Retro fitting Dynon AOA/Pitot mast

Hi,

I'm planning on replacing the stock Vans pitot mast with a Dynon AOA/heated pitot mast. Anyone have experience doing this and did you use the Gretz or SafeAir1 mounting bracket? Wondering if one is easier than the other for a retrofit.

Any feedback - especially with pics - would be greatly appreciated.

Regards,
Craig

Me Too

Craig,

I'm getting ready to do the same retrofit. I bought the SafeAir1 pitot mount. The instructions have a lot of pictures, thankfully. I'm on vacation right now but I could send you a copy of the instructions when I get back this Sunday, if you want to wait that long to order.

Dave
RV-6 Super Slow Build
Finish Kit

I've got the Safeair mount. New installation, not a retrofit. The mount comes with a diagram to position it correctly on the skin and spar. I did have to relieve a couple of notches where the flange on the mount overlaps the rivets on the leading edge skin/spar. You should be able to see them in this picture on the right side.



Opening up the hole in the skin is pretty easy with a unibit and dremel tool.

So what the verdict?

On the Montana RV-4 project, the wings are already closed up and has the Vans Pitot tube...but the plan is to upgrade the panel to use a Dynon180 and would also like to have the Dynon AOA functional. This will require installing a Gretz or Safeair mast, SO I'm looking for any pointers or gotcha's on cutting into the wing for the install.

Safe Air

I have retro fitted a safe air mast and Dynon probe to an RV6. Sorry I did not take any pictures at the time.

Two things to note.
1. Tie down point, give as much clearance to this as possible.
2. As per usual measue, check, coffee break get somebody else to check then cut. TAKE YOUR TIME WITH THE CUT AND FILING IT IS NOT A RACE!

I used the tried & tested old method of chain drilling and GENTLY filing the shape so as not to damage or crack the surounding paint as marked out from the pattern. (Which I had checked, already against the mast by cutting out the hole with a scapel and sliding it down the mast, it was spot on.)

Because of 1 above the mast was close to the inspection hatch so was able to squeese the rivits which saved any paint damage by using a rivit gun.

After fitting the one to the 6 I brought a safe air mast to fit to the RV8 I'm slooooowly building.

My 2d worth below, sorry my 3.576 cent opinion
I was very impressed with the safe air mast on how it fits and it is rivited to the spar at the front therefore putting minimal stress on the wing skin.


Good Luck
Rob

Dynon Pitot

One more point I should have added to my earlier post.

Putting my day job hat on as a controls engineer
The dynon probe in my opinion is the best AOA sensor input that I have seen for small aircraft, and who came up with this arrangement should be justly proud. Simple but effective.

I would suspect if they just produced a AOA using this probe it would sell well.

I have had the privalage of flying the 6 with the dynon probe on for a couple of years and it works as advertised and you can't get better than that.

Again just my 2d worth
Rob

This wasn't a retrofit, but just to give you some ideas:

I installed a pitot mast during the build and also routed two lines to the pitot for a future AOA upgrade (I have a standard Cessna style pitot right now). I ran aluminum lines in the same general location as the RV-6 plans. I termintated both line at one of the ribs with bulkhead fittings and made a second line from the bulkhead fitting to the pitot. With the tank removed you should be able to get a second pitot line routed through the outboard LE. If I were to do this again, I would just use the hard plastci tubing, but I didn't know that existed at the time.







Rather than have the bulkhead fittings like I do, you could just route a new line through the LE and down to the pitot through one of the lightening holes. Run it behind the tank along the spar and into the fuselage. Shouldn't be all that difficult.

Bruce,

Safeair will replace your gold mast with a blue one that has a thicker top plate and better welds to prevent cracking. See their web site. They replaced mine free of charge. I appreciate doning business with a straight forward company and look forward to installing their pitot static system I have already purchased.