One of the tricky parts about equipping an RV-3 with a center radio stack is that every little bit of width you add to the stack takes away from the critically small leg room. Ideally, the stack would be no wider than the radio racks themselves. Obviously, you need some sort of rails in which to mount the racks, however, and I decided I want some thin cosmetic sides (which will probably end up with some ventilation holes by the way?). So when you put it together with the racks and screws, you end up with something like this:
Sort of ugly, huh? I thought so! Of course, I wouldn?t use hardware store nuts, the final assembly would be with lock nuts ? but still ? they aren?t in a straight line (You'd think all Garmin racks would have identical hole placement...), and they stick out of a smooth side. Cosmetically, not very attractive. It could look nicer if you added some width to the stack to allow for hiding the nuts between the rack rails and side panels, but I?d rather have the leg room. I thought about this for a couple of days, and then, while standing in front of the scrap bin, I spotted some 3/16? thick bar stock left over from some other part of the project. Out of curiosity, I pulled out a tap for a #6 screw, drilled and tapped a hole, and drove in a screw. I then cranked down on the screw to see if I could strip the threads in the aluminum ? and instead, stripped the Phillips head into a smooth cone first. With a little lock tight, this should be more than adequate to hold a radio rack!
The rest was ?easy? ? except it took a very steady hand to drill holes in my ?solid aluminum nut plate strips? because they needed to be centered in larger holes in my template (the already-drilled side rails). Here they are in rough form, installed:
I?ll end up doing a little more tapering and smoothing, and might even rivet on a cap strip to completely hide the open holes ? one more little art project on the road to a nicer cockpit. It takes away 3/16? of legroom on each side, but only for ??. I think we can live with that. Of course, it adds a little weight to the airframe ? but we?re working on that. Healthy diets, losing weight, living and flying longer!
Paul
Sort of ugly, huh? I thought so! Of course, I wouldn?t use hardware store nuts, the final assembly would be with lock nuts ? but still ? they aren?t in a straight line (You'd think all Garmin racks would have identical hole placement...), and they stick out of a smooth side. Cosmetically, not very attractive. It could look nicer if you added some width to the stack to allow for hiding the nuts between the rack rails and side panels, but I?d rather have the leg room. I thought about this for a couple of days, and then, while standing in front of the scrap bin, I spotted some 3/16? thick bar stock left over from some other part of the project. Out of curiosity, I pulled out a tap for a #6 screw, drilled and tapped a hole, and drove in a screw. I then cranked down on the screw to see if I could strip the threads in the aluminum ? and instead, stripped the Phillips head into a smooth cone first. With a little lock tight, this should be more than adequate to hold a radio rack!
The rest was ?easy? ? except it took a very steady hand to drill holes in my ?solid aluminum nut plate strips? because they needed to be centered in larger holes in my template (the already-drilled side rails). Here they are in rough form, installed:
I?ll end up doing a little more tapering and smoothing, and might even rivet on a cap strip to completely hide the open holes ? one more little art project on the road to a nicer cockpit. It takes away 3/16? of legroom on each side, but only for ??. I think we can live with that. Of course, it adds a little weight to the airframe ? but we?re working on that. Healthy diets, losing weight, living and flying longer!
Paul
