Waiex #142's Panel - A Dual Dynon Skyview System for a Sonex

[sonex892]

Great series of photos and great job. It shows a huge amount of work went into this. Thanks for sharing.

Steve 892

[142YX]

Looks good! You did keep the lower cross member under the panel ,right?

The weight of the fuel tank (especially under positive G) will try to bend the top longerons inward and the cross member opposes that...:)

Not on the test piece.. but the real one is going to be significantly reinforced. I am going to make an 1/8" thick carbon 90 degree angle member that will get paste bonded on after the panel is cured, and run from side to side along the back side of the bottom flange to account for the stock aluminum cross member support. The only thing that looks like it might give me trouble with that idea is the starter switch.. i might have to move that up slightly to get the reinforcement to fit.

On the final version, there are also going to be a bunch of structural "ribs" on the backside of the panel to stiffen everything up, and support items like the radio which is very deep.

[N111YX]

I figured that you had a plan. I have seen some guys try to omit this piece when configuring their panel and I did not want anyone to get any bad ideas...:)

[fastj22]

I figured that you had a plan. I have seen some guys try to omit this piece when configuring their panel and I did not want anyone to get any bad ideas...:)

I was told that was structural but I didn't realize until now that is the reason for it. Makes sense.

[142YX]

Here i go with the "real" panel this time...


I realize that this stuff may not be most people's cup of tea.. but i absolutely love this stuff!



Here is the real part curing. I ended up making the final panel from one ply of the green carbon, backed up with eight plies of regular carbon. That may have been a tad overkill.. i think 6 plys of carbon would have been enough.. but i am left with a really stiff panel - i won't have to worry about it's integrity. After a lot of debate, i decided to try West System 105 Epoxy, with their "special" 207 hardener. It is claimed to be very clear-curing, and it has a UV resistant additive to prevent yellowing with solar exposure over time. I also plan on coating the panel with a UV blocking varnish when it is all done to improve the UV protection. I ran the vacuum at 15" of pressure.



Poped right out of the tool without any issue whatsoever!



There are a few minor blemishes, but I honestly couldn't be happier with the way it turned out! Next up, i'll have to trim it to a final fit and start populating the panel with all of the toys.

[Sonex1517]

Very cool!!

[MichaelFarley56]

That looks great! I can't wait to see how it looks when it's done!

Great job!

[fastj22]

Two please! Where do we place our order?

[142YX]

A few more photos to share:


Took me three afternoons to get all of the cutouts in the panel done.



Here is the first look at the entire layout with everything installed. The only items missing are an 1/8" stereo music input that i am going to put all the way on the right hand side, and some warning light that i have not picked out yet that will be driven by the Dynon, on the left hand side of the panel.

For drilling into carbon, my advice would be to use a tapered reamer like the ones shown here:
http://www.starliteindustries.com/c00410/page10.shtml

This website has some great pointers on technique:
http://composite.about.com/library/weekly/aa991028.htm

The bits are pricey (i was lucky enough to be able to borrow some from work for the few holes that i needed to make) and regardless of technique the reamer will still cause the top and bottom plies to fray a bit. For that reason, on most of the holes (and all of the rectangular cutouts) i actually drilled slightly undersized and then hand-filed it to the final size. Tedious, but it produced the best result. I would caution against drilling with a twist drill, the results will be horrible.

[EricS]

Absolutely awesome! Nice work. Not that I'm planning on using carbon fiber anywhere on my plane, but thanks for sharing the links and tips!