12 Volt External Power Socket
I actually added this right at the end of the build but it was an add on just prior to first flight.
My mate with a Jabiru had the difficult experience of having his battery run flat during attempts at starting the engine on a very cold morning. He then needed to take the cowl off, jump start the engine from another battery and then leave it running for a half hour to charge up, prior to shutting down and reinstalling cowls. Then he had the worrying time of starting again, and would the battery have been charged?
I had similar experiences of flat batteries on cold starts with my R 22 helicopter so was very keen to avoid the problem.
The answer was to install the external power socket. I looked at home made plugs and caravan and automotive plugs but decided on getting a proper aviation one from Aircraft Spruce. Although it was not cheap it came with a set of jumper leads with the corresponding plug. It has a third pin for polarity checking circuits that can be made but I have elected only to use the two main pins.
Installing was just a matter of cutting a hole in the cowl, saving the cut out for the cover. I then fabricated a bracket out of fibreglass scrap and epoxied it in place. The cover is held in place with Nut Serts and screws.
