I’d been looking forward to this stage … finally fitting the wing tips!

All the previous work many months ago paid dividends as the AeroLED VX’s and Nav/Strobes fitted neatly.

The VX wiring needed extending in order to reach the wing sockets, so I decided to use screened cable.

Since the light wiring is screened all the way out to the wings tips it seemed silly not to continue for the last few inches.

I did the same for the AeroLED Pulsar Nav/Strobes.

Rather than use another connector, I elected to solder the wire extensions, protecting and securing with adhesive lined heat shrink.

Left wing tip completed.

The right wing tip needed more work since it houses the Archer Nav antenna.

Having gone to the effort of threading the RG400 Coaxial Cable all the way from the GTN650 with no connector at the wing root, I was very careful to cut the cable length correctly!

I was sure to follow the Antenna installation instructions exactly, since it will only provide a strong enough signal if well grounded and the lighting cables are routed as advised.

The light cables are grouped and routed along the antenna’s leading edge.

The RG400 screen is combed out, before …

… twisting and attaching a ring connector.

A ring connector is also crimped onto the coaxial center conductor.

The RG400 then routes forward before looping back alongside the light wiring.

As per the Archer instructions I made sure the cables ran as flat as possible along the end rib face.

It is critical to ground the antenna to the airframe. I had sandwiched the edge between nutplates, but of course it will only ground correctly if the wingtip attachment screws are grounded to the wing.

So I removed paint from inside three of the wing dimples … having nipped up the screws a continuity check with the multimeter showed a good ground.

Hopefully this will all work and we’ll be able to receive an ILS signal … time will tell.

Here’s the right tip installed. In order to protect the paintwork, we are using Tinnerman washers on all screw heads which may need removing in the future.