RV-7A N967BT - Tom Lewis
 

I recently upgraded the panel on our 5 year old RV7a with 920 hours on it and wanted to share a picture of the "new" panel. I upgraded the GRT WS EFIS to the GRT HX EFIS and the UMA altimeter with a Winter Instruments altimeter.



The upgrade process went smoothly with the WS EFISs shipped off to GRT on the Monday after Thanksgiving and the upgraded HX units arriving a week later with the settings from my WS units installed. I did have to remove the modular panel and expand the cutout for the EFIS a half inch vertically. Here is a picture of the left side of the panel.



So our "old" RV has a updated panel that we are excited about and looking forward to many more years of flying around the country with this fine machine.

As I went to post this update, I realized that N967BT never had a virtual hangar post so decided to start one with this panel update and add a few more air to air pictures later.

air to air
 

This picture was taken while flying along the Oregon coast on one of our trips out west.



Another picture over Texas.

Very nice and great job on the panel...

My dream panel. Looks Great! I see you are from Granbury. We just bought Sam Butlers RV-7A and we would like to do the same type of upgrade someday!

Wow
 

Tom,
It looks fantastic - inside and out!! Congratulations on the upgrade! I'm sure you'll thoroughly enjoy it!

panel upgrade comments
 

Hope you are enjoying Sam's RV7a.

If the existing panel has room to extend the EFIS cutout a half inch vertically, then this type of upgrade from WS to HX is not difficult. My panel is an Affordable Panel modular panel so I could remove either the left side or the right side separately. So I removed each panel to cutout the EFIS cutout and move the nut plates. It also is an extended model meaning it is an inch taller so I had more room to work with. GRT loads your settings from the old WS EFIS to the new HX and all the wiring stays the same except for the GRT GPS which is now separate from the HX EFIS so a power, ground, and serial in must be added to support it. I enjoy working on panels so I was surprised when this project was done so quickly.

The picture on the EFIS is Paul Dye's demo flight into Bear Lake,CA to show off the new displays.

Tom
We love the new aircraft and Sam put our panel on a hinge so it comes down pretty easy. Hopefully it wont be too hard to cut!
Brett

Do you have a photo of your old panel that you upgraded from?

I like your new panel. Good job.

I am considering an upgrade myself, in my RV7. Interested in your reasons for the upgrade. I am trying to justify.

hello,

do you have pics of the avionic stack? I refit my RV7A panel and I would nice if you send some pics of the refit process. How do you print the labels for the switches? Thank you so much.
Johannes
N959JR

Upgrade
 

As our RV7a, N967BT, approaches 10 years old, we decided to take advantage of Stein's trade in of Garmin 530W for Avidyne 540. It is really a nice box, just take pictures of the 530W config pages and then update the 540 to match and everything works great. As upgrades go, this has got to be the easiest and quickest one yet!

Avidyne 540 as we start a lunch flyout to Lancaster


Panel with Avidyne 540 in radio stack


Avidyne 540 with data block extended from right on lunch flight.


So our RV7a now has 1502 hours on it with dual PMAGs and is running well. Panel has had a couple upgrades to it and is still the best for us.