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  #71  
Old 11-28-2011, 04:45 PM
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Toobuilder Toobuilder is offline
 
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Location: Mojave
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This thread certainly shows evidence of how information that we once looked at as a ?luxury? (i.e. cell phones) has now become a ?requirement?, despite the fact that the actual environment has not changed all that much. Thanks to the glass revolution, we are flying predominately day/VFR airplanes that have more information and redundancy than many airliners, yet the loss of this information is considered ?critical?? How did people ever fly Luscombes and J-3?s back in the ?old days??

If you want to find out what ?backup? instruments you need, define your requirements (including a risk assessment), and then select equipment based on probability of failure. If you plan on flying a lot of hard IFR in the mountains at night, you are going to have different requirements than someone who just might someday find himself stuck on top of a cloud layer after a Sunday burger run.

I think people forget that driving the probability of failure of a system to near zero is not only very expensive, but rarely warranted. We are not shooting a billion dollar probe to Mars here?
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  #72  
Old 12-03-2011, 03:29 PM
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Flyfalcons Flyfalcons is offline
 
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Quote:
Originally Posted by humptybump View Post
By and large, this thread has been educational. I hope it won't dissuade anyone that my thinking for the panel redesign hasn't changed

If money (and space) were no issue, I'd likely end up with something close to Pierre's panel. Since my mission is VFR, I thankfully will be able to simplify.

... now if MGL, Dynon, and TruTrak would just stop innovating I could settle on a panel !
If your mission is VFR then go bare bones and enjoy looking out the window instead of the gadgets in your panel. Add a panel mounted VFR GPS to back up your pilotage and have fun!
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  #73  
Old 12-03-2011, 05:09 PM
humptybump humptybump is offline
 
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Flyfalcons View Post
Add a panel mounted VFR GPS to back up your pilotage and have fun!
Well, there in lies the rub. The current panel is FULL of round gauges. Nearly half the panel is little round engine gauges.

So, the first step was to simplify the engine gauges so I could fit a GPS. Also, the TruTrak AP has already given me a scare so it may be giving me advance notice of it's departure.
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  #74  
Old 12-03-2011, 09:43 PM
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L.Adamson L.Adamson is offline
 
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Flyfalcons View Post
If your mission is VFR then go bare bones and enjoy looking out the window instead of the gadgets in your panel. Add a panel mounted VFR GPS to back up your pilotage and have fun!
My Garmin 696 with XM weather................has been a wonderful device for looking out the window. I've always been able to make weather decisions far in advance, as well as exceptional cross country flight planning in a mountainous environment.

And if worse goes to worse, as has happened for several close friends and six other acquaintances.............a good moving map GPS with terrain databases can save your life, even if the flight started as a normal VFR event.

L.Adamson
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  #75  
Old 11-19-2012, 08:07 AM
humptybump humptybump