"RST Engineering" wrote in message
m...

This appears to be from an older military aircraft, but there are lists
available. Two pretty good places to start are ATA Spec 2200 (which
includes ATA Spec 100) and AC 43.13 1B.

Except for the fact that neither 43.13.1B NOR 65-15 (the Airframe Handbook
from the trilogy General, Engine, and Airframe handbooks, each of them
about 600 pages long) cover the SYSTEM to be used for marking.

I quote from page 385 of the Airframe handbook, "There is no standard
procedure for marking and identifying wiring; each manufacturer normally
develops his (sic) own identification code."

Seems to me that the homebuilt market can come up with a standard and a
method that we can all agree on, I'll publish it in Kitplanes, and then we
can simply refer the feller that asks the question a year from now to my
website, where that article will reside.

What's the big deal?

Jim

Really, Jim, I agree with you on all of this. I was simply pointing out the
few places I happened to know of to look for a little imformation to start
off. Certainly, anyone who especially wants to do so could try to get a
copy of the Piper, Cessna, or Beach numbering system from their chapter
technical advisor; but all are also free to develope and adopt their own
system.

Personally, I think that your earlier suggestion regarding the use of
resistor color codes is a good one. I also felt compelled to point out the
sources of additional information that I could recall--in case anyone really
wanted to research how the big boys wire aircraft with a lot of wires and a
lot of systems. Admittedly, a lot of that has to do with making those
assets as repairable as possible under some "interesting" conditions--and
are not very important for simple aircraft at the entry level of general
aviation.

There are few enough wires, and especially few enough bulkhead connections,
in homebuilt aircraft that we really do not need to adopt the sorts of
alphanumeric codes that quickly identify the applicable systems and harness
segments on modern transport and combat aircraft. Therefore, I am inclined
to adopt your numeric color coding idea--with the following possible
addition.

My only real modification to your original idea, if using a code to identify
wires by the systems that they serve, might be to eliminate the double wide
first digit and replace it with the system identifier followed by a single
width of clear heat shrink tubing and then the three or four digit code.

Any possible standardization of the coding would probably be usefull,
especially as homebuilt aircraft are occasionally resold. will look
forward to your article and send along any suggestions that might occur to
me.

All the best.

Peter