Sonex A (Legacy) Tail Tip Whelen Anti-collision Beacon and Tail Position Light (Uavionix ADS-B Out bolt-on ready) Hardware and Installation

[minde4000]

Hello fellow SONEX pilots! I am here to contribute to this fine community and share my custom hardware and my ways of realizing a tri gear conventional tail aircraft TAIL TIP Anti-collision beacon and Position light with pure intent for future Uavionix ADS-B OUT direct bolt-on ready setup.

I found myself flying more and more later into the evenings mostly to enjoy “golden hour” colored skies and I realized that my “cheapo” Whelen Microburst II wing strobe/pos/navi lights that were installed on 45 degree downward angled wingtips without releveling adapters and no other lights of any kind were just not enough for my own safety and safety and courtesy for others around me.

I embarked on 2.5 month journey (took 3 weeks just to learn FreeCAD software and then draw it all) to upgrade the entire aircraft (minus landing lights for now). Sanding off original paint and more importantly original primer from composite tail tip was a few day nightmare could not feel my hands even with orbital electric sander.

Please find my technical details below, the parts and hardware I used to make all of this happen.

Beacon RED flash (extremely bright) is highly reflective (as per few of the pictures) on white WINGS and WINDSHIELD.. but ya… safety first - I can live/fly with that.

3D printed material, type of epoxy and type of fiber cloth (ALL parts printed with 100% infill - this is important for rigidity!):

• Carbon Fiber (buddy printed those for me with some sort carbon fiber material for wingtip Orion 600 ONLY specific adapters) designed and drawn by Kevin H. - big thanks for sharing your files sir

• ASA for the Whelen Beacon and Tail position light mounting adapters proudly designed and drawn by myself

• Tail Position light adapter has 4.8mm holes to accept Ruthex or similar #6-32 Threaded Inserts (melt-in nuts) that I bought from amazon - work great

• Epoxied 3 layers of SATIN weave fiberglass cloth on each side (for flexibility while curving around tail tip edges so it can smoothly fold over the top to the other side without wrinkles) 4oz fiberglass cloth. 3” diameter round cloth patches were sandwiched between every layer up top of the beacon mount to reinforce it - to my personal opinion this reinforcement is very important and mandatory to help carry the torque that fast flying beacon creates on top surface of the adapter

• West System 105A Epoxy Resin with 206A Slow Hardener

Actual lights used for my airplane:

• WHELEN ORION 600 12V WINGTIP PTA - strobe/navi/pos red and green
• WHELEN 7108051 LED RED 14VDC - red Anti-collision beacon
• WHELEN VERTICAL MOUNT 14VDC POSITION LIGHT 7155412 - as a place holder for now with potential future Uavionix ADS-B Out tailBeaconX bolt-on upgrade - this Whelen position light has exact footprint and bolt pattern as required for Uavionix thingy

Type of wires and shielding:

• ALL wires are AWG 16 silver plated copper with teflon sleeve (raided local surplus store to find these awesome wires for a descent price)
• A bundle of 6 wires were routed from front to back - 2 for the beacon and 4 for the future potential Uavionix ADS-B out device - only 2 of them currently utilized by tail position light
• Wire bundle protecting sleeve - silicon coated fiberglass (standard thingy)
• Connectors - whatever works for your personal taste and standards. I heat shrunk mine after connecting to prevent disconnect
• PANEL-TO-TAILTIP WIRING WENT FROM “OMG THIS IS IMPOSSIBLE” TO WOW… THAT WAS MULTIPLE MAGNITUDES EASIER THAN I THOUGHT IT WOULD. UTILIZED PRE-FABRICATED PRE-EXISTING HOLES DOWN ON THE TURTLE DECK VERTICAL MEMEBERS - HAD TO SLIGHTLY UPSIZE THEM AND INSERT RUBBER GROMMETS

Posted are links to my Whelen Anti-collision beacon and Whelen Tail position light (Uavionix ADS-B Out direct bolt-on compatible) STL files of adapters. Please feel free to share my personal STL files as you see fit - I am here to help everyone in need of them for free.

Please allow a few days to edit and correct this post until it is complete, fill any omissions etc as I have never created a topic before.

Each picture is LABELED so please read.

Below are STL files:

SONEX Whelen Tail Position Light OR Uavionix ADS-B Out Adapter WITH CutOut.stl (582.1 KB)

SONEX Whelen Tail Position Light OR Uavionix ADS-B Out Adapter WITHOUT CutOut.stl (608.8 KB)

SONEX Whelen Tail Anti-collision Beacon Mounting Adapter.stl (906.3 KB)

[Bryan_Cotton]

Cool! Looking forward to pictures. That STL for the tail will be a great help to others.

[minde4000]

Additional pictures:

[minde4000]

Additional Pictures 2:

[Bryan_Cotton]

Looks great! We fly at night a bunch, especially in winter.

[raluttio]

What great timing. I just bought a tailbeaconx and was just going to work up an adapter to 3d print! Thanks for sharing.

[ddeford]

Wow, that looks great. Nice work! My 3D printer is literally printing the left side of a multi-part mold I designed to make a “forged” (misnomer) carbon fiber mount to level my Aveo wingtip lights.

Here’s what the right side mold blocks look like (about 20 total hours of printing) - core on the left, cavity on the right:

Basically, you stuff carbon fiber chopped tow in there with some resin and bolt the two halves together. Then separate them the next day and (fingers crossed) you have a nice part.

I printed these with PETG-CF (e.g. PETG with carbon fiber particles) and I highly recommend it. Most 3D printed filaments will shrink when they cool and can change the shape of the part. The carbon fiber particles don’t shrink, so your part tends to hold its shape better.

[minde4000]

Who is admin here and could someone ask him to PM me or just post here regarding STL file upload allowance?

Thanks,

Minde

[Bryan_Cotton]

@Badger830 runs the forum, but it’s just a part time job! I hope…

[Bryan_Cotton]

Also consider posting your files to thingiverse.com. That’s where Kevin H posted those Orion mounts - and then you can just post a link to it. Plus Sonex people who have not joined the forum may be able to find them.

[minde4000]

Thanks - will upload there and update my original post with links. Already have registered there however must wait 24 hours before any uploads are allowed.

Minde

[Badger830]

Hi Minde,

Excellent work on the fairings and great suggestion on allowing STL files to be uploaded and shared. I’ve changed the site settings which should allow you to upload them. Please let me know if you have any questions. Thanks!

[minde4000]

Badger830,

Thank you for reply and STL file upload allowance - very helpful. I have uploaded files already and made my hopefully the last edit of my original post. I will post files on Thingiverse by tomorrow as well. Also found out how to sequence pictures in post (hit ENTER after adding first picture and then drag the next one into new line - only then it will stay there).

Minde

[ddeford]

I think it’s probably a good idea to upload externally. I’m sure @Badger830 is paying the fee to host the website out of pocket and uploading a bunch of files will likely increase that cost. I typically use GitHub for my files - has good version tracking capabilities and it’s free.

I just asked badger yesterday to make a section to place these kinds of projects that can be reused by people. He suggested using the General > Community Resources section. I’ll start posting my stuff (links anyway) over there.

[Bryan_Cotton]

@ddeford

I’m sure @Badger830 is paying the fee to host the website out of pocket and uploading a bunch of files will likely increase that cost.

Which is a great reminder that he is accepting donations. I’m really glad to see a bunch of us with the “sponsor” tag on the forum.

[sonex1517]

Thanks for that nudge Bryan - I stepped up and donated.

[minde4000]

All 3 files have been posted on Thingiverse.com as well

[Bryan_Cotton]

Direct link to Minde’s designs:

https://www.thingiverse.com/minde4000/designs

[minde4000]

Thanks for posting the links Bryan.

I just finished adding additional comments and pictures on my thingiverse posts.

Minde