Panel Talk

[Rollie]

That is a nice, neat install. I kept trying to figure something like that but couldn't quite picture it and I really wanted to move on so I went with the simple stack.

[Bdflies]

Very nice Rollie! I probably don't have as many boxes as you do, but I did mount mine behind the panel. I welded up an aluminum frame, To mount the comm and Xponder. Pics attached.

Brooks, I have 7 switches mounted on the left wing root panel (think Citabria), just forward of the sight gauge. Below, is a picture. Not a really good pic, but a picture none the less. I like the 'rock-rack' switches and couldn't fit em all on the panel, to my liking. My solution was putting the less essential switches upstairs.

Bill

[Bcone1381]

Bill;

Where did you locate the master, avionics master, and light switches at?

[Rollie]

I went to Osh Kosh to put my hands on all the different options and narrowed it down to Garmin and Dynon. I actually liked the Dynon screen layout a little better. Then I went to some avionics shops who were there and went with the one who actually spent a little time talking with me. He was in favor of Garmin and had a few good points. One was that the Dynon, although priced a bit cheaper than the Garmin, would end up costing about the same once you are done buying all the peripheral stuff that is required but not included, the other was that everything in the G3X is made from the same parts as all their certified avionics where nothing about Dynon is certified. His opinion was that the Garmin stuff is built with higher quality parts. Maybe that was just his sales pitch, but he was willing to install either.

Before I went to Osh Kosh I made a couple paper templates of the panel so I could make sure everything would fit. That was helpful in deciding what would or would not fit.

In the Patrol I could get one 10 inch screen or two 7 inch screens. I would much prefer the bigger screens but there was no way I was going to have an IFR panel without a good backup. I could have gone with a 10" and a tiny backup instrument, but since things seem to fail at the least convenient time for me, I just didn't want to put myself in a position where I might be flying an approach down to minimums on just a crappy little display. I'm pretty sure two 10" screens would fit easily into the 4 place.

As you can see, the Patrol panel fills up quickly. Part of the beauty of the G3X is that you can control the remote mounted radios and transponder and autopilots through the touch screens. A tough part was figuring out where to mount all the remote avionics. The avionics shop suggested behind the panel, but I just couldn't come up with a good way to secure it all up there so I made a radio rack and mounted it to the floor, forward of the stick and the fuel selector. That gave me a good place to mount a cup holder and a map case. Don't know that I'll ever have a map in there but I'm sure it will come in handy for something.

You might notice that the shop didn't install enough circuit breakers, I'm not sure why that is but I added what I needed below the panel on either side.

[JimParker256]

Very cool. Glad to know it fits. I think I've said it before, but I was 99% sold on Dynon, but last year at OSH I spent a LOT of time playing with both Dynon HDX and G3X Touch displays at their booths, and found I liked (and could remember) the Garmin "logic" better. Now I'm leaning that way...

[Bdflies]

Jim, this is the 10" display. Like you, I was questioning the fit. I printed Garmin's full size template and taped it on the panel. It's about as close as it can be! But, the result is that it looks as if the panel was planned around the display. If it weren't for the internal intercomm, the remote comm and remote transponder, it wouldn't work. Because of those items, the panel is un-crowded, even with the G-5 backup and the autopilot panel. If you haven't figured it out, I'm a bit of a Garmin fan...

Bill

[JimParker256]

Bill, that looks great.

Is that the 7" or 10" display? I've been trying to figure out if the 10" would fit on the factory "QB" panel, and it seems pretty tight to me, but if that's the 10" on your panel, it looks like it fits pretty nicely!

[EricP]

Looks great!

[Bdflies]

My interpretation of a modern panel, for a sport plane. Admittedly, I'm a neophyte with the G3X, but I really like it!

Bill

[EricP]

We got the Commitlift USB ports and have put the hole(s) in the panel to mount it. We still have to wire it up but that was the progress for today!

[EricP]

To clarify my idea of fast: In about a 15-20 min. flight the iPad went from 43% charged to 47% charged with the cig lighter and in about the same amount of time on the Commitlift USB it went from 47% to 63% charged. As soon as the WX clears, again, I’ll verify those numbers but from what little i’ve seen I don’t think anybody would be disappointed in the performance. D.

As long as it keeps it charged while running that works good enough. That way if you start the flight with a decent charge and then lose electrical it will still have plenty of charge left on it.

[EricP]

We decided that one of the battery backup power packs could be used in the back seat since we won't use the back seat much anyway. I have an Antigravity Microstart for my car and it is very small but powerful. We will just keep it under the back seat for use in powering cell phones, tablets, etc, but it could also be used to jump off the Bearhawk if needed.

[Flygirl1]

To clarify my idea of fast: In about a 15-20 min. flight the iPad went from 43% charged to 47% charged with the cig lighter and in about the same amount of time on the Commitlift USB it went from 47% to 63% charged. As soon as the WX clears, again, I’ll verify those numbers but from what little i’ve seen I don’t think anybody would be disappointed in the performance. D.

[JimParker256]

I purchased two of the CommitLift.com USB outlets, one for the panel, and one for the back seat area. I'm thinking of using an iPad Mini (RAM tubing mount) as the "panel" for the person in the back. With the Stratus 2 (and its built-in AHRS), the screen could be split with EFIS display on one side, and map on the other. Having somewhere to plug in the USB cable for phone and iPad would be really nice.

However, having seen it now, I'm thinking I might be able to get my IA to sign off on installing one of them in my Citabria (CAR-4 type certificate does not require TSO'ed "anything"...). We'll see how he feels about it.

[EricP]

" I installed a dual panel mount USB I got from Commitlift.com. They are located in Sisters OR and take up just about as small an area on a panel as possible. The web site is very informative and worth a visit. Lots of informative info on USB's and how they work. Nothing wrong with a cig lighter, have one of those too"

I had the opportunity to use the Commitlift USB port yesterday and it works as advertised--a really fast charge. This is way better than the cig plugs. They appear to be more of a trickle type charge, where as this one is super fast. D.

I think this must go in the Bearhawk! Thanks for the info.