Accomplished a few things tonight. First I had my data plate engraved locally, and needed to install that. I primed the area first. I used simple pop rivets to hold the data plate in place. I’m using the standard EAA data plate. It is the smallest and most discrete of the ones I could find. Here you can see where I positioned it under the horizontal stab – which seems to be the favorite location of most builders.

I had never done an ELT test yet, so I wanted to make sure that was working. At the top of the hour I ran the self test and used a hand held radio to confirm transmission. It all checked out ok. There is one gripe – currently it is not receiving GPS data via RS-232. You have to connect a diode and a resister to the test lead on the ELT in order to check this functionality. A quick review of my wiring diagram made me realize where I think my boneheaded mistake is… I believe I tied the RS-232 in at the G5… or I may have not tied it in at all. I’ll need to open that bundle up to see exactly where I placed that lead. Either way, I’m quite sure I have an extra RS-232 output on the GDU… which would be the easiest place. Regardless, I do not need GPS connection via RS-232 to be in compliance within the USA at the current time. So this project was added to my “After flying” to do list!!!