Tech Corner – Mooney Installations

This was a fairly typical install when it comes to system interfaces. These days there is always a mixture of digital to analog that needs to be sorted out. The physical installation on Mooney’s is usually challenging…

The Mooney was originally conceived in the “amateur/homebuilt” category, so it’s in my belief and current experience, that wire harness thickness and routing provisions throughout the aircraft, were not in the engineer’s mind when in the designing phase. It was truly a pilot’s airplane!

This would be back before such systems were around or popular enough to be in models like these. In other words, with the already limited space, more equipment equals less space to run wiring/install components.

In particular, the Lynx NGT 9000 (Transponder/Displays Active Traffic/ADS-B In/Out) located below the audio panel in left stack required some re-routing and re-positioning of cables/hoses/wiring forward of the radio stack, because there was no room to push the radio in all the way safely.

Much of the time with installs, Audio panel wiring becomes a problem in this scenario, as it’s generally fabricated or routed with JUST enough length to reach the panel. Thus, when a longer LRU is installed (The Lynx in our case) below the audio panel, if the wiring is routed in the way, more time is added to the job (Extend the wiring, secure, and test the affected systems).

The height of the instrument panel has also been challenging in the past.

Making modifications such as flush mount Aspen EFD 1000 can require many alterations to the panel with the limited real estate.

You move one instrument 1/4″ and as a result, adjustment modifications could snowball, causing the relocation of every instrument in the entire panel to have everything fit, no joke.

Part of the reason I love doing this work, is the new and different challenges that may arise with every install. No two days are the same.

When an install like C-FDAD’s is challenging, the end result is just that much more satisfying, because not only is it unique to the world, it also gives that good sense of accomplishment.

Bryce Nutt, Avionics Technician – BRANT AERO