Beverage Holder
Now before you start to think I am getting a bit too carried away.....
I do quite a lot of cross country flying and on legs of several hours it is quite enjoyable to sit back, autopilot on and have a cup of tea, coffee or a cold drink. Then just as you get settled something happens and you have to put down the drink to attend to it. That's when you realize the Jabiru is a bit light on for places to support a spillable drink while you attend to the other tasks.
I knocked up a couple of epoxy holders from some scrap fibreglass. I found a plastic bottle to serve as the plug for the drink and then completed a rough prototype. I made a mockup of the door sill as a plug for the flanges.
The prototype worked well enough and I was on a deadline for another long trip so I decided to forego further development and just give it a quick clean up and paint. Since I needed a second I used the same plugs and just made the second the same.
The close fitting flanges fit over the door sill and are held in place by a single 4 mm machine bolt which screws into a threaded "Nut Sert" installed in the door. Nut Serts are similar to a blind rivet and installed in same way and have an internal thread. Great for installing a threaded nut into a surface where you can't get behind.
Pretty rough but cleaned up a bit and given a coat of the ubiquitous stone-fleck paint which covers a multitude of sins they have served well for a number of trips. The holders have been complemented by one of those thermos and cup kits bought specifically because the cups fit the holders perfectly.
