There isn't much I can share that looks different in photos, but I'm continuing to truck through the panel wiring. Even though I have most of the wiring sorted out now in terms of connections, the fiddly part is in figuring out the routing. I'm trying my best to keep it as organized as possible. I'm succeeding in some areas and failing miserably in others. Except for a couple of remaining connections to the fuse block on the right side, most of the wiring behind the panel is in place and solidly supported. The left side between the ACM and the PFD is incredibly tight, which makes clean routing next to impossible, but I think I've got it about as good as it can get given the space limitations.
The area forward of the subpanel is a different story. I still have a lot of work to do there. Part of the issue is a lesson learned from a year ago when I ran my wiring from the other areas of the plane. Based on what people had said, I made sure to make the wire harnesses just a little longer than necessary to account for service loops behind the panel. Knowing what I know now, I don't think I'd do that again. For one, with modern electrical designs, nearly everything in the panel is easily removed just by unhooking Dsub connectors. With a slider canopy where the back of the panel is only accessible after you've removed the glass screens, a few extra inches is all that's needed to unscrew them, then reach up and remove the connectors. With a tipup canopy, I don't even have to do that! All I have to do is open the tipup, and I have unrestricted access to everything. So I think this "service loops for everything" idea is kind of antiquated at this point, depending on the aircraft design. For me, the service loops are causing me nothing but grief. I don't have any room immediately behind the panel to coil up all of the extra wire from my harness runs to other parts of the plane. That means that I have to bundle up all of that extra wire in forward of the subpanel. It creates quite the mess! I'll be able to tidy it up once I sort through my engine systems wiring and all of wires that need to traverse this area to go to the aircraft ground, but in hindsight, I'd cut all of my harnesses shorter and just make them the right length to get to the panel. Service loops that have to be forward of the subpanel means that if I ever need to remove or change a wire, I have no choice but to crawl under the panel and cut a bunch of zip ties to find my wire in the sea of loops. It would be far easier not to have the loops to begin with and have no extra wire length in inaccessible areas. Oh well, lesson learned. There's no shortening things up at this stage, and it's fine. It's just an assault to my senses and an extra pound to the plane.
