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Re: Europa-List: wiring exit from stick - uk practice?

Subject: Re: Europa-List: wiring exit from stick - uk practice?
From: Rowland & Wilma Carson <rowil@clara.net>
Date: Thu, 4 Sep 2008 15:04:54


>I wouldn't drill the stick to the size for a conventional gromit -
>this would seriously weaken the stick

Peter - I hadn't considered that a hole big enough for a grommet 
would compromise the strength of the stick - after all it's got to 
have 2 off 1/4" holes drilled in it near the bottom for the AN4-17A 
bolt that secures it to CS01.

>the reason that the stick
>diameter was increased when it went from steel to ali was that the ali
>stick at the smaller diameter was not stong enough at higher G

Now I'm really confused! My CS16 are steel, have 2 bends and are 1" 
OD. They came in an XS fuselage kit collected in September 2001. When 
did the sticks change to aluminium?

I know the original Classic sticks were straight, but I don't know 
what diameter they were or what material they were made of. My paper 
manual (page 13-11 issue 1) still shows the straight sticks, but 
later PDFs show the cranked ones.

This suggests that there been 3 different types of stick supplied in 
Europa kits over the years - straight Classic, small steel cranked, 
large aluminium cranked. Is that correct?

>On HI, we have drilled holes at an angle to the stick (heading
>downwards) at the front of the stick (just above the point where the
>stick passes in to the tuffnel bush). the hole is bigger than the
>screened wire that runs to the PTT (and comm box frequency change) -
>I've put some heatshrink over the screened cable where it passes
>through the stick (and a zip tie each side to make sure that the cable
>stays in place)

That sounds OK. If the grommet is eliminated I think you definitely 
need to ensure that the wire is not going to move relative to the 
metal and thus chafe. After deburring the hole (as far away from 
orthogonal to stick surface as possible so the wire has a minimal 
chicane to negotiate) I'm inclined to go for a tie-wrap around the 
stick below the exit, and some sort of bung or spacer to immobilise 
it inside and above the hole too.

It would be interesting to know if there is any authoritative answer 
to how large a hole can safely be made in the stick - and how that 
answer changes for the (3?) different models of stick!

I'm copying this reply back to the list as Peter's e-mail client has 
been set to reply to the "from" address (me) rather than the 
"reply-to" address (the list).

regards

Rowland
-- 
| Rowland Carson  LAA #16532    http://home.clara.net/rowil/aviation/
| 1100 hours building Europa #435 G-ROWI  e-mail <rowil@clara.net>



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