While the engine mount is off, I’m getting firewall forward and center fuselage tasks done that would be more challenging to do later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I’m not keen about how the factory seems to expect the stiff-wire push-pull cable to go from the instrument panel, through the firewall and then to the heat box on the firewall. As with other firewall penetrations, I’m not content to just stuff the cable through the firewall with a grommet. I’m also not going to settle for having the cable penetrate the firewall at the absurd angle needed to even have a chance of getting to and working the heater box vane. Instead, I’ve designed and fabricated a jack-shaft bellcrank arrangement as an alternative. I’m still going to use the factory-supplied cable assembly – straight through the firewall, a bowden cable clamp and then attaching the wire to a nylon control horn. Another control horn, at the other end of a shaft, translates the push-pull control motion approximately 90 degrees – to be in line with the action needed to work the arm on the heater box vane. I made a couple of brackets out of aluminum angle and mounted the mechanism on the firewall.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Since my QB airframe was built and delivered, the factory has rethought how and where the ELT antenna goes – to just ahead of the vertical stabilizer. It’s too late for me. The structure was changed to accomodate a new mounting bracket and I’m not going to attempt a retrofit. The old location for the ELT antenna was inside the cabin. I’ve designed and fabricated a bracket to mount the antenna inside, just ahead of the rollover structure on the RH side of the fuselage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n