NetHeads, The discussion on instrument panels is rather timely to me, as I just designed a new one for my airplane. The main driver is the change from my now defunct Terra TRT-250 to a more reliable Becker (fine German stuff) ATC 4401-175, which conveniently fits into a standard 2.25" intrument hole. Nobody makes a half-width radio sized one except Terra, who was killed by competitor Trimble soon after they bought them. Anyway, now that I've flown for 320 hours and the dust has settled on what works and what doesn't, I decided I'd just throw another panel in there (if I can quit flying long enough). Another driver is the lack of room to do a neat wiring job. My panel is rolled under about 2.5" to provide stiffness and a sort of tray to run wires. 5-6" would be a lot nicer, giving me plenty of room to put terminal strips, switches, headphone jacks, power outlets, filters, timers, tie-downs, and that sort of thing.
So the next one is pretty much designed, and shown at http://home.hiwaay.net/~langford/krpanel_new.jpg . The "centerpiece" for this thing is the daylight viewable LS-800 tablet PC that I'll use to run Chartcase. You get a moving map GPS with your airplane superimposed on the most current sectional. I've sprung for the WX weather module too, so I'll have current Nexrad weather on that same image. That's a budget busting $50 a month, but as Brian Kraut pointed out, it pays for itself if the alternative is spending a couple of days in a hotel missing work. This screen is about 4x bigger than a Garmin 386 screen, and the hardware won't be obsolete in a year or two, since it's simply a tablet PC that can run anything (and do email when I'm on vacation). KRnetter John Buoyea is one of the developers of the product, which is how I found out about it. It's an enhanced version of the free online FlightPrep stuff that Dana (of metal darkside fame) was going on about a few weeks ago. It'll be awesome, but it won't all be installed until after the Gathering. I should be running it on a laptop before then though. And since I carry a laptop to gather EIS data on each flight anyway, I'll actually be saving weight with the LS800. I should mention that I really couldn't figure out which hand I fly with, since I really don't notice. But after thinking about it, I decided it's whichever one is handy. On takeoff I keep my hand on the throttle, so it must be the right one (I'm left handed), but I tune the radio and punch on the EIS with the other one, so apparently I just use whichever one is handy. That's one of the big benefits of having dual sticks...your right hand isn't tied up all the time in the only place it can be to fly the plane. Since it's Friday, I've got to tell you a quick story that just blows my mind. I'm into clouds (for the last year) so my wife bought a book on clouds for me. There's a chaper on thunderclouds (cumulonimbus) and how they work and why they do what they do. They recount the story of William Rankin, a guy who was forced to punch out over a raging thunderstorm. The guy wrote a book about the experience named "The Man who Rode the Thunder" (you can buy a used copy for $300, or pay $3 for an interlibrary loan like I have in the works). Here's a quick synopsis I found on the web: --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- EXTREME SPORT: PARACHUTING INTO A THUNDERSTORM U.S. Marine Corpse pilot William Rankin had the unfortunate experience of almost becoming a human hailstone when the engine in his fighter jet, a supersonic F8U, failed at 47,000 in the upper levels of a severe thunderstorm over Norfolk, Virginia, in 1959. He bailed out and free fell 37,000 feet through the storm cloud before his parachute engaged. But instead of floating gently to earth, he was caught in the violent updrafts of the storm and actually rose as much as 6,000 feet. For 45 minutes he was lifted and dropped through the thunderstorm's cloud. I was blown up and down as much as 6,000 feet at a time. It went on for a long time, like being on a very fast elevater, with strong blasts of compressed air hitting you. Once when a violent blast of air sent me careering up into the chute and I could feel the cold, wet nylon collapsing about me, I was sure the chute would never blossom again. But, by some miracle, I fell back and the chute did recover it's billow. The wind had savage allies. The first clap of thunder came as a deafening explosion that literally shook my teeth. I didnt hear the thunder, I actually felt it-an almost unbearable physical experience. If it had not been for my closely fitted helmut, the explosions my have shattered my eardrums. I saw lightning all around me in every shape imaginable. When very close, it appeard mainy as a huge, bluish sheet several feet thick, sometimes sticking close to me in pairs, like the blades of a scissors, and I had the distinct feeling that I was being sliced in two. It was raining so torrentially that I thought I would drown in midair. Several times I had held my breath, fearing that otherwise I might inhale quarts of water. How silly, I thought, They're going to find you hanging from some tree, in your parachute harness, your lungs filled with water, wondering how you drowned. In Fact, Rankin did eventually land in a tree, unharmed if a bit shaken. He managed to walk away and was picked up in Rich Sqaure, North Carolina, 65 miles southwest of, and more than nine miles below, where he first bailed out. -------------------------------------- Mark Langford, Harvest, AL see homebuilt airplane at http://www.N56ML.com email to N56ML "at" hiwaay.net
