Windshield Defrost Outlets
The custom climate system includes a pair of outlets facing the windshield to demist in cold or humid conditions. This design diverts sharply from the kit design; the original Sling 4 kit had no window defroster at all, and when the TSi debuted it included an outlet in front...
Fuel Pump ASB
Before closing out the skin above the firewall, I really wanted to address an Alert Service Bulletin (ASB) issued by Rotax in 2022 against the factory fuel pumps. The fuel pumps attach through the firewall and are secured on the inside with lock nuts that are not easy to...
Firewall Wiring Pass-thru
The firewall has a large opening, necessary to allow the large connectors to the Rotax ECU to pass through. The included close-out plates don’t seal up the hole nearly enough so I bought an off-the-shelf firewall grommet. It comes in two pieces that join together. I riveted this to...
Custom Electrical Installations for Aircraft: First Power Up
I’ve spent the last few weeks installing all the electrical provisions, ramping up especially the last few weeks over the holidays to reach a safe-to-apply-power state. I successfully powered up the airplane for the first time this past weekend and it was nice to finally see the panel all...
HVAC System and Panel Progress
This is a long overdue update on my project, but I’ve been quite busy on a few different aspects. First major update is that the custom HVAC system is about 90% complete. I’ve gone through so many iterations of the design over the last 3 years, but earlier this...
Avionics Work
I’m slowly but surely getting all the avionics connected, and along the way, creating brackets and similar provisions for securing bulkhead connectors and wiring bundles. Here are a few photos showing how I created a plate that holds two circular connectors (TE CPC series 2) for passing most of...
Fitting the Engine Cowling
I really want to cover the engine so I decided to skip ahead to fitting the engine cowling, which is part of the finishing kit. The instructions ask you to perform a bit of light sanding to get the upper and lower halves to line up nicely. I used...
Wire Harness Mod for Fuel Pumps
(March 4, 2023) Just sharing a quick blurb about an easy change to the Rotax wire harness that makes it easier to connect the fuel pumps. The as-built wire harness on the engine isn’t quite long enough to reach one of the two fuel pumps, due to the orientation...
Radiator Mounting
(March 11, 2023) I wanted to cut the coolant hoses to the proper length, so I decided to first attach the radiators to the lower engine cowling and then temporarily attach the cowling. The oil cooler fit no problem, but the water radiator required some grinding away of material....
Exhaust Pipe
The instructions for installing the exhaust pipe are only three steps on one sheet, but the task took me a solid 4 hours to complete because I was trying to be careful. The installation of swept tail pipe requires removal of the stock straight pipe, which is welded in...