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RV-8 Tail Strobe Wire Routing

goatflieg

Well Known Member
In the midst of routing wiring and planning the run to my tail strobe, which will be a AeroLED Suntail. The wiring has been supplied by Aerotronics, but I've got to make the terminations and route the wire. I've done some searches and I've got some ideas, but looking for additional suggestions for routing the wire from the aft bulkhead to the rudder bottom. Any photos, details or suggestions would be appreciated.
 
This is from when I had the Whelen strobe installed, but the same idea worked for the Suntail.

 
I also routed my wiring through the aft bulkhead below the bottom rudder bolt bracket, then curved it up into the lower cap. I encased/protected the wire in clear vinyl tubing from Home Depot Aviation Supply's refrigerator icemaker tubing section.

In the links below (from my KitLog site), you see how I created the mount for the tail light.

Here's what you don't see (sorry): I connected the ship's end and light's end wires using 20-gauge 2-wire male/female connectors I bought from a local RC model aircraft store. These things are awesome: They connect firmly and are very thin, passing through the center of the light's mounting bracket hole on the bottom of the lower rudder cap. In turn, I gave myself plenty of service-loop slack in the tail, which will allow me to pull the light for future maintenance. I shrink-wrapped all of these connections for stress relief, and it just rests in the rudder bottom cap.

http://www.mykitlog.com/users/display_log.php?user=ScrollF4&project=879&category=6188&log=173000&row=29

http://www.mykitlog.com/users/display_log.php?user=ScrollF4&project=879&category=6188&log=173001&row=28

http://www.mykitlog.com/users/display_log.php?user=ScrollF4&project=879&category=6188&log=173002&row=27
 
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Rudder Wire Routing

Do your wires in the rudder bottom, just lay in there on the fiberglass rudder bottom end cap? Or did you fasten them down somehow? I'm putting my rudder on RV-7A now for the last time, and pulling my wires thru from fuselage tail to the light and it seems okay to just enter the bottom end cap and lay there on its way to the light? But maybe I need an adel clamp, or resin to hold the wires still in there. hey?
 
Tail Wiring

I used a short piece of Vans corrugated tubing to run the (wire) cable thru in the rudder fiberglass bottom (R-911) in my 7A. The tubing was attached to the bottom of R-911 with some non-expanding spray foam (had to trim the foam some so the bottom could be riveted to the rudder. Purpose of the foam was to hold the tubing in place and also to keep the inside of the bottom from collecting engine oil, etc. The tubing allows me to pull the cable out if needed. I also left a service loop in the cable in the rudder bottom.
 
Wires

I did not restrain the wires. I, like most, protected the wire from any possible abrasion by sliding them in a piece of tubing. My lower fairing is attached with rivets.
For long term, remember that the rudder will come off eventually, so I made a wiring connection in the empenage area, or at least leave a service loop so it can be cut and spliced back together.
The thing that concerned me with the wire routing between the tail and rudder the most is, where it is exposed to the elements and movement with every rudder deflection. The fewer bends in the wire, the less movement. I drilled a hole between the 3 lower VS spar attach bolts large enough for the wire and protection to pass through. Then copied that location accross to the front of the lower rudder fairing and cut a "slot" about 1.25 inches wide and a little taller then the wire bundle. This way, the wire is routed basicly flat, through the gap and the slot allows for the rudder to move without twisting the wire. There is supposed to be a hole drilled in the lower fairing to allow for water to drain.
Email for pictures. YMMV.
 
I ended up departing the fuselage at this point, with multiple layers of heat shrink tubing in place for protection. I'll probably route it around the bottom hinge rod end as others have, then into the top forward opening of the bottom fairing. I was initially planning to have a detachable rudder bottom, but I'm rethinking that. Possibly a connector just forward of the Suntail and enough slack to unscrew the Suntail, pull it out and disconnect it, then pull the wires out the forward top of the bottom fairing. More posts to follow. A side benefit of this thread... when I found my photo of the wire exiting the fuselage I noticed a bit of masking tape still stuck to the rudder stop. Gotta go out to the shop and remove it... so I can sleep tonight.
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WOW

Have to admit......I did not like seeing this! As my rudder bottom is riveted on. Good thing I have a hangar!! Vans instructions say drill a hole in lowest point for water drainage, but maybe should add hardware cloth for bird screen.....
 
I guess so! I did put screens up on my NACA intakes... but didn't think about the rudder bottom. Maybe a plug with a REMOVE BEFORE FLIGHT banner is in order. When I think of all the cracks and crevices a plane has that critters & bugs can get into, it haunts me.
Right now our area is having a large infestation of stink bugs and they've been invading the garage/shop. At least, as bugs go, they're pretty benign. I have my property maintained by a pest control company, and they die after getting in... but man, they're everywhere. I'm always vacuuming them up. Unfortunately we can't hermetically seal our aircraft, so we do what we can and be vigilant. Probably the best thing is to keep the plane active, and hangared when it's not.
 
Mine is a -7, but the rudder is the same, so I'll throw my solution out there anyway. Unfortunately I didn't take a lot of pictures when developing this solution, however I think you will get the drift. I put way too much thought time into this (a common problem and the reason it has taken me almost double what it should to build this thing) however I think the solution meets my mission requirements.
I didn't make the fairing removable, as I didn't want to add weight aft, since CoG is quite critical in many -7 builds. The tail light cable (22 awg shielded two pair) is in a piece of conduit that runs the length of the tail and is supported by (and runs through holes in) two balsa ribs (I paint them with epoxy which makes them strong, light and waterproof). The contuit was sized to be just large enough to hold the mini molex plug I was using. In hindsight I think that I should have just used a gold JST-SH RC plug as the current usage of these LED tail lights is so low (another happy Flyleds.com customer). The conduit curves upwards at the forward end and is covered by an aluminium face plate. This plate is removable. It's held in place with two NAS1801 #8 screws (a favourite of mine) into nutplates, so that if I ever have to remove the rudder, I can undo the faceplate and pull the cable through completely out of the conduit. The cable curves in a 180 degree loop so that rudder motion results in twisting rather than bending, reducing fatigue loading. The cable at this point is covered covered in heatshrink for additional wear protection. It is zip tied back to a bracket that is mounted to the aft bulkhead. This bracket is in turn bolted in place when I mounted the vertical stabilizer. The cable then goes through a 1/4" hole in the bulkhead. IIRC there are two snap bushings in this hole (one pushed from the outside and one from the inside), as the stack thickness was so great that one bushing didn't give me adequate protection on the inside. Just forward of the rear bulkhead, I have a service loop long enough so that I can cut the zip tie and pull the wire aft and disconnect the tail light.
There are of course drain holes drilled at the low point in the conduit and the low point of the rudder fairings, however with the faceplate on, I suspect there will be little water or debris entering the conduit.
Hope this helps.
Tom.
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I ordered the thumb drive of plans and was pleasantly surprised to find OP-56 drawing (RV-All) included with detailed wiring/routing plan for the rudder tail strobe.
 
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I ordered the thumb drive of plans and was pleasantly surprised to find OP-56 drawing (RV-All) included with detailed wiring/routing plan for the rudder tail strobe.

Yes... I finally did that too. Did answer more than a few questions... but by then I had the wire routed. I'm in the process of figuring out what to apply (and what not to apply) from the wiring diagrams for my configuration.
 
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