Spring has finally arrived, so there were lots of start of the year projects to do around the house, which has slowed progress on the project.

I mounted the ELT antenna, routed the coax to the antenna, and carved a hole in the instrument panel for the ELT remote control head. It came with a long phone cord which allows the ELT and the remote control head to communicate. The phone cord was about 5 feet too long, so I purchased a cheap Radio Shack phone modular plug tool, and shortened the cord. I was amazed at how well a plastic tool that costs less than $10 worked.

Today I put the partially finished sliding canopy back on the aircraft so I could see how much room there was to mount the GPS antenna. It turns out there is lots of room, as long as it is placed so as to avoid the slider that hooks on the centre canopy track. The canopy framework slides over top of the GPS antenna with lots of room to spare. The antenna must be mounted fairly close to the canopy rail, to keep it well inboard of where the shoulder harness will go.

The bottom of the antenna is flat, and the fuselage skin is curved, so I needed something to fill in the curved space. I decided to use a piece of balsa wood. I'll cover it with some West Systems epoxy to give it some strength and to smooth out the surface. I was at a bit of a loss how to get the curved surface on the bottom of the balsa, but I eventually taped a piece of coarse emery cloth on the rear fuselage, and used some double-sided tape to attach the balsa to a the thick doubler that Garmin provides to be used with the antenna. It took a few minutes, and made a real mess of sawdust, but the piece now fits quite well. I'll cover the area with electrical tape, wax the bottom of the antenna and the electrical tape, and slather the area with epoxy and filler to fill in the last few gaps.

I also fabricated the coax cables for the GPS antenna and for the glideslope.