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There are just a couple more details to address on the 1977 Cessna Cardinal that we're refurbishing for this year's sweepstakes, and this week we've knocked off two more important components.

Essential bus checked off
We've completed the paperwork on the essential bus, provided for us by DC Aerospace. A number of members wrote in requesting information on contacting a designated engineering representative in their area, and you can find that information here. A link to the PDF with a complete listing of current DERs on the FAA registry is located at the bottom of the page. You can see an example 8110-3 form on the FAA site as well.

We can't thank David Chadwick enough for his help with this portion of the project. We hope the winner doesn't need to use this feature (which gives the pilot the ability to power a select group of electrical components directly from the aircraft battery), but it's there to help you shed the load in an emergency.

Panel placards
While the Cardinal rests at Precision Avionics Specialist, undergoing final programming and updates on its avionics, we took the opportunity to create one final set of instrument panels to install in the airplane.

And we're really dressing these up. We've flown with temporary placarding to meet regulatory requirements (limitations and operating instructions spelled out by the manufacturer and supplemental type certificate holders) during the past couple of months while we made sure we had everything to our liking in the airplane. Now, with the wring-out complete, we can apply the final placarding to the airplane's new metal instrument panels from Jet Panels, which we've upgraded one last time so that they're as close to perfect as possible.

After the panels passed our fit test (doing a mock installation of the panels in the Cardinal to ensure a perfect fit), sweepstakes field project manager Dan Gryder, of the AvNet took them over to Tony Dias at Advanced Aircraft Refinishers for a glossy paint application to match the interior of the airplane. At this point, the pristine panel was ready for placarding.

To make the placard text on the panels look its best, we called upon our friends out in Wichita, Kansas—Air Capitol Dial. You may recall that they have produced the new electroluminescent subpanels for the Cardinal. These masters of detail work also agreed to help us dress up the instrument panel with professional silk-screening of all required placards directly onto the metal panel. The clear, distinct text will match perfectly, and, with a clear coat on top, last indefinitely.

We took the opportunity to visit the folks at Air Capitol Dial to see how the process works, and to lay out the placarding for the Cardinal panel on site. A few pictures posted with this story give you a glimpse into how it's done. Air Capitol Dial literally has a room of shelves full of templates for every instrument dial you can think of—thousands of them, I reckon. They do work for original equipment manufacturers such as Cessna, as well as aircraft modification and avionics shops and FBOs across the country.

Once the pilot- and co-pilot-side panels are complete, they'll go back in the airplane one last time, ready for the winner. Next week, we'll wrap up the 2007 sweepstakes online coverage with some final shots of the airplane, so stay tuned.

E-mail the author at julie.boatman@aopa.org.

Chadwick's depth of knowledge with both domestic and international certification extends from supplemental type certificate (STC) and 8110-3 work in the United States to import and export airworthiness certificates and EASA-approved STCs. DC Aerospace holds STCs for terrain awareness and warning systems (TAWS) on the Bombardier CL600, Gulfstream G-II, and Boeing 727. For our sweepstakes airplane, we tapped Chadwick's expertise for our essential bus approval. Contact the company at 478-953-1322 or visit the Web site.