Eddy Fernandez RV-9A · · PAGE 1

November 26, 2005:  I have been exchanging emails with Eddy since April 2005.  Today I finally got a chance to visit Eddy and see his project.  He built his ECI O-320 engine himself.  The red "ring" on the ring gear is a weight added to the front of the engine since he is going to install a 3-blade Catto fixed-pitch prop.  Dual mags power the spark on this engine.

Here is a close-up view of the ring gear weight and the prop spacer.

Behind the engine is the usual assortment of goodies:  mags, oil filter adapter, tach cable, oil temp sensor, oil pressure line and sensor, etc.  There is still one more hole to cut in the back baffle to add a blast tube to cool the mag on the far side of the engine.  The crank case vent hose has not been attached yet.

The modular panel is coming together with Van's traditional gauges for most functions.  An electronic monitor for the EGT and CHT readings is the only "electronic" gauge.  The turn and bank indicator is electric along with the artificial horizon when it gets installed.  There is no vacuum pump to fail at the absolute "worst time" in a long flight.  A Garmin GPS 196 will be in the top of the stack guiding the way.  Communications will be via an ICOM A-200 for now.   The radar transponder is a Garmin GTX-327 for a future connection to a Garmin 530 (some day) to convert the panel from VFR to IFR.  That is a magnetic compass card between the vertical speed indicator and the turn and bank indicator.  The three colored lights are RED for low oil pressure, yellow for alternator low voltage, and GREEN for starter??  Eddy, tell me if I got that last one wrong.

Here is the panel view from the left side.  The Hobbs meter is hiding at the extreme far right side of the panel, down low.  This modular panel appears to be the same one that David Edgemon put in his airplane.

The steel steps are installed using FLAT rivets instead of the round-head rivets called out in the plans.  Eddy countersinked the rivet holes in the steel plate to accept these.