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 February 3, 2021

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Electrical System

Overview

At the moment I plan to go IFR on the panel. Money will obviously dictate this when the time comes but this is going to be a XC airplane and I don't want to get stuck somewhere because of weather. I will still need to get my instrument rating though. I am going all-electric with Bob Nuckoll's All Electric on a Budget Circuit. I REALLY REALLY like the design of this electrical system. I studied it for hours one day trying to figure out how to break it. I can break it with multiple failures but there is no way to break it with single failures, and these single failures are easily detectable.

Primary System

Depending on how many goodies that I need I imagine that I'll go with some kind of a 60A alternator and maybe put a voltage regulator of some kind on it. :-) As you can tell I havn't put a lot of thought into this one. It seems that B&C has a good little linear regulator that I will probably use. I'll have a lot of electronic goodies in this plane and I don't really want a switching regulator for the noise reasons.

Secondary System

B&C SD-8. It goes where the vacuum pump used to be and that means that I don't have to get real creative coming up with some bracket to hold the thing and since it is a permanent magnet type alternator it ought to last a few days short of forever. At least it ought to for the cost of the thing. It'll make about 10 amps of power and that should be enough for the panel lighting, communcation and navigation radios as well as the electronic ignition, and any gyros or EFIS type stuff I may have. I may even get to power the engine monitor to see what the engine is doing.

Circuit Protection

Jury is out on this one. I like the convenience and the look of breakers but I like the weight and price of fuses. We'll see and I'll probably just wind up with fuses and some switches since I am having a hard time talking myself into using circuit breakers.

Lighting

Position and strobes in the wing tips and rudder bottom. Just like N137RV. Duckworks leading edge landing and taxi lights. I may put in a different lamp than the one that comes in the kit however. I need to look into that a little more. I'm not far from having to figure it out though since I'll need to install them in the next few months or so.

I am still at a loss on panel lighting. I really want one of those fancy reverse etched panels that have an EL display behind them. I will probably do a lot of experimenting once I get all the gadgets so that I can get the dimming just right as well as make this thing look good. I'll keep everyone posted but that is a long way off.

Oh I also have a purple Mag Lite that I carry with me every time I fly at night.

Starter

Lightweight and cheap. Seems to be a difficult combination but I'll welcome any comments. I should also decide for sure on an engine.

 February 3, 2021
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