Sounds interesting, but I'm not quite able to picture it. I'll be curious to see what it looks like.
Ok Marten, it took a while, but I'm finally getting around to the av bay bits. Here is what I was trying (poorly) to describe!
I'm using an av bay from LOC that has the thick walled coupler that goes inside the normal coupler and forms a seat for the bulkheads. I got that all glued up and then drew a line around the middle so I could center it between the booster and payload tubes. I got the tubes aligned properly and taped everything together really tightly and drilled three holes, 120 degrees apart, centered on the joint between the tubes. The holes were reamed out with a dremel grinding stone that happened to be just the right diameter to match the carbon tube I wanted to use for the locating pins. I guess pictures would give you a better idea... I've already failed to describe it once!
Av bay with holes drilled
Av bay with booster and payload tubes showing relationship.
Pieces of carbon tube will be cut and glued into the three av bay holes. (I just stuck the whole thing in there for the pic.)
The carbon tubes will ensure that the booster and payload tubes are aligned properly every time. Once the carbon tubes are installed, they will be cut and sanded flush with the airframe tubes.
The three carbon tube-lined holes will serve as locating pins, switch holes and pressure ports. I made sure to align the holes to make sure they weren't in the wake of the radar receiver fairings up forward to minimize pressure variations that might mess with the altimeters.
I got some really nice pull-pin switches from Lab Rat that I'm going to use on this bird. I haven't decided whether to go with a pull pin for each altimeter or a single pin for both (I got both types from Chris). On the one hand, a single pin simplifies things a bit out at the pad, but I'm also thinking it would be good to hear each altimeter's arming beeps independently, just to be sure. What do you guys think? Any opinions either way?
As always, thanks for looking! I'm hoping to get the tubes cut and glued in this afternoon. Pics as progress warrants!
Mike