The Aircraft and Owner
The aircraft is a homebuilt Murphy Moose kit-plane.
The Need
The owner arrived with his recently completed aircraft. What he came for was a very modern, previously discussed panel with top-notch equipment. Maxcraft fabricated the panel, completed fairly extensive equipment installs and also corrected some equipment wiring and configuration problems.
The Maxcraft Solution
- GTN 750
- SL30
- Dual G3X System
- GMA 35
- GTX 327
- VP-X Electronic Circuit Breaker System
- TruTrak GX-Pilot autopilot with yaw damper
- JPI EDM 730 Engine Monitor
The Story
Probably the most interesting part of this story is how the project came to get off the ground. Steve, Maxcraft’s director of business development originally met the owner while at the Sun & Fun Airshow in Florida during a Garmin seminar of last year. It turns out that the customer had traveled all the way from Yellowknife to be at the event. Some time later, we saw him again at another Garmin seminar which actually took place right at home, hosted in Maxcraft’s hanger during autumn of last year.
We soon learned that the owner was building a Murphy Moose (kit-plane) and was very interested in figuring out all the best, most suitable yet advanced avionics equipment solutions. His aircraft was eventually trucked to PEI to have an experienced builder complete it. Maxcraft fabricated some avionics wiring kits and a temporary ‘ferry panel’ which were shipped off so that the aircraft could be outfitted for a trip all the way from the east coast to Maxcraft in Pitt Meadows, BC.
Once the aircraft arrived we began work for installation of the avionics package comprised of multiple systems. The pictures speak for themselves, but in summary we installed a Garmin GTN 750, Garmin SL30 Nav/Com, dual Garmin G3X displays, a remote mounted GMA 35 Garmin audio device (linked to the GTN), and a Garmin GTX 327 transponder. In addition to the large number of Garmin equipment installs, the customer went for a TruTrak GX Pilot (autopilot with yaw damper), which was designed to integrate with Garmin’s G3X. A VP-X solid state electronic circuit breaker panel was also installed for the avionics and displayed on the dual G3X displays.
In putting all of it together Maxcraft had to take care of quite a few miscellaneous tasks such as installing shielded wire in the wings and making sure proper splices/wiring were used for all work required and some work previously completed. We removed the old voltage converter which was replaced with the VP-X circuit breaker system. We designed/fabricated a ‘MaxPanel’ with custom graphic overlay – also installing light-up rocker switches. In addition, Lemo power jacks for the headsets, a defrost system, strobe pack and a heated Pitot tube were installed. Some wiring was also completed to get the customer’s JPI EDM 730 engine monitor working properly.
The Dynon D-10A acts as an independent Electronic Flight Information System (EFIS), and was small enough to fit into standard 3 & 1/8″ panel holes. The D-10A features an advanced ‘ADAHRS’ (Air Data, Attitude and Heading Reference System), which is completely self contained within the unit. The smaller form factor and redundant reliability of the self-contained unit makes it a very popular solution for backup attitude indicators.
Addressing a few ongoing issues, over the course of the project we re-wired & re-tied most of the wire bundles on the airframe as many areas were already chafing through the primer & into the metal. In troubleshooting the aircraft’s standby compass, it was removed and the fluid replaced. The compass was originally mounted using ferrous (iron) hardware which was replaced with brass hardware and the compass re-installed. This did not completely rectify all problems as the aircraft’s structural V brace was found to be magnetized and interfering with the standby compass. It is now subject to a swing and correction card. Our final task was installing a static port which didn’t take long.
Overall, the owner was very pleased with the panel and equipment installations for his homebuilt aircraft. He now has the state-of-art panel he wanted with excellent situational awareness.
