A box of goodies arrived from Vans on Friday - it contained the com antenna for the GNS-430, the vertical speed indicator (VSI), the fittings to finish the last oil cooler hose and some hinge material for the plenum chamber under the cowling. I always feel like a kid at Christmas when I am unwrapping this stuff.

Yesterday I modified the hole in the panel for the VSI - I had to make the cutout at the lower left corner where the adjustment screw is.

Then I drilled the holes where the transponder and Com 1 antenna will go. Those two antenna are going one on each side of the bottom fuselage, aft of the main spar behind the footwells. That puts the two antenna a reasonable distance apart to avoid interference between them, and allows the coax connection to be accessed by removing the footwells.

This shot shows where the com antenna is aft of the left footwell. All you can really see is where the coax cable connects to the antenna, and the four nutplates where the screws that attach the antenna go. The roll trim servo can be seen inboard (above in this view) of the coax connector. The wires that go from left to right are temporarily hooked over the end of the trim servo to keep them out of the way while the holes were being drilled.

Here we see a view from the left side of the com antenna in the foreground, and way in the background, on the other side of the aircraft, you might be able to spy the transponder antenna sticking down (it is just a short rod sticking down, with a small knob on the end).

I had planned to run the coax cables to the antennae tonight, but my back is complaining from the abuse of being crouched inside the fuselage drilling big holes to route the coax through. So I'll take it easy tonight instead.