up the alternator and the various, ahhh, alternatives I have available.

Install alternator control lead. Thinking I'll drill holes for a B&C LR3C external regulator. The alternator I have is a Mark Landoll Nippondenso internally regulated device. I only have to feed it 12V to turn it on. But I've had a Lucas regulator (TR7) fail in on mode and it fried the car lights. So I have seen a worse case regulator failure of the type Bob Nuckolls is protecting against with the external regulator and overvoltage protection. I have a B&C voltage monitor hooked up to a yellow LED on the panel, but it relies on me to notice the overvoltage condition and turn off the alternator before everything fries.

Install autopilot power and ground. Finished routing the pitch servo harness and installed the DB9 connector on it. Also put shrink wrap safety caps on the roll servo pins to prevent any shorts if the TruTrak is powered up. Decided to install a master power switch for the autopilot. Need to drill a hole in the panel for it. This lets me shut off all power to the autopilot and servos.

Order from B&C came today, so I was able to install the panel trim switch.