The panel is being put back together on the bench. I found a few small problems with the wiring and am fixing them while it is easy.

I used a rubberizing paint on the panel to make it scratch resistant, insulated and glare resistant. So far I am happy with the results.

Using "The GIMP" I have been creating a series of concepts and variations of the paint job. Taking photos of the project the concepts have been laid over to help judge how it will look on the 3D plane.

I finally got around to finishing my ( new style ) cowling.

The current version of the manual is incomplete and incorrect. I used a combination of advise from Roger at Zenith, the forum and the HBH video.

Here is how I did it:

1) Fit the top and bottom halves together, sliding the top half into the lip. I then made sure the the seam between the top half and the recessed lip of the bottom half was OK.
2) Clamped and taped it together.
3) Determined the center of the top half of the cowl and the center of the airplane. I then extended forwarrd the rivet lines on the side of the fuselage to use as reference for getting it even.
4) I then determined the angle of the cowl and got it centered and even. I used the seam lines on the cowl in conjection with some rivet lines on the fuselage to get it even and centered.
5) Once I had that I then marked where I neeeded to trip the cowling to clear the gear leg and windshield. I only trimmed the gear leg hole a bit, the molding supplied a large amount of clearence. I trimmed a small a amount of the top cowling to clear the windshield and sealing.
6) Once I had the the cowl trimmed I then drilled and clecoed the front four holes to join the top and bottom halves. I determined my safe area of the fuselage flange taped the cowling into place and drilled the cowling into the fuselage flange. I made the holes A4 sized.
7) I removed the cowling. and clecoed the nutplates onto the bottom cowl for the forward holes. I put the nutplates on the "wrong" side so the barrel was pointing away from the plane.
8) I got each plate parallel with the lip of the cowl and drilled one hole with an A3 bit and clecoed. I then drilled the remaining hole.
9) Removed all the nutplates and drilled the center hole out to AN3.
10) Cleaned & deburred the holes
11) I applied a slight countersink to the A3 holes that hold the nutplate using a hand reamer. Use A3 blind rivets to secure the nutplates. Do not drill out the holes on the nutplates.
12) I drilled out the holes on the top cowling to AN5
13) Using a flat riveter head I riveted the nutplates to the inside lip of the bottom half so the barrel pointed into the airplane.
14) I clecoed the nutplates to the fuselage flange where the cowl met and used a similar technique.
15) At this point I did not install the left and right nutplates where the top and bottom halves of the cowling connect to the fuselage.

Some major steps have been taking with the wiring, with a bunch of "lessons learned".

The approach I took was what seemed logical to my programmer mind. I took a look at each device, the inputs and the outputs and made a series of sub harnesses. Connectors ( D-Sub 9 ) are used where two harnesses would need to join together.

Rough distances were measured with approximate routing.

Each sub harness was made in relative isolation.

This worked fairly well. Some of the earlier harnesses are a little untidy. None of them match in size.

As I went to install the harnesses this weekend I realized that I needed more of an "integrative" approach to the wiring problem. Lots of single wires got tangled up with each other. Wires drooped all over. The whole thing was a rat's nest mess.

I took everything back apart. Slowly I added one sub-harness back in at a time. With each new addition I attempted to clean up the harness and wrapped the wires into more logical bundles.

As the harness was put in, those bundles were bundled with the other bundles. The ground terminals were grouped together and bundled. The power terminals for the two buses got a similar treatment.

While doing this the remaining amounts of wire were looped and tied off to further promote a clean installation.

I have a LED strobe with controller. The directions suggest placing the controller in the wingtip - but there is a problem. The controller has a built in fuse holder. To comply with FARs all fuses need to be replaceable easily, preferably in flight. So a bracket and mounting plate were made and installed on the passenger side. This plate extends from the bottom of the instrument panel to the "L" angle that runs along the passenger side to the firewall.

The strobe controller and buses were mounted to this.

