Wiring

[bbryan]

What is it with all the white wiring on production aircraft. Is it out of compliance to use color coded wiring? Haven't started mine yet but wondering if it is OK to use several colors.

[Dorsal]

I think they just buy white wire in bulk, you can certainly use multiple colors (pre-wired harnesses from Dynon are necessarily multi colored). I also maintained a few color conventions for the rest of my wiring which I found useful. Do use quality aircraft grade wire and be sure to get the gages right.

[HighWing]

As I recall, the Teflon based Tefzel insulation originally only came in white. Other colors are available now but not in sufficient varieties to eliminate at least some labelling. The bulk buy idea was my reasoning as I needed to do a lot of labelling anyway.
Lowell

[jtpitkin06]

Here's my stash of mil spec aviation wiring in many colors other than white.

Manufacturers and avionics shops use label machines that imprint white wiring by schematic number every few inches. There just aren't that many wires on a home built to justify a wire printing machine so end labels and colors work just fine.

No regulation against colors on certified airplanes that I know of.

JP

[airlina]

Holy cow John, are you wiring up an Airbus in your shop!

[jtpitkin06]

Bought the stash off eBay. What you see is about half. Paid less than scrap value. Price with fixed shipping was only $70. The seller lost his shirt but was good natured about it. I had him ship it parcel post to keep his shipping low which ran almost all of the $70. I now supply the entire gen-av crowd of airport bums when they need wire. The full spools are 500 feet, each.

John