Pitch servo mounting looking fwd
AUTO PILOT
Stec 30
The original concept for building the RV8 was to make it simple and have a ball boring holes in the sky. After careful consideration of the great cruise speed of this aircraft it was determined that it would also make a great cross country ship. The Stec series of autopilots do not require any extra panel space, because the autopilot is incorporated into the turn coordinator. The installation kit from Stec includes all the necessary hardware and servo mounting brackets to install the autopilot in an RV8. Once the autopilot is installed, you will provide Stec with the wire lengths needed to connect the servos and computers together. Stec will then make a wiring harness that will be custom for your aircraft. This harness is included in the installation kit cost.
The Stec 30 autopilot will be able to hold a heading from the Directional Gyro, fly a course from the GARMIN 430 GPS\NAV\LOC and also be able to hold a selected altitude.
Pitch Servo:
Consideration was made into the best location for the
roll and pitch servo. The pitch servo was placed in the aft fuselage
behind the aft baggage compartment. A tray was made to hold the pitch
servo directly under the F-841 rod assembly that connects the sticks
with the elevator. This tray was installed between the F-808 &
F-809 bulkheads. The tray sits on the F-887-R & F-887-L lower aft
longerons. Stec's installation kit includes the control cables and
cable standoffs for the pitch tube.
Pitch servo mounting looking fwd
Pitch servo mounting looking from top
Roll Servo:
The roll servo took some extra thought. Some RV6
owners have installed the roll servo in the wing by the aileron
bellcrank. We felt that this area had limited space and access to the
servo for servicing would be difficult.
The location we came up with was below the floorboards in the fuselage behind the right footwell for the backseat passenger. The left side could also be used, but because of items we had routed thru the left side, the right side seemed best.
The servo is mounted to two triangular mounts. The left mount for the roll servo was riveted to the F-814A-R seat rib. The right mount was mounted to the bottom skin of the aircraft with two AN525-832R10 screws and nuts. The servo was rotated and repositioned on the triangular mounts to clear floorboard.
An opening was made in the F-814A-R seat rib to allow for the control cable to be routed thru. A corresponding hole was made in the F-814A-L also. Stec provides an attachment saddle for the cables to connect to. This saddle can be welded or riveted to bottom aft of the mixer control tube.
Roll servo mounting looking from left side
Roll servo mounting looking from top
You may note that the aft cabin vent outlet is missing from the seat belt attachment. A cover has been made to close off the hole where the stick comes out and the outlet has been mounted to this cover.
