Assembly... ongoing.

Big day today (Tue, Oct 14).  Was laid off today, AND got my wings back on the Sportsman!

Such a great bunch of folks at Langley Regional Airport.  8 people showed up to help. 35 min start to finish.

And my friend flew his RV6A today for the first time.

Now I have clear runway for a TON of stuff to get done.

Fuel sender wiring underway, fuel lines connected, fuel filler necks installed, and antenna installed.

Crossover cables connected, but not yet tensioned.

Wing umbilicals fed through and connected.  Cleaned up the wiring for the inboard tank sensors.

First landing / taxi light installed.  Just need to put the pins in the connector (once I remember how I wired it... luckily I have documentation).

4 outboard strut attach bolts installed and torqued.  Total pain in the rear.  Using the clevis bolts inboard for tie down points.

Progress is so slow.... life is getting in the way - but I have a bunch of stuff I can work on.

Inboard delta wings installed.

Plan is the install the pins in the forward spar for good!

Flaps are connected.  Need to tweak the tension a bit, but everything works well.

Ailerons next.

Forward spar pins installed!

Lights attached and wired.

Pilot side door getting its final silpruf.

Spinner!

Lots more to come...

Landing/Taxi Lights, Nav Lights, Antennas, IFR GPS, COM2, oil door, and a whole bunch of little stuff

I have been very tardy on updates, but a lot of progress has been made...

Landing / taxi lights installed (temporarily) and functional.

COM antennas installed (temporarily - will be removed for paint).

Installed and functional!  Left wing is COM1, right wing is COM2.  All BNC's terminated.

Avidyne IFD410 up and running, as is the NEW Garmin GNC 215

And remote flip flop (on control stick) works!

IFD410 takes a long time to lock... but this is normal.

Oil door on and riveted.

Lots to do...

BNC Connectors

I have an aversion to all connectors.  They always seem to make my life hard, and I mess things up and cannot get them apart.  The top of the list has been BNC connectors, because I didnt understand them.

A buddy of mine showed me how to put on a BNC, and still I messed them up.  You have to strip 3 times - center conductor, inner jacket, outer jacket - I get that - but how long does each of them need to be?

I have 3 types of connectors for the Sportsman

• BNC Male
• BNC Female Bulkhead
• TNC Male

I found it extremely hard to find the correct assembly instructions for each type of cable.  After searching, I found it for the Amphenol BNC male and TNC Male, but not the BNC Female Bulkhead.

So I measured everything and mapped it out (BNC Female Bulkhead).

Dimensions are available if you have the part number.  Below is the Amphenol TNC male.

This may be 'old hat' to some, but i was just inexperienced - and after wrecking some pins I thought there has to be a better way.  Now I can do a BNC and not waste any parts.

Happy days.