A partial power up test was performed. The radio and lights were all working. The split bus was isolating and the terminal ground was fine. The trim indicator was working great and the trim rocker and joystick controls were all functional.

The pilot and passenger grips are now wired and ready.

For the FlightGrips you need to trim 1" off the factory Y grips, use a bushing to allow for the 1" shaft and drill a 7/32" hole for a bolt that secures everything.

The grips are very sturdy and use aviation grade heavy duty buttons and switches.

In my configuration the pilot and passenger both have PTT and Flip/Flop.

The pilot has a memory set button, elevator trim up/down and an intercom isolate switch.

Wiring the passenger grip was easy. The PTT and F/F are both on an off center trigger. Pull on the bottom is PTT, pulling top is F/F. It is very hard to accidentally pull the wrong trigger. FlightGrip's trigger is removable from the shaft. The grip is designed to open up down the center with the trigger being removable. There was plenty of room for the wires and some heat shrink.

The pilot's grip was harder. The trim and mem set switches are on the top of the stick. These buttons are mounted on a removable disk, making wiring easier. The pilot has the same PTT/FF button config as the passenger.

The passenger intercom isolation toggle is mounted as a thumb shaft on the grip. Accessing the connection points was much harder for this one.

To get the wires down the stick some scotch tape was used to secure the various bundles together and then shoved down. Fitting 15 wires down the shaft ( each in sub bundles by function & destination ) was a little tricky due to the narrow passage where the "Y" forms and the pivot point at the base of the stick.

Once the wires were out I closed the grips and bolted them onto the stick. Closing the passenger grip was easy. The pilot's grip had the problem of heat shrink and wires made inflexible by solder. Some bending and finessing had to be done to get the stick to close with wires routed around the holes for the mounting bolt.

Almost all the connectors I have been placing are DSub 9s. The originally intention was to use a DSub 15 for the pilot's grip and a 9 for the passenger. Instead the pilot's grip has two 9 pins. One connector has the PTT,FF,MemSet and isolation buttons. The PTT and FF's pins are in the same location on the passenger's grip. You could interchange the two connectors with the only side effect being to disable two buttons. This seemed like a more resiliant configuration and also lets me have the option of disabling the trim in the field if I need to.

To use both the rocker switch in the panel and the switch on the joystick a relay had to be used. Ray allen sells one for this purpose. In addition to the relay a small circuit had to be made. This multiplexes the two switches. When the relay is used what the switches are really doing is selecting what ground is being closed.

Two IN4001 diodes are placed in line to the joystick ( DPDT ). These are split from lines that go to the rocker. From the rocker and joystick each a line is sent to the ground.

Wiring update:

Most of the wiring harness is complete. Lights, radio and utilities are done. The transponder, Dynon and alternator wiring remain.

To help reduce the clutter on the kitchen and workbench tables I started cutting the panel and installing parts.

Many months ago I mocked up my panel using lifesized print outs. This worked well, but many details were simply left out. Some of the parts of changed, and a few unexpected things have been added. There are more switches and breakers than I had planned for.

One challenge has been trying to plan around the throttle handle. The exact position of the throttle can not be determined with out the throttle bellcrank installed. Based on the expected position from other builders I have moved the Dynon more towards the centerline. I would prefer that the Dynon be centered with the pilot's seat, but that may be impossible.

When laying out there were a few factors I kept in mind.

1) Anything flight and emergency critical should be close to aircraft center. This is to allow the passenger access to the starter, ELT, ect.

2) Try to logically group switches by function

3) Keep power away from the primer.

4) Do not stack any switch above or below another.


I have also received my grips. The final choice was for FlightGrips ( no website ). These are a solid grip that bolt onto the Y stick.

Internally the switch poles are easy to access as the stick splits apart and the top cap is removable. You do need to be careful with how much heat shrink is used as to keep the wire flexible enough to route around the grip.

On the pilot's side there is a elevator trim up/down, PTT, Radio Flip/Flop, Radio Mem Set and intercom isolation.

On the passenger's side there is PTT and Radio flip/flop.