GPS holder
03/17/2013
Work Space
Another long day. First, after cleaning up the walkway, I decided to work on placing the GPS into the cockpit. The holder they give either is right in my face or wobbly when I place it on the dash. Either is bad. Second, when I powered up the GPS, it wouldn't get a signal. Went online and was told to update the software. Did that and no difference. Was getting really frustrated and looked to see how much it would cost and the flat fee is $200! Was not happy. Looked at some forums and one person said that if you've had the GPS off for over a month, it will take about 3-5 minutes before it'll find a signal. So, I decided to turn it on and leave it on while I work on airplane stuff. Sure enough, after about 5 minutes, it found a signal.
Looking at the wing rack, I saw the edges digging into the leading edge of the wing. Also noticed that the struts that I had sitting behind the wing would slide down if I pushed on the wing rack. And the plywood I placed behind the wing rack would fall down against the wing rack. So, moved the plywood over to the other side of the garage. Measured how much the rack was pushing into the leading edge (3/4") and cut a diagonal to the curve to remove the sharp edge. Also, took some 3/16" dowel and make holders on the center post to hold the struts. Put the wings back on and looks much better.
Since my GPS was working, I decided to make a decent bracket for it. After experimenting with positions in the cockpit, settled on putting it in the upper left side. The view here is blocked off by the leading edge anyway. Took a piece of 1/8" aluminum. Took off the GPS support on the yoke bracket and got slightly longer screws to mount it on the aluminum. Drilled four holds in the aluminum and mounted the GPS support. Next, placed the aluminum with the support in the cockpit to see how far left I could place it. Took two #10 screws and mounted in in the cockpit. Finally, removed excess aluminum on the top and bottom to leave room for the wing support bracket and extra aluminum on the bottom. Put the GPS in the bracket to see in the internal antenna would work and picked up five signals right away.
