Hartstoc
Well Known Member
Two years ago I decided to drop everything, build myself a new hangar at KSTS, and finish the plethora of complicated modifications that took my RV-7A out of service for 32 months. This has also taken me away from VAF for quite some time, but now I’ve got a LOT that I’m looking forward to sharing here. I decided to wait until I had significant flight experience with all of the changes, so now I can boast of 150 squawk-free flight hours over a one year period. This flying has been more or less equally divided between aerobatics, cross-country, instrument, and local pleasure flying. It is remarkable that any one airplane can do all of these things so very well.
I thought I’d begin with some discussion of the instrument panel pictured above, which has some features that I think anyone in the process of creating a fully-coupled IFR panel might find interesting. It is shown here during a solo cross country VFR flight. I recently completed my IFR recurrency working with my good friend Art Hayssen, a local CFII (more than 11,000 hours flight instruction). Art was pretty blown away by its IFR performance and is even thinking about replicating my panel to the greatest possible extent in his Piper Aztec!
For starters, I cannot say enough about the advantages of going All-Garmin if that is possible for your build, especially with the autopilot elements. The magic of can-bus communication greatly simplifies installation and results in a reliable, user-friendly panel that takes full advantage of the phenomenal capabilities embedded in the G3X system. All components “talk nicely” with one another, and this really pays off during fully-coupled IFR procedures.
Essential components of my panel include(and I’m starting with the iPad on purpose): an 11” iPad Pro prominently swivel-mounted at eye level in portrait mode, a GTN750xi, the 10”G3XTouch, one G-5, the GTX345 transponder(without gps as it gets that from the GTN), the GMA245 audio panel, the GMC507 flight director, GSA28 servos for pitch and roll, and the GTR20 remote (com2) for the G3X. Of course there are numerous additional remote items required to integrate all of this with the aircraft.
So what choices make THIS all-Garmin panel different and special?
1- Note the location of the canopy-jettison pull. Considerable effort was required to move the entire radio stack 5” to the left of where is is normally installed in RV’s having the jettison feature. This required designing some new linkage to allow the jettison pull to move about 4” to the right. As a result, the GTN750/G3X/G5 cluster is tightly packed and very pilot-centric. The less you have to move your eyes around to scan during busy IFR work, the better. But there is another reason-
2- My favorite feature of the GTN750 is its traffic depiction, and that is the reason I encourage biting the bullet and going with the 750 over smaller screens. Even during Practice IFR flights in VFR conditions I always keep that big “radar screen” up(see photo)and conflicting traffic gets your attention even in peripheral vision. It has alerted me to at least a half dozen close encounters that I would never even had noticed without it. Even when the GTN is in other display modes, it hits you with a prominent alert of nearby conflicting traffic.
3- Could one G3X actually be BETTER than two? I think so, and for several reasons. There is no way for a second MFD to be “pilot centric” located way over there on the right side pointing toward the (often empty) passenger seat. You can save 5-7# installed weight and thousands of dollars by omitting it. Not having two allows you to reserve the entire right side for a nice, big 11” iPad. A super sturdy Ram mount allows you to point the iPad directly at your face so, voila!, it also becomes pretty darn pilot-centric. It is a joy to do all of your flight planning using ForeFlight at home or in the hotel on the iPad, click it into the ram mount, and bluetooth-crossfill to the G3X, which then auto-crossfills to the GTN. If you make a course change or add a procedure on the GTN, that crossfills back to the G3X and, in turn, becomes available to the iPad. I regard the iPad as being nearly as essential as either of those other two instruments, and having it mounted at eye level where you can use one hand to pull up plates, zoom and shrink, etc., etc. Is just WAY better than having it knocking around the cabin, and it could save your bacon during a widespread electrical failure. Always avoid looking down too much!
(Edit: I know many pilots love their PFD+MFD setups, and I’m not looking to offend anyone. I guess another way to put this is that, for me, having a well-mounted, easily accessed iPad outweighs any possible benefit of a second panel mounted screen in today's world.)
4- The audio panel, transponder, and flight director COULD all be remote devices accessed through the G3X and GTN touchscreens, saving money, panel space, and even a few ounces. Why didn’t I do that? Well, take a close look at the photo. I generally keep my right hand on or near the throttle. Note the close proximity of all of the hard buttons on those three units(and all other switches on the panel) to that location. I’ve developed pretty good muscle-memory for them, and I really like having them at the ready full-time. By contrast, if they are remoted, you have to interrupt whatever screen configuration you have running on the G3X or GTN, and then reverse that after making the change. That is fine during leisurely VFR flights, but such distractions are the last thing you need flying IFR. To be honest, I could live with a remote transponder, but personally would never consider remoting the flight director or the audio panel.
5- It is a personal preference of mine to have minimal switches on the control stick(I don’t like flexing wires or straining connections) so the PTT and CWS(autopilot control wheel steering) buttons are the only ones there. Everything else is hard mounted in easy reach of the right hand. I even re-purposed the old Ray Allen trim servo rocker switches as you can see. I also favor mil-spec switches for their durability and reliability. Note the autopilot master that kills the flight director and both servos if I ever want to get rid of it fast, and the Avionics master, which is a 2PST with the feed parallel wired through both poles for a degree of redundancy.
6- Finally, DO go with the GMC507 flight director, as it allows you to take full advantage of all features of the G500 autopilot system that is embedded in G3X architecture.
Ultimately, after a year of pretty intense flying, I feel like I got lucky with my design choices, and there really is not a single thing I would change.
As a teaser for future posts, note that the photos contains a center console, an unusual master switch, and a few other oddities I did not mention. I’m proud of this panel for being a good execution, but admit that Garmin deserves all of the credit for making it a a true wonder.
The other stuff, though, I think is pretty revolutionary, and I will be posting about it before too long. This will include systems optimizing the advantages of high power-density lithium batteries for aircraft, a fuel delivery system that is many times more reliable than those found on most aircraft, and together these provide electron-dependent birds like mine at least twice the intrinsic reliability and redundancy of any magneto/mechanical fuel pump equipped aircraft.- Otis Holt
This photo hand flying an IFR approach during recurrency training:
I thought I’d begin with some discussion of the instrument panel pictured above, which has some features that I think anyone in the process of creating a fully-coupled IFR panel might find interesting. It is shown here during a solo cross country VFR flight. I recently completed my IFR recurrency working with my good friend Art Hayssen, a local CFII (more than 11,000 hours flight instruction). Art was pretty blown away by its IFR performance and is even thinking about replicating my panel to the greatest possible extent in his Piper Aztec!
For starters, I cannot say enough about the advantages of going All-Garmin if that is possible for your build, especially with the autopilot elements. The magic of can-bus communication greatly simplifies installation and results in a reliable, user-friendly panel that takes full advantage of the phenomenal capabilities embedded in the G3X system. All components “talk nicely” with one another, and this really pays off during fully-coupled IFR procedures.
Essential components of my panel include(and I’m starting with the iPad on purpose): an 11” iPad Pro prominently swivel-mounted at eye level in portrait mode, a GTN750xi, the 10”G3XTouch, one G-5, the GTX345 transponder(without gps as it gets that from the GTN), the GMA245 audio panel, the GMC507 flight director, GSA28 servos for pitch and roll, and the GTR20 remote (com2) for the G3X. Of course there are numerous additional remote items required to integrate all of this with the aircraft.
So what choices make THIS all-Garmin panel different and special?
1- Note the location of the canopy-jettison pull. Considerable effort was required to move the entire radio stack 5” to the left of where is is normally installed in RV’s having the jettison feature. This required designing some new linkage to allow the jettison pull to move about 4” to the right. As a result, the GTN750/G3X/G5 cluster is tightly packed and very pilot-centric. The less you have to move your eyes around to scan during busy IFR work, the better. But there is another reason-
2- My favorite feature of the GTN750 is its traffic depiction, and that is the reason I encourage biting the bullet and going with the 750 over smaller screens. Even during Practice IFR flights in VFR conditions I always keep that big “radar screen” up(see photo)and conflicting traffic gets your attention even in peripheral vision. It has alerted me to at least a half dozen close encounters that I would never even had noticed without it. Even when the GTN is in other display modes, it hits you with a prominent alert of nearby conflicting traffic.
3- Could one G3X actually be BETTER than two? I think so, and for several reasons. There is no way for a second MFD to be “pilot centric” located way over there on the right side pointing toward the (often empty) passenger seat. You can save 5-7# installed weight and thousands of dollars by omitting it. Not having two allows you to reserve the entire right side for a nice, big 11” iPad. A super sturdy Ram mount allows you to point the iPad directly at your face so, voila!, it also becomes pretty darn pilot-centric. It is a joy to do all of your flight planning using ForeFlight at home or in the hotel on the iPad, click it into the ram mount, and bluetooth-crossfill to the G3X, which then auto-crossfills to the GTN. If you make a course change or add a procedure on the GTN, that crossfills back to the G3X and, in turn, becomes available to the iPad. I regard the iPad as being nearly as essential as either of those other two instruments, and having it mounted at eye level where you can use one hand to pull up plates, zoom and shrink, etc., etc. Is just WAY better than having it knocking around the cabin, and it could save your bacon during a widespread electrical failure. Always avoid looking down too much!
(Edit: I know many pilots love their PFD+MFD setups, and I’m not looking to offend anyone. I guess another way to put this is that, for me, having a well-mounted, easily accessed iPad outweighs any possible benefit of a second panel mounted screen in today's world.)
4- The audio panel, transponder, and flight director COULD all be remote devices accessed through the G3X and GTN touchscreens, saving money, panel space, and even a few ounces. Why didn’t I do that? Well, take a close look at the photo. I generally keep my right hand on or near the throttle. Note the close proximity of all of the hard buttons on those three units(and all other switches on the panel) to that location. I’ve developed pretty good muscle-memory for them, and I really like having them at the ready full-time. By contrast, if they are remoted, you have to interrupt whatever screen configuration you have running on the G3X or GTN, and then reverse that after making the change. That is fine during leisurely VFR flights, but such distractions are the last thing you need flying IFR. To be honest, I could live with a remote transponder, but personally would never consider remoting the flight director or the audio panel.
5- It is a personal preference of mine to have minimal switches on the control stick(I don’t like flexing wires or straining connections) so the PTT and CWS(autopilot control wheel steering) buttons are the only ones there. Everything else is hard mounted in easy reach of the right hand. I even re-purposed the old Ray Allen trim servo rocker switches as you can see. I also favor mil-spec switches for their durability and reliability. Note the autopilot master that kills the flight director and both servos if I ever want to get rid of it fast, and the Avionics master, which is a 2PST with the feed parallel wired through both poles for a degree of redundancy.
6- Finally, DO go with the GMC507 flight director, as it allows you to take full advantage of all features of the G500 autopilot system that is embedded in G3X architecture.
Ultimately, after a year of pretty intense flying, I feel like I got lucky with my design choices, and there really is not a single thing I would change.
As a teaser for future posts, note that the photos contains a center console, an unusual master switch, and a few other oddities I did not mention. I’m proud of this panel for being a good execution, but admit that Garmin deserves all of the credit for making it a a true wonder.
The other stuff, though, I think is pretty revolutionary, and I will be posting about it before too long. This will include systems optimizing the advantages of high power-density lithium batteries for aircraft, a fuel delivery system that is many times more reliable than those found on most aircraft, and together these provide electron-dependent birds like mine at least twice the intrinsic reliability and redundancy of any magneto/mechanical fuel pump equipped aircraft.- Otis Holt
This photo hand flying an IFR approach during recurrency training:
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