Click on picture to
|
Editorial A guy on the Sonex forum recently said he had visited a Sonic builders site and thought the builders electrical system would weigh 100 pounds. I had a good laugh when I realized he might have been talking about my plane. Since these pictures of a more completed system hadn’t been up yet, he might think it weighs 200 pounds now. So no, it does not weigh a hundred pounds but it is complex, far more complex than a Sonex needs to be. So for all of you out there who are following my build and are worrying your Sonex electrical system has to be as complex as mine, don’t worry. The simple and straight forward electrical system in the Sonex plans looks very safe and effective to me. So how much extra does my electrical system weigh anyway? I did think about it during the design and I know it weighs less than 10 pounds more than a bare bones system that includes lights. The extra weight is primarily in the ground power system, an additional extra contactor and several switches and extra wire. I don’t count the extra weight of the smoke system towards the electrical system, plus, from where I fly I am required to have a transponder. I actually think the extra weight is more like five pounds – which is still a lot. So why the complexity? Education! I have an always hot buss, an endurance buss, over voltage and polarity protected ground power, a relay for smoke, PM Alt noise filtering and safety relay, voltage and current monitoring with system protections, back up EFIS power and more. These are all things one would find in an airplane with much more capability than a Sonex and that is what I may build next. These pictures show the mostly completed firewall – fore and aft – wiring. Get out your scales and let the weighing begin.
|
