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Running new wire for lights, magnetometer, etc.


TravisH

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Hello all! I just joined and I'm overwhelmed with all the wisdom.

There seems to be a topic I cant find easily. I bought a VariEze that was built strictly to plans. I'm wanting to add a G5 unit (with magnetometer) and position lights. How should I go about running new wires? My thought is to run the wires between the aft portion of the wing and leading edge of the aileron but how do I get the wires from there (about mid-wing) to the wing tips? I also have a new comm antenna designed for use in composite aircraft (Advanced Aircraft Electronics 5T) and I'm not sure where to mount it since they recommend vertical mounting.

Thanks all!

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This has likely been discussed before, in fact, I think it came up somewhere a couple weeks ago, but my old brain cannot recall where.  Finding old answers is sometimes a challenge.  There is THIS site, which has a search feature although not the greatest.

Then I would start with a google "verbatim" search.  Google verbatim searches for only the exact words you specify.    https://www.google.com/webhp?tbs=li:1       Sometimes searching Google Images will lead me to a solution

Canard Owners and Builders (COBA) contains all the old Central States Newsletters and a wealth of canard info (membership req'd).  There is a search function there.   https://canardowners.com/

Marc has the old Canard Pusher newsletters at his site and there is a text-search function there    http://www.cozybuilders.org/Canard_Pusher/

If the question might have related to Cozys it might have been discussed in the Cozybuilders Google group.  Marc has zipped archives here   http://www.cozybuilders.org/mail_list/    but I usually go to the Google group archive for the mail list and search that (Google sign-in required).    https://groups.google.com/g/cozy_builders

The Canard Aviators mail list is archived here  https://canardzone.groups.io/g/canard-aviators   This is an old group, still active.  It would be a good place to ask your question.

You might find an answer in the old EZ.org site.  Not updated much though.  https://ez.canardaircraft.com/www.ez.org/index.html

I hate to point to the great misinformation source but someone on Facebook might have a quick answer.  https://www.facebook.com/groups/25741482604/   Seems like about half the answers are by newbies, though.  😞

--------

But to attempt to answer your question, I would look at the plans in the Open-Vari topic here and determine where you could run wires.  You might cut a hole down the wing foam with a length of EMT conduit with sawtooth teeth filed into the end.  The Long-EZs and Cozys all have the wing holes in the plans.  Wingtip wires usually go down the wing, into a hole in the center-spar and out into the cockpit.   Add-on antennas have used the same hole and the copper tape is installed in the recess of the winglet.  I am sure I've seen articles about this in the Central States newsletters (at COBA).

I am sure Marc will come up with a good answer.  3, 2, 1, GO

 

Edited by Kent Ashton
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-Kent
Cozy IV N13AM-750 hrs, Long-EZ-85 hrs and sold

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See:

and read some posts before and after mine. Why only POS lights? What good does that do you?  You also need a strobe/anticollision light to be legal for night flight. And if you're not going to fly night or IFR, why bother with the magnetometer? And if you ARE going to fly night or IFR, a wet compass, as annoying as it might be to say it, MIGHT be the simplest solution given the magnetometer positioning issues (see below).

There's no place on a VE to mount that COM antenna from AAE. I've mounted copper foil antennae on the winglets of VE's, and they'll JUST BARELY fit with a kink in them, but you have to do skin surgery. The gear legs can be a reasonable place for a COM antenna as well. Where's the current COM antenna? Why do you need another COM antenna? Good luck finding a place for the GMU-11 that won't have interference in a VE - maybe the top of the headrest (as long as you don't have a steel plate in your head, or a steel rollover structure)?

Get the VE plans and read the CP's.

Which plane did you buy, and who did the inspection for you?

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Marc, I'm going for night VFR at the moment. The lights will have colored/white position lights and anti collision lights all in the wing tip (I'm wanting to make it like Eugene in your tagged thread) but how I get the wire out there is my big issue. Magnetometer because I'm putting in a G5 unit. This is basically a build as I go kind of thing. I want the capability of turning it into IFR but don't have the money or need for it at the moment-and may never have the need for it. The magnetometer placement I was considering is exactly what you said or possibly on the belly.

