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aft bottom skin holes

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rnewcomb7797

Member
I have already drilled the holes in the aft bottom skin however I will not be using these for ADS-B antenna. My transponder will include ADS-B. Needing ideas how to cover up these holes in the aft skin with a cover plate . I was thinking of using the #12 holes with screws and nutplates. Maybe riveting a cover plate on? Curious what others have done in this situation.
 
I'm in the same boat. Easiest solution seems to be just using screws to hold a small plate over the opening. This would make it easy to use the location in the future for an antenna.
 
ah yeah, have drilled those holes today :D
Haven't thought about the ADS-B avionics yet. Probably I'll go with a Garmin transponder with ADS-B in addition to a FLARM system.
 
I ordered a new skin when I drilled it and then realized that I didn?t need to. Those were the early days when I replaced mistakes instead of trying to cover them with chewing gum and duct tape. By the time I install the propeller I may not even count the blades. You could use the aft antenna location for a transponder antenna and mount a remote transponder on the battery angles in front of the elevator bellcrank to keep the cable run short.
 
ADS-B

You could also use plastic hole plugs to fill the holes. I used some of those for the antenna holes in the forward fuselage.
 
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Any reason why these holes couldn't be upsized for an antenna later on when avionics decisions have been made? I would think you could use a step drill from below and easily debur. Thoughts?

I'm thinking I could probably countersink and put in a rivet as a filler now and if I want to put an antenna there just drill out the rivets and upsize as needed. I believe a #12 hole would completely remove a 3/32 rivet countersink (especially if I use an oops rivet).
 
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dstates said:
Any reason why these holes couldn't be upsized for an antenna later on when avionics decisions have been made? I would think you could use a step drill from below and easily debur. Thoughts?
Click to expand...

Yes they can be.
 
Overkill...as always...

I had already upsized the holes before I realized I wasn't going to install a UAT/ADS-B system (we're going with a 1090-ES/ADS-B solution). I fab'ed a little attach plate to cover the hole from the inside.

Down the road, we may install a go-pro mount here or an integrated camera...too many options, too little money & time...
 

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I just put a dummy transponder “twig” antenna. Fills the hole, looks like it belongs, and cheap. :cool:
 
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