This (too dark) picture shows the access panel in the bottom of the
rear fuselage. This view is looking straight down into the fuse. Hard to
tell, but the panel is symetric. The rudder control cables can be seen passing over
it, including one of the 1/8" al extrusion and 1/4" bolt 'turnbuckle' assemblies
Zenith specifies.
This panel is not called for in the plans, it is something I added.
This is the top of the rear fuselage where I have chosen to install
the comm antenna. It is from RA Miller Industries. I mounted it right forward
of the 2nd bulkhead, on a 0.025" thick doubler plate (under the skin). There is
supposed to be a 36" clearence from the comm antenna to the ELT antenna, which I have
mounted about 36" forward of this one (right behind the canopy).
This shows where I mounted the NAV antenna. It is also from RA Miller,
the AV-532L. I am not at all convinced that it will work real well here, but I
didn't know where else to put - will have to see how it works. It is bolted to two
1/2" x 1/2" x 1/16" 6061 extrusions that go from one lower longeron to the
other. Holes where drilled in the lower skin to allow the terminal connections to
pass into the fuselage.
Here the Stratus EA-81 Subaru engine, back view. The
bottom engine mounts are not installed (they go where the steel angles holding the
engine to the wooden frame below it are).
And here is the front view. The engine came with a 4"
aluminum prop extender, not shown.
Here is the mostly completed panel. I have since added the ignition
switch and toggle switches for speaker/headphones and voltmeter bus reading.
Behind
the panel. On the right you can see the gyro intake filter, which is simply
safety-wired to the upper longeron. The temporary wooden block on the left of the
picture is to keep the panel from sagging with the weight of all the instruments.
Since
pretty much all the NAV/COM units are too long to fit behind the panel (the 16-gallon fuel
tank leaves only 8 1/2" room at the bottom of the panel, 6 1/2" at the top) I
mounted my TKM MX-300G below the panel. Since taking this picture the tray was
painted black to match the panel and a, ah, 'fairing' was made to smooth out the
transistion between the panel and the radio. With this setup I seem to still have
adequate room for my feet on the pedals and there is not interference with the control
stick.
This shows the two seat-back panels I made out of 1/4" birch
plywood. I hot-glued small wooden blocks onto the back at the four corners.
These blocks fit inside the aluminum 'frame', holding the seatback in place. I'm
still trying to figure out how to actually upholster the seats.
Here is a close-up of the rudder/stabilizer fairing. After seeing how
some aluminum L angles were worn away by rubbing against the fiberglass cowling when
Zenith shipped the firewall-forward kit to me I decided to install some rubber moulding
between the fiberglass saddle and the horiz stab.
For more construction pictures click here.