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Engine and panel: wait time

Stockmanreef

Well Known Member
I posted this in a separate post in the General Section, but it is buried in a thread about hanging the engine. I thought that people might be interested.

I ordered my engine (thunderbolt) "at Oshkosh" last year. I placed the order with Van's on July 31, 2018 and it arrived January 3, 2019. I was not really in a rush, but I wanted to make sure that I had the engine when I wanted it and after looking at all the kits being sold, I did not want to wait on the engine.

I did the same with the panel from SteinAir. I started working with Stein Air in 12/2018 and then started getting parts in early 2018 (servos, ELT, other things to get in the plane before mounting the panel). The panel design was finalized panel around Oct 1, 2018 and received the panel on Jan 28, 2019. The panel is in the plane now and I have run all the wires through the firewall (at least I hope all of them are through). The only thing that I missed in the the original panel order was antennas. I would suggested figuring out which ones you want and if you want the ones from Stein or not. I went with whiskers for the VOR/ILS and that was a bit of a challenge to install.

One other thing to consider--the cable wire for the transponder is not long enough in the empennage kit. In my kit it reached to right behind the main stack on the panel and I wanted a remote transponder, so it was about 12" short (and that cable isn't cheap). So i clipped the end off the original cable and used it for something else--I think for the GPS antenna. And then ordered more cable wire from SteinAir.

Cheers
ken
 
If you put the transponder antenna all the way back in the tail it might be longer than the specs for cable length in that application. The tail holes were originally intended for an ADSB receiver antenna and the transponder antenna goes under the right baggage. No cable was supplied in the empennage kit for that location so you won?t find it in any of the docs. I?m using the GTX45 so I don?t need a separate adsb receiver antenna. Ive got the holes in the tail still no antenna. Not sure what to do with it eventually will fashion a cover plate.
 
same

I?m using the GTX45 so I don?t need a separate adsb receiver antenna. Ive got the holes in the tail still no antenna. Not sure what to do with it eventually will fashion a cover plate.

I have the BTX45R and did the same, and made a cover plate for the tail mounting holes and placed it inside the fuselage.
 
If you put the transponder antenna all the way back in the tail it might be longer than the specs for cable length in that application. The tail holes were originally intended for an ADSB receiver antenna and the transponder antenna goes under the right baggage. No cable was supplied in the empennage kit for that location so you won?t find it in any of the docs. I?m using the GTX45 so I don?t need a separate adsb receiver antenna. Ive got the holes in the tail still no antenna. Not sure what to do with it eventually will fashion a cover plate.

I made two plates that fit over the holes - on inside, one outside. The inside one has nutplates. I just used pan head screws to sandwich these on either side of the skin. Still not painted, so not sure if this will be the final solution but it seems fine for now.
 
If you put the transponder antenna all the way back in the tail it might be longer than the specs for cable length in that application. The tail holes were originally intended for an ADSB receiver antenna and the transponder antenna goes under the right baggage. No cable was supplied in the empennage kit for that location so you won?t find it in any of the docs. I?m using the GTX45 so I don?t need a separate adsb receiver antenna. Ive got the holes in the tail still no antenna. Not sure what to do with it eventually will fashion a cover plate.

Interesting. page 10-23 Part WH-0014 UAT antenna Cable. Maybe they stopped supplying it in the kit because it was not long enough.
 
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