The previous owner placed the antenna in the cavity behind the passenger seat. It was horizontal and right by the engine and this is the only comm antenna. All I would receive or transmit was static with the occasional static covered transmission. It may not be the antenna but I want to move the antenna to try to isolate issues-this being the easiest to isolate right now. How about on the back of the pilot seat or wrapping it around a surface on the fuselage so at least a portion of it is vertical? Do you know if this type of antenna needs to be external? I know it was designed to be epoxied into the fiberglass but thats not a great option for me right now.

N718RM. I did the inspection (A&P) with the assistance of an IA. I knew all of this when I bought it so it was calculated into the price. And I'm thankful for all the info on this site for things to look at like the wing attach fittings.

Edited by TravisH
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1 hour ago, TravisH said:

The previous owner placed the antenna in the cavity behind the passenger seat. It was horizontal and right by the engine and this is the only comm antenna. All I would receive or transmit was static with the occasional static covered transmission

I suggest to put an antenna (copper foil) on a wooden pole and run a length of coax it to the radio.  Comm antennae should be vertical.  If it works some feet from the aircraft it will probably work in the winglet.  RG-400 is the preferred coax but cheaper stuff will work almost as well.

Edited by Kent Ashton

-Kent
Cozy IV N13AM-750 hrs, Long-EZ-85 hrs and sold

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5 hours ago, TravisH said:

...but how I get the wire out there is my big issue. ...

There's only one way, and that's to VERY CAREFULLY drill a hole through the foam from the aileron cove tip to the wing/winglet LE joint. Use a serrated tube to drill it, and expect that you'll damage the skin in at least one place, top or bottom, and need some repairs. Unless you've got REALLY good aim and are lucky.

 

5 hours ago, TravisH said:

The previous owner placed the antenna in the cavity behind the passenger seat. It was horizontal and right by the engine and this is the only comm antenna...

Yeah, so that's not going to work at all. The winglet can work, and once you've got the lighting hole, you can use it for the antenna coax, but it will require a bit of skin surgery and drilling another hold from the center of the antenna to the light mounting area. Doable, if you know what you're doing.

Depending upon what you've got for an ELT (and whether you care if your ELT works), you can put a COM antenna on the aft face of the forward seatback - I've done it with 121.5 MHz ELT antennae. But if you do that, you don't have a place for your ELT antenna, unless you get a 406 MHZ ONLY ELT. And as mentioned, there's the gear legs - that was one of the original locations, but sometimes they'd fail due to the flexing of the gear leg.

COM antenna, in a fiberglass plane, do not need to be external - the fiberglass is essentially transparent to RF at these frequencies. Same with NAV, Xponder, etc. NOTHING needs to be external.

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Travis, I don'tknow if you have a Longeze or ?     I have a Longeze.   Years ago a buddy helped move it from home to Olympia Regional and "helped"

put the wings and canard on.     We failed to notice that the left wing was not held up enough during assembly and the coax was already attached so we broke the connection.   DUMB.   Months later I got around to testing the radio and it did not work.   So the local radio shop "helpd".     He showed me an antenna that is mounted underneath aircraft (aluminum surface ) very successfully.    For $$$$$ I bought one and installed it.   Had to put a ground plane on so the entire area that the pilot's feet, legs and butt sit on are "protected" from RF.     The ground plane is exterior (below) the fiberglass.    I had to lie on a pad on the concrete and attach it.   Then cover it with "West System".

The ELT antenna is in the main spar.

Then the ADS-B project came along years later.    I put that antenna IN THE NOSE far forward of the nav/com antenna.   That antenna is very short so it is mainly WITHIN the fiberglass.   The ground plane is in the nose space ahead of the right brake pedal.   About 5/8" of the antenna hsticks out of a tiny hole (sealed with liquid rubber) in the skin and is about 1" to 2" above the ground.   There also is a receive GPS antenna on the top of the "roll-over" structure behind the pilot's head.

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