Big day today!
I began by installing a few of the LED lights in the overhead console that would be harder to do once it’s installed in the plane. The front “dome” light is a 24 LED panel light from Planearound. It’s a very nicely made unit, and puts out a ton of light. In the rear, I installed a pair of small LED dome lights (from SteinAir) that will light up the baggage area. I also decided to run some conduit from the rear access panel in the overhead to the back of the overhead. This will allow me to run cabling to the tail cone through the overhead after everything is installed in the plane.
Next, I had to make some holes in the baggage bulkhead to pass these conduits through.
Then it was time to actually put the cabin top on the plane for the last time. I did a little trimming on the upper forward fuse skin to allow me to pass wires down the centerpost into the overhead console, and I also had to trim a little bit around the center post on my switch pod. It was also a bit tricky holding things in place while I pulled the overhead conduit through the baggage bulkhead. But, after all of that, it was sitting in place.
Now it needed to actually be fastened to the airplane. Along the rear sides, it’s secured to the fuselage with pop rivets and an aluminum rivet backer strip. Around the door frame, this meant bolting everything in place, and following up with a healthy serving of an epoxy/flox mixture. Once all this is cured, this cabin top isn’t coming off again.
In the last few pictures, you can see my ultra double secret performance enhancement system, dubbed the Rooster Booster (TM, Patent Pending, All Rights Reserved) by Brian Unrein. My friend Lenny has already begun flight testing of this mod. Initial results are promising. The only issue is that we need to devise a way to keep the windscreen clean now!
