For Sale and Accessories and Upgrades

[scubarider2]

Thougt I would start this sticky topic to have everyone list the accessories and upgrades they have added to their planes and motors.  Give how much you paid, where you got it, how it works, etc.

I would love for the factory to place everything they are coming up with here as well.  I have learned of several items that are not on the website.  Seat cushions, etc.

THANKS!

[scubarider2]

I bought an Odyssey battery and bought a chrome battery holder and mounted it in the rear cargo compartment.  This way it is easier to get to when I want to charge it.  The chrome holder has a cover that protects anything from hitting the terminals.  It has worked very well.  The battery has plenty of power to start the rotax 912uls.  I cut out several feet of cable going to the motor as well.
Dennis

[scubarider2]

I try and fly as many places as I can and still hold down a job.     There have been several places I have flown into where I had to leave the plane over night.  I have a cover for it which protects it pretty well.  I have noticed that the rudder gets tossed around in the wind sometimes.  I tried to tie off the pedals with no luck, so, I decided to make a little something that I can carry with me that locks the rudder so it will not hit side to side.  Here it is:
Dennis

[scubarider2]

I also installed a radiator system for cabin heat.  Here is the pic:
Dennis

[scubarider2]

Can some folks here tell me what you have done different for the seat cushions?  I am thinking of upgrading for "comfort".  Any recommendations?
Dennis

[Gary H]

I took mine down to the local auto upholster shop and had him double the foamin the seat . It made a BIG difference!

[alan]

I just ate more and padded my butt.  

Alan

[Dave Krall CFII SEL SES]

Can some folks here tell me what you have done different for the seat cushions?  I am thinking of upgrading for "comfort".  Any recommendations?
Dennis

On top of the standard covers, we added full custom cut, blue sheepskin covers from FAA approved, fire retardant sheep...

[stede52]

Where do you get fire-proof sheep, I gotta see one of those

Steve

[rmullins]

I have the standard cloth seats, and the padding was good for about 2 hours before I was hurting. I pulled to original foam out then took high density sleeping foam pad I got from WalMart and put two layers of that in the bottom. Then I took a bread knife and reduced the original pad to about half it's thickness and put that on top. Much better. I had no problems on my 12 hour flight out to Colorado. I need to figure out where I'm going to put my restroom though....

[scubarider2]

You guys are a hoot  :lol:
Fire-proof sheep
Eat enough to get a tush....Hey I am a skinny white guy...no butt  
I will start looking around here for someone to take a look at what they can do to add some memory foam in the seat.  
{yes, am loosing my memory as well}


Hey, I forgot I added some landing lights to the lead attachment for the landing gear.  Here is a pic from some time ago.

[fiferphil]

Hi Dennis

I noticed that you have what looks like a SIRS magnetic compass installed in your instrument panal. Is that working out well for you? I am looking for a whiskey compass that can be installed in a rag and tube aeroplane (Highlander) and can be be swung to be accurate with no more than +/- 2 degrees deviation throughout the compass  All the aerpolanes I've owned were of rag and tube construction ( A Pitts, 2 Cassutt Racers and a super Decathlon), and in all except for the Super D, it was virtually impossible to swing the compasses for accurate heading info. The Decathlon compass was mounted on the glare shield, on  top  of the instrument panal and had some kind of metal shield underneith the glare shield between the compass and the radio stack. Only in that aeroplane was I able to get reasonably accurate heading info. All of my birds were equipped with Airpath compasses.

From the descriptions that I see in Aircraft Spruce about SIRS compass I am leaning towards one of those for installation in the Highlander (probably a wind screen or glareshield mount to keep it as for from the airframe tubing and electro-magnetic disturbances as possible). Any insight that you (or others) can provide will be greatly appreciated.  

Thanks

Phil Gasbarro

[scubarider2]

That is one of the things that I changed in the panel.  Here is a recent pic that I shot.  This compass is within 2 degrees.
Dennis

[Roger]

Hi Phil and all:
Phil, I used a vertical card compass in my Highlander. When I initially set the panel with the compass up temporarly in place, the compass was off by some 30-40 degrees. I talked to a rather inventive friend of mine at our local EAA chapter, about this, and he reminded me of a story I'd read about years ago in a magizine about the problem on navel ships, that have a problem with magnitisim caused by the ship plowing through the ocean, and they install an electric generator whth a 'degauser". Don't ask me exactly how that works, but this friend of mine had made a simple one, and brought it down and degaused my Highlander. It had some kind of an DC converter and amplifier, and he plugged it into my wall socket and ran this probe over all the steel tubing in the front of the airplane, and bingo, all the magnatisim was gone in that part of the steel airframe. He said that the welding process is what causes the magnitisim in the first place. My compass is well within the +- 2 degrees deviation error.
Our guy Wes, here on the forum is an electric guru, and I'll bet he or Jak, can tell you about de-gausing. Not sure of that spelling, but you should be able to look it up on google.
Roger

[fiferphil]

Hi Roger and Dennis

That sounds very, very interesting. Having been a navigater on C130's for a number of years, I get pretty fussy when my compass dosn't put out correct information. And, I have a real good war story about one navigation problem that I experienced in the Pitts. (That experience gave me the heads up on this problem of excessive compass deviation  in the first place). I know one of our other members has stated this problem earlier, and maybe this could be a solution. Gotta have a good back up system when the sun's obscured by an overcast, (or night when you can't see Polaris) the section lines arn't running NS EW and the GPS/ EFIS screen goes blank.

Dennis, that installation on the glare shield worked well for the Super Decathlon, too. Is that  SIRS compass?

Thanks, both, for the good info.

Phil