Parachute Installation - Part 2
TLDR
- Installed Parachute Cable (not zip-tied yet)
Details
The parachute cable was fed through the entire center channel, with the red pull handle coming out of the instrument panel, and the rocket connector right below the rocket tube.
In order to feed the cable through, I removed the throttle quadrant back cover (the cover with 2 headset cable holes and USB plug). I thought I’d have to remove the rear seat, but it wasn’t necessary. I just lifted the rear seat slightly. Overall it wasn’t difficult to get the cable through the channel.
I spent a lot of time installing the pull handle onto the instrument panel, mainly because I was confused how to feed it through.
T-Handle
The instrument panel just have a small hole to feed the handle through, but the handle’s T shape prevents it from going through. It turns out there are two M4 allen screws on each end of the T-handle, and once I unscrewed them the T-handle slided right off. And I was able to put the entire handle assembly through the hole on the instrument panel.
Steel Plate
Another thing that required a bit of work: The handle is secured onto a steel plate. But the shape of the plate is different between the one attached on the handle and the one Sling requires. So I needed to swap out the steel plate for the Sling version. The plate is secured onto the panel through 2 rivnuts. Unsurprisingly, I stripped one of the rivnuts as I prepared the plate so I spent another 20 minutes to clean the mess up.
Locking Pin
After an hour of trial and error, I got the handle fully assembled onto the panel. I tried to put on the locking pin through the handle. To my surprise, the pin could not fully go through the Sling steel plate under the pull handle. There is a pre-drilled slot on the plate, but the slot was about 0.5mm too small.
So I took apart the whole assembly, drilled the hole slightly bigger, then put everything back together. The locking pin finally fit.
