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[January 6, 2009]


Next on the list of things to do on the avionics stack is drill the avionics trays to the angles on the panel. Only problem with that is each tray is offset back off the panel a specific amount. Too far back and the avionic won't fit properly. Too far forward and there will be a gap. Also, when you drill, you don't want the metal bits going into the avionics.


What I did was line up all of the avionics carefully and them clamp all of the trays together and made sure not to move anything when I took the avionics out.


I need to drill 8 #27 holes per side for #6 screws.


I found using a #27 bit in the right angle driver lead to the bit wandering a lot in the holes in the tray. So, I figured I could use a larger bit that would be guided better in the tray holes to "mark" the hole, then drill it to #27 once it was removed from the tray. I found a #12 bit worked best for my trays.


Here I am marking the bottom left hole on the transponder tray.


If you look carefully, you can see the mark I made.


In no time I had both angles marked.


Next I used the mark to guide the #27 bit.


Finally I used some AN507-6R6 screws along with washers and nuts to screw in the trays. The trays are really solid now.


I just had to put the avionics back in (AGAIN!) to test the fit.


The left side looks pretty good. No real gaps. Maybe a little on the transponder.


The right side wasn't as good. The 430 and transponder both had slight gaps. I am not too concerned about it. It looks great, and my eye is super critical anyways. I might be able to do some tricks later on to get them a little better.


With the avionics stack in, I just had to screw in the EFIS's to see how everything looked. I am super pleased with how well it turned out. The top of the EFIS's lines up perfectly with the top of the audio panel.


Since the Garmin 430 Nav/Com and ICOM A210 Comm trays were super deep, they needed to penetrate the subpanel. I made some careful measurements and sliced a hole. It took some iterations to get it just right.


Here is the space between the panel and subpanel.


The trays don't penetrate the subpanel all that much. I was expecting them to go further back for some reason.


The subpanel is pretty slim at the upper right side of the GNS430. I am thinking of making a doubler out of 063 that goes around the whole cutout. I don't know if its really needed though. I don't think that much stress will be here because of the UHMW bushings being bolted above for the canopy hinge. I need to think about this overnight.

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Last Modified: August 13, 2023