Ugly Duckling Stripped Down

I'm often asked "what needs to be removed to achieve significant weight reduction?" The easy answer is most everything. Almost as easy is to simply say that gear, flaps, trim, brakes and the ACM (AC) / pressurization remain.

The following are some pictures after 100 hours of time spent by a friend out at the airport tearing duckling down. I used portions of the original L-39 cockpit harnesses on the first GXT. UDuck will have a completely new cockpit harness consisting of two elements. There will be an avionics and an airframe harness. Both front and rear bulkhead connectors will be changed out to mil spec sealed through bulkhead pin insertion type connectors commonly found on type certified airframes in the US. The only original L-39 wiring that will remain will be that in the nose box and within the wing that support gear, flaps, brakes and trim. These conductors will be re-terminated to use the mil spec through bulkhead connectors. To control both weight and cost, custom GCU, gear and flap control boards will be generated so that the original L-39 chassis relay and diode boxes can be removed. These pictures were taken just after removing all the components. Many hours have been spent since removing all the unused brackets, lines, connectors and the like.