Calibration on Avionics and Nose Wheel, and adding coolant

TLDR

• Conducted pitot static leak test
• Added coolant to the engine
• Calibrated nose wheel turning range

Details

Pitot Static Leak Test

I used a syringe to introduce negative pressure into the static line circuit, and positive pressure to the pitot line. This caused the G3X and G5 display an airspeed and altitude.

Then I waited a few minutes to confirm the numbers match between the two displays, and they did not drop.

The pitot/static system is tested to be free of leak.

Coolant

I used Prestone DexCool for my coolant.

I first bought the concentrated coolant and wanted to mix it myself. But I had a brain shortcircuit when mixing, and dumped distilled water into the concentrated jug. So I lost track of the mix ratio.

I had to go to AutoZone and get another jug of DexCool. The second time I just got the premixed version.

For the actual filling process, I first filled the expansion tank to the brim, then filled the overflow tank. In total I filled 2500 ml coolant.

Nose Wheel Calibration

Before closing up the panel on the center channel, I wanted to re-calibrate the nose wheel turning range. Due to the way the rudder pedals were installed, the left side movement range is smaller than the right side, so the nose wheel’s left swing angle is less than the right swing. This is by design, but I wanted to see if I can make the swing a little bigger.

The connection was pretty simple. The rudder pedals are connected to the nose wheel through two torque tubes. The tricky part was to loosen (and tighten) the jam-nuts on the torque tube. I spent mayhbe 1-2 hours just to get the jam-nuts to re-tighten under the instrument panel. It was not a fun process.