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Overhauling Mikey?s Panel

We will all be waiting for word of recovery!

Just got my D-10A running, and all is well.

cheers
 
I'm feeling better!

Thanks for the kind thoughts during my recent setback. The procedure went well today. Lifeflight brought my replacement organ in about 10:30 am and Dr. Hose rushed it to my bedside where she was joined by Doc Dye in the implant procedure. The operation lasted about 30 minutes and I immediately felt great. We were in the air and off to Brenham by 12:15. If was so great to be out on a cross-country again!

After leaving Brenham, Louise and Paul were going to show me our future homesite at Kestrel Airpark but I developed a little indigestion, possibly a result of post-operation stress. We headed back to Paul's airport. On the ground there, they ran me up and leaned me out, and my indigestion cleared. They called it a "fouled plug". I guess this new instrumentation helped them figure out the problem and how to deal with it. I've had it happen on the ground before, but never had it develop in the air.

Paul was ready to put me away when Louise suggested that he might want to try some ILS approaches in me. That sure made me feel better to know I'm fit enough for three flights in one day! It was fun to have Paul fly me with his more aggressive style. But, he kept muttering something about how I wasn't very integrated. He said it like its a bad thing.:confused:

But, I just heard him say something about taking me to Stephensville tomorrow. So, he must like me despite my perceived lack of integration.
 
Keep on Hangin Mikey

Hang in there Mikey. I think Paul is going to wring you out like he does Val tomorrow and then you will feel much better!:D
 
Cholic??

It's gonna be just fine, Mikey, after you get on your back and "burped"....it'll be much, much better. He may just hang you by your feet, nose down and that "rushed" feeling will make you ask for more...:D

Happy New Year to the three of you!
 
I have been checking this forum off and on for a few days, but today i skipped to the last page and noticed, "we will all be waiting for word of recovery" i was totally floored, i thought one of these rv guys is going through major surgery he probably will never pass his medical maybe wont survive the operation what a blow to the rv community. i quickly backed up a few pages to see if there were any details on his illness and ...... Well now i just want to cry. you guys are nuts, i cant wait to join ya'll, i just got my preview plans, if you are nuts you are havin more fun than the sain folk so i'm with ya. Happy new year P.S. purtty panel wish i had one....
 
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I'm a taildragger....and proud of it!

It's gonna be just fine, Mikey, after you get on your back and "burped"....it'll be much, much better.

Happy New Year to the three of you!

Yikes! I'm not a -6A:eek:...and my younger cousins with those nosewheels tell me that lying on ones back is no fun!!!:rolleyes::p (Okay, guys, just kidding!)

Best wishes to you and your -6A!

BTW, the trip to Stephensville to visit with all those other RVs and then to my future home at Kestrel Airpark was really great! I think I'm going to like living down here next year!
 
One more little setback....resolved

Well, I took that trip up to Stephensville on Sunday with Louise to meet up with a bunch of Texas RVs. It was a great flight up. Paul decided to fly the Valkyrie, so I practiced some formation flying and everything was smooth and perfect. On the ramp, I saw lots of other RVs and their owners. Some were pretty famous, like Flash and Beautiful Doll. It was interesting to see the reaction of all the folks as they came over to check me out and tell me how handsome I now look. In fact, the group shunned all the other famous planes (Doug said there were too many photos of the Doll) and took their group photo in front of me!

However, when we first departed Stephensville, my elevator trim wasn't functioning. This caused Louise to grumble and she made me hold back at 16 inches for the entire flight back 'cause she said the stick was too hard to hold forward at higher speeds. Fortunately, my new autopilot helped her out, but it wasn't strong enough to hold altitude by itself even at 16 inches. Paul called it travelling at Skyhawk speed. The Val had to fly off my wing on the way back, but she kept showing off....passing under and back. Boy, she can be annoying! They tell me that she will soon be my new step-sister and I understand that little sisters usually are annoying. So, I'll have to get used to it.

Back at Paul's hanger today, he and Dr. Hose took my floor panel out and discovered that pulling the connector off and re-seating it put my trim back in action. Paul then tie-wrapped the connector (or is that disconnector?) together and they buttoned me up. I guess there are always little, unintended issues caused by any significant procedure. Not too bad in the scheme of things.
 
Wayward connector pins.

Back at Paul's hanger today, he and Dr. Hose took my floor panel out and discovered that pulling the connector off and re-seating it put my trim back in action. Paul then tie-wrapped the connector (or is that disconnector?) together and they buttoned me up. I guess there are always little, unintended issues caused by any significant procedure. Not too bad in the scheme of things.

Mikey, on the off chance that your servants didn't check this, tell them to look for a pin backing out of the "disconnector". The pins are often held in with a little spring tang at it's base. If it is not popped into place correctly, the pin can back right out of the connector body. I like to examine connectors I assemble with a magnifying glass to confirm proper seating of all the pins.

Best Luck.
 
The annuciator lights show up fine

Regarding legend lights, if that is what was pictured in the previous post. I find that they will get my attention just fine in darker conditions, but in direct sunlight no way.......

Randy C
RV7A Sube STI

The cheap little LED lamps that Paul put into the annuciator panel show up fine in bright sunlight, albeit I haven't had it at 10,000' over the Colorado Rockies on a clear day. But, they showed up fine on the test flights on clear Texas days and I really like having them.
IMG_2068.jpg
 
ADI Pilot II

Hi Louise,
I just noticed in your last pic, that the ADI PII is not showing track. Make sure that you get the RS 232 out put from your GPS to the ADI. If you need to set up the port on your hand held GPS let me know.

Nice panel work
Alex De Dominicis
 
You're right Alex - it wasn't set up that day - took a few flights before we had all the interfaces talking. I set up the 396/ADI after that flight (after Louise had to head home), and have tested it - works great!

Paul
 
I happened across this thread while reading a post talking about the throttle and mixture mounted on the Z-panel below Mikey's panel.

Having just bought an RV-6 tip-up this year, i'm wondering about future panel upgrades and have to admit that this one looks pretty close to what I was thinking.

A question for Paul and Louise... How much of this could be done without taking the airplane out of service? I'd like to make a new panel blank, lay out the entire panel, and even get everything wired and tested, before taking Tweety off-line. I'm thinking maybe this winter or next winter for the upgrade, but i'd like to minimize the downtime.

I guess what I need to know is, about how long did it take to remove Mikey's old panel, clean up the underlying structure, and install and do the final hookup of the new panel?
 
Let's see....

Pulling the old panel took only a couple of days - we did it over the Thanksgiving weekend that year. I spent a couple of weeks building and wiring the new panel, and then together we spent about a week doing cleanup and the new install. If you were going to use all new stuff int eh new panel, it would be easy to build it all on the bench and then do a one week transplant - as long as you avoided "mission creep", like repainting the entire interior, deciding to rewire the entire FWF, etc. But that mission creep gets just about everyone - depends on how disciplined you are - and how disciplined you need to be. Taking an extra week to make everything "like new" was worth it for us in the long run, since this was an almost twenty year old airplane - lots of stuff was getting pretty old and would need replacing soon anyway.

If you are going to re-use stuff from your old panel, you are going to have to pull the airplane out of service eventually to fit and transfer the stuff across. How fast this goes depends on your experience and how complete of a shop you have - both from the tool and supply perspective. It is a pain to have to stop and wait for an ACS order because you're missing one plumbing connector, or you ran out of 22 gauge wire and have to wait on the UPS box from Stein....

We didn't lose a lot of time, and it took us about 5 - 6 weeks from start to finish with almost everything on hand. "Mikey" was stripped down to a bare cockpit with only a few wires in the process, which was not the original intent, but it was necessary.

Your mileage will vary depending on what you change, and your experience, of course.

Paul
 
That's good info Paul, thanks for the summary. I totally agree that "mission creep" is likely here, as Tweety is also getting older, even if only 14 years at this point. I expect I would re-use the Radio and Transponder from my existing panel, but that's about it. If i put backup steam gauges in I would be inclined to use the 2-1/4" gauges in a row up the middle, right where Mikey's ADI and VSI are... I don't have the canopy release so I have a little more vertical space there. This is the current layout.

Things like the switches *could* be re-used, but i'd like to get rid of the keyswitch for the mags, maybe change the toggles to rockers, and replace the flush CB's with pullable CB's. So really most everything but the avionics will get changed out. For the cost of spare chassis' for the transponder and iCOM, I could even leave them in the airplane right to the last minute.

But I shouldn't be thinking about this in too much detail yet... Or i'll end up buying new parts before summer gets here. :)
 
But I shouldn't be thinking about this in too much detail yet... Or i'll end up buying new parts before summer gets here. :)

Duh...that's the whole point!!! :)

Do you need a little "help" thinkin about it...you know me, always here to help!

Cheers,
Stein
 

I know this is an old thread, but I've been browsing through several looking at panel layouts, etc..

I was just playing with Photoshop about 30 minutes ago and came up with "my panel." Got on VAF and was doing a search on the FlightDek and ran across this thread..

I have to say, this is one of the most well laid out panels I've seen so far.. It is very much like the panel I photo chopped, but better in several ways..

I'm digging it. :)

Where did you gets get the little mirror that looks like it's perfect for the dash?
 
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