Van's RV-9A in Aurora

The Big Picture

The Big Picture
Flying! 8/28/2011

Tuesday, July 5, 2011

1.5 hrs
Had three tasks lined up for what was supposed to be an easy, fun, and productive work session. It was not to be.
I did manage to get the DB9 connector installed for the roll servo wiring harness. But this involved nearly having the pins ready to go, undoing them to install new shrink wrap on the harness, lining up the 7 pins again, and fighting with one of them that didn't want to seat. There went 30 minutes, should have been 5.
Then it's time to plug the connector onto the servo. Ooops, can't see or reach the connector on the servo, have to fight it from underneath the wing, one handed, entirely by feel. After way too long got it plugged in. Ooops, the standard connector shells are too long, the harness can contact the top skin.
So the connector is plugged in, but now there is a wire routing/securing task, in an area with very limited visibility and access. Oh, and I need to safety wire the servo bolts. One task done, at least two more hours of work to go.

Then I wanted to adjust the elevator pushrod to tune the elevator travel. Simple just loosen the jam nuts. Except I can't loosen the aft most jam nut, since I can't get a wrench on the rod end bearing. Now the whole push rod needs to come out.

I also wanted to replace the garmin antenna TNC connector, but decided today was just a bad day, time to call it quits.