ADSB-Out . . Creeping toward 2020

[grbamford]

Steve,

Do you plan on producing spacers for SkyBeacon?

Greg


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[Steve Pierce]

My son cut 6 out on Sunday. He needs to drill them now.

[grbamford]

What material is he using? I was wondering if you did a 3D printout, is that strong enough? Is it legal?


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[Steve Pierce]

Got a piece of .125" 6061 aluminum from Spruce. They have .125" phenolic as well which would work. It isn't structural just spaces the skyBeacon out from the sheet metal lip on the light bezel.

[Subsonic]

Got a piece of .125" 6061 aluminum from Spruce. They have .125" phenolic as well which would work. It isn't structural just spaces the skyBeacon out from the sheet metal lip on the light bezel.

I decided to go with the Appareo Stratus ESG.
https://www.appareo.com/aviation/str...SAAEgKlrfD_BwE
Seemed to me to be the best option. Weight and power demand are about the same. It replaces my KT-76A and uses my ACK altitude encoder, and new CI-105 blade antenna. Puts a new GPS antenna on the upper wing root fairing. And, 1090 ES lets me fly my PA-22 above 18,000 feet with impunity! ; )

[Old3pacer]

Looks like uavionics is doing an demo install of the skybeacon at sun & fun on a pacer!
Also, they plan to have some installers there and offer slots to install the skybeacon on your plane for a flat $100

Visit uAvionix at SUNnFUN 2019 Hangar A: A88-89

Live Installation Demonstration! One of the uAvionix Qualified Installers will be performing a skyBeacon installation at 10AM Tuesday, April 2 on one of our customers' 1957 PA22-150 Pacer aircraft at AC-04 just outside Hangar C. Look for the uAvionix banners. Don't be late, it won't take long! Get skyBeacon ADS-B installed while you enjoy the show! uAvionix will have a team of Qualified Installers at SNF. If you are lucky enough to fly-in, why not let one of our QI's install for you for a flat rate of $100! Contact qualified.installers@uavionix.com for more information and to reserve your slot! AOPA Featured Speaker uAvionix COO Ryan Braun will be presenting "Screw ADS-B (on your wing)" at the AOPA Program Pavilion on Tuesday April 2 at 3PM. Come learn about skyBeacon, tailBeacon, skyLight, and more! Show Specials Be sure to stop by our booth daily as we expect to be receiving stock items all throughout the week including skyBeacon TSO, skySensor-EXP, echoUAT, a skyFYX. I Learn about our Qualified Installer Program! If you are an A&P IA, be sure to stop by and talk to us about becoming a Qualified Installer.

Come see a skyBeacon installation on this 1957 PA22-150 Pacer at AC-04 at 10AM on Tuesday!

[grbamford]

That’s pretty epic! What are the chances they’ll livestream it? Or post a video of it? I’d love to see how they do it. It would answer a lot of questions.


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[Gilbert Pierce]

I had surprise when I put a SkyBeacon on a Pacer last week. I was expecting a 10 minute job as the airplane did not have strobes so I would not need to bypass the strobe power supply to provide 12 volts to the yellow wire.
Just remove the the nav light, cut and tie back the yellow wire, pass the wires thru Steve’s adapter, connect the red and black wires and tighten 3 screws and ready to program.

Wrong. No ground wire, the NAV light got its ground from the back of the housing. OK, crimp on a ring terminal to the black wire, get a sheet metal screw and find a place to ground the wire where the terminal and screw won’t interfere with the back of the beacon, drill a hole and attach the ring terminal. Since this was unplanned it was up a down the ladder to get screw, terminal, drill bit and drill motor.

Next the hot wire from the Nav light was the original Piper wire with the cotton insulation rotting off. That wasn’t bad enough, it was soldered and friction tapped to a new wire in the wing. The good wire was too far into the wing tip light housing to crimp a terminal on it to attach the SkyBeacon red wire. OK, remove the whole wingtip bracket to get enough room to crimp on the connector to the red wire. Reinstal the Bracket and trial fit the the SkyBeacon. No go, the #6 machine screws in the kit would not engage the original Piper #4 with tinnermans which used B point screws. Replace the #4 tinnermans with #6 which luckily we had on hand.

An hour after starting, many trips up and down a ladder to get more tools and parts we fire it up, program it, the owner flies and and gets an UP from the FAA.

By the way, plan on it taking about 20 minutes for the SkyBeacon GPS to get a good position; until then you get a flashing red LED in the antenna you can see from the cockpit, assuming you don’t have droop tips.

It would have taken twice as long if one of the owner hadn’t been right there handing me parts tools and moral support.

I wonder if uAvionix is going to check that Pacer before they do the demo. You never know what you will uncover when working on 70 year old airplanes. Plan ahead.

[Glen Geller]

Thanks Gilbert, for the details on installing SkyBeacon on a Shortwing.
Concerning your comment "assuming you don’t have droop tips", my 55 PA22 does have Madras tips. (They really improve my ability to whack my skull walking past wearing a ball cap, and help to avoid seeing out to the horizon. But that's another issue....)

Do you suppose will there be any interference with the SkyBeacon antenna blade and the outer surface of a fiberglass droop tip like this?
I'm unclear how the Pierce spacer fits and if that pushes the gadget outboard enough to assure/improve clearance?
-
On another note, have any of our friends here installed a TailBeacon on the rudder of a Shortwing, or I suppose a PA18 would be about the same?
I suppose I can ask over at www.supercub.org as well.

Thanks,
GG

[Old3pacer]

Gilbert & Glen,
I had to laugh regarding the install, I am sure the demo plane has had a skybeacon on and off several times now.
As you so wisely noted : hard to tell what original hardware and wiring you will find on one of our 60 year old + planes.
I have had a concern about the wiring in my plane and its lack of shielding. Now I have several other concerns.

The tailbeacon is problematic, I think, because the rudder hole is small for the back end of the tailbeacon. It is also not
being shipped for certified planes yet.