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When to rivet cockpit floor?

digidocs

Well Known Member
Hi there,

Near the end of Section 29, Van's prompts you to permanently install the forward cockpit floors. Is now a good time to do that or should I wait?

I don't think that there will be any additional insulation or wires in that area.

Thanks for the advice,
David
 
The only areas that you may want to delay or customize access is the rear seat and baggage area.

A fair number of people mount antennas under the rear seat. I ended up making an access panel (after the fact) when I had to troubleshot an antenna issue.

The other area is to access the bolt for the steps. Nuts have become less tight and needed to be re-tighten. This doesn't seem to impact everyone, but it does appear to happen frequently. I installed some aluminum pieces that Bob Newman (TCW Technologies) made which appear to minimize that issue due to having something solid to minimize the flexing.

I also held off riveting the upper fuselage assembly to give me more time to work on the wiring harness. It's much easier to wire on the bench that in the plane.

bob
 
floor access...

I will second Bob Leffler's suggestion for access in particular through the baggage floor. I ran one 3/4" plastic conduit under the rear seats and called it quits for "access" there. I have the two 3/4" plastic grommets on each side installed that handled my battery/static tube/AP/Txpder/trim/misc wires to the back, I did find the extra tube handy for the GPS antenna RG400 wire (Garmin GTN650). However, if you add/install an inspection plate on the left and right sides above and a little forward of the step (baggage compartment), you really have access to under the seats as well, especially easily if you have some conduit or just holes with grommets installed BEFORE riveting on the floors. I also very much like the idea of access to the step mounting bolt etc...... Just as a FYI, I made the panel on the right-side of the baggage compartment removable (add nut plates on flooring & side angle) and this provides access from front to the rear, should I ever need that one last wire run to the back that I forgot......:rolleyes: Another comment, since you are really planning how to get wires to the back with access, I used the right side 3/4" angle/ longeron as a SECONDARY ground to the front (engine/firewall), some have run large copper wire, some nothing at all. I can & will just say, my single PC928 in the back cranks my heavy Hartzell prop beautifully on the hottest day of a hot start. And at KIYK these days at 110+ deg F, I understand a hot start for the engine and me in the cockpit!
 
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