Wing wiring conduit

27 Oct 2004 Wing wiring conduit

After a lot of deliberation, consternation, and flip-flopping, I’ve finally decided how to get the wires from one end of my wing to the other. Amazingly, I’m using the PVC conduit that I purchased from Hornbach (like Home Depot, but with German prices) about a year ago. It’s got a 16mm ID, which is enough for most of the wires and the tube for the AOA, but probably not enough for a remote magnometer. We’ll see.

The big issue was finding the best way to attach the tubing to the wing. I got a lot of suggestions from the net, and decided to roll with the bit of angle riveted to the ribs, and “cushion clamps” a.k.a. Adel clamps.

Here is a picture of the angle that I created. There is a left and a right, since some ribs have the lightening holes, with the raised flange, one way, and some have them the other. Notice that I tried to make them a bit lighter by cutting off a corner. They also each have a nutplate. Quite a bit of work.

Here is a bracket attached to a rib.

View from the other side.

Outboard bracket on the left wing.

The tube installed. Notice that I don’t yet have the wing skin on. I really hope that this conduit nor the brackets interfere with riveting on the skin. That would be a hassle.

I only put cushion clamps on every other rib. This holds pretty firmly, and keeps weight and work to a minimum.

I also skipped several of the inboard ribs – just not needed to support the PVC, and it would be more work that I would have cared to do. The one rib that was not easily accessible was a bear. That took about 80% of the time.

I’ve got a lot of tubing sticking out the inboard end of the wing, and I plan to run this right into the cockpit, using the rubber grommet to protect the PVC and seal the hole. It will need to be trimmed a bit.

Overall, I’m quite happy with the way it turned out. I truly hope I don’t have trouble putting on the final skin.

Update: 2005.04.17 – No problem putting the wing skins on at all. None of the brackets nor the conduit conflicted with either the skin or the bucking bars.