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I've decided to create a new section on this web site to capture some of the great flying advice that streams through some of the e-mail lists that I follow. I'll update the Pearls of Wisdom as I come across them.

There was an interesting series of messages about flight in icing conditions on the RV-List recently which has a few good lessons. The following messages are posted with the permission of the original authors.

Read on for more.

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I spent over two hours today just running the tail position light wire through the rear fuselage and then securing it with an Adel clamp (too much info). I had to work in the rear fuselage, just ahead of the horizontal stabilizer. Running the wire wasn't too bad, as I could do it with one hand. I did get partially stuck trying to get out though. The rear fuselage is too narrow to allow room to move my arm from above my head down to my side. My elbow hits a bulkhead. I got hung up this morning, and it took me several minutes to free myself. The aircraft is a tail-dragger, which means the aft end of the fuselage is lower than the front. So every time you wriggle around the implacable force of gravity tends to drag you further towards the tail cone.

This evening I needed to secure the rear fuselage wiring with an Adel clamp. It normally takes two hands to install one of those things, but it is very, very difficult to find a way to get both hands above my head in the rear fuselage. I actually managed to get the Adel clamp installed with the nut done up finger tight using only one hand, but there was no way to tighten it up without the second hand. I tried several times to get in there, each time giving up after a few minutes of contortions and coming out for a rest. Finally I managed to find the right combination of contortions to get in there, tighten the bolt and escape. Ouch.

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I spent most of last weekend and the first three days of last week down with a virus, so I didn't get any project work done. I got a lot of electrical work done this weekend, but unfortunately it was Christmas light work, and not RV-8 work. But this afternoon I finally managed to sneak in the garage for awhile and I attacked the position light wiring. I got the switch installed and wired, and the wire from the switch back to the underfloor area where it splits three ways to power the wing tip and tail lights. And then I ran out of wire. I thought I had more than enough, but it takes a lot of wire to snake all the way to each wing tip via a convoluted routing under the floor. I'll leave a coil of wire coming out the side of the fuselage at each side and string them into the wings when I mount them.

Hopefully tomorrow I can pick up some wire at the local avionics shop.

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I attached the tail strobe wiring this week. I had a plan of how I was going to route the rudder strobe and position lights out the end of the fuselage and into the rudder bottom fairing. But it became clear that Plan A was probably not going to stand up well once I started to actually put the strobe light wiring in place.

I had planned to bring the tail strobe and position light wires through a gap between the lower part of the empennage fairing and the outside edge of the vertical stab rear spar. Then I planned to curl the wires around the VS spar flange, and run them down to the bottom, then over to the central part of the VS rear spar and into the front of the rudder bottom fairing.

But once I ran the wires I started agonizing over the likelihood of the wires chafing on the VS rear spar flange. Additionally, I couldn't' come up with a good way to secure the wires as they ran down the VS spar to the bottom centre.

So, Plan B - I drilled a 7/16 hole in the VS rear spar, centred between the three bolts that secure its lower end. I agonized for a day before making the hole, but that part of the spar shouldn't be carrying too much load, as the loads have to go to the bolt holes. The trick is to smooth all the edges so I don't get a stress concentration.

I got essentially nothing done this weekend. We had a bunch of running around to do yesterday, we had company over last night, and today I have been stricken with some sort of bug. I feel like crud, and I can't concentrate, so I decided I ran too big a risk of making a big screwup if I tried to work.

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A visitor to the site asked what program I used to create the electrical system drawings. Here is what I told him:

I like the simplest and cheapest solutions, so I looked for programs that I already owned, and knew how to use. I used ClarisWorks, now known as AppleWorks - sort of a Microsoft Works, jack-of-all-trades program that came free with my Mac. I used the drawing tools, set up a grid pattern of 20 per inch, and told it to force everything to conform to the grid. Each time I needed a new component (i.e. new type of switch, etc) I drew one up, grouped it together as one element, then copied it to a file I used to save all my symbols. It was then a simple matter to copy and paste it next time I needed it. The grid forced everything to line up, so the lines for the wires naturally lined up with the right places on the switches, etc. You could probably do the same thing with any program that has simple drawing tools.

I could have made the first pass at each drawing quicker with pencil and a set of traceable templates. In fact I started out that way. But once I started making changes they became a mess quite quickly, as the erased lines were still partially visible, and it was a lot of work to make major changes due to the large number of elements to move. So I quickly realized that the computer solution was the right answer for me, as it is easy to grab large chunks of the drawing and move them around as necessary.

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It has been quite awhile since I last worked on the electrical system drawings. I printed out the last version, and marked them up as I installed the electrical system. Since it was time to start working on the electrical system again, I took the time to update the computer files to match the ink amendments. Tonight I loaded the updated electrical system drawings to the web site.

They are still a work-in-progress, so they certainly contain errors, and they are not yet complete. I will upload changes periodically.

The diagrams at the above link are optimized for viewing online. Read on for links to these diagrams in pdf format suitable for printing.