Skin Prep

By now familar process of removing the plastic, deburring edges and rivet holes, and dimpling as per the KAI.

VOR and strobe Wiring

I've decided to place a red tail strobe in the standard position on top of the rudder, and move the white rear anticollision light to the bottom of the rear fuselage, so a 4-core wire needs to be run through the VS for this, as well as the VOR antenna coax.

Because the factory only sizes one hole in each rib to 9.5mm (3/8") I've step-drilled and then reamed the holes at the rear up to 9.5mm to fit snap bushings, and then run the cable. I've got a bunch extra which I assume is for the rudder also, as the 5-core wire also included seems to be for the trim servo in the elevator.

My 3 blade coax stripper has finally arrived, and does a much nicer job than my rough test with a Stanley knife. The blade depth is adjustable but mine came set perfectly for RG-400.

Pin crimped onto inner conductor. Don't forget the ferrule before attaching the plug!

Plug clicks into pin, over insulator and under outer shield.

I'm using the MIL-SPEC version of the connector to attach to the VOR as this is non-accessible once the VS is riveted, but have temporarily attached a cheaper -RFX version to the other end to test with.

VOR Testing

I took the antenna, cable and my SDRPlay software-defined radio and laptop to the airport this morning to test the setup before mounting it, and pleasingly this worked fine.

VOR stations broadcast their station ID in Morse code which is audible over the navigation component to confirm you are tuned to the right VOR (NZNP's is 114.4 MHz), and this can be clearly head from the airport carpark.

Now that this is working well I'll cut off the temporary connector and run the cable back through the structure, which will then be ready to have the skin fitted.