September 2, 2006 - Autopilot

You may recall I never riveted the wing bottom skins.  The main reason was because I wanted to put a wing leveler in the RV.  Although it is possible to install one when the wing is complete, I wanted to do while the bottom skins were off just because it is easier.  And I didn't want to order the wing leveler too far ahead of time in case a newer model came out.  But I figured it was about the right time so I went ahead and ordered a TruTrak Pictorial Pilot from SteinAir. 

There isn't a whole lot to it.  The display unit which contains the gyros and processor, the servo, the wiring harness, and the mounting hardware.  SteinAir said most people put the servo in the right wing so that's what I did.  The left wing has the pitot tube and the VOR antenna so maybe that will even things out.   

Thanks to Hurricane Ernesto, the power was out in our house for 36 hours including all day Saturday.  Not to be denied, I went down into the dark basement with a flashlight and started playing around with the servo installation.  Not much to it.  A couple of brackets are supplied, one which replaces lower aileron bellcrank bracket.  One hole has to be drilled in the aileron bracket. 
A close-up of the wing leveler servo.  I havn't calibrated the servo pushrod yet.  The servo is very secure. I still need to safety wire the bolts for it though.  I guess it wouldn't be good for the servo to come lose and start bouncing around the bellcrank area during flight. 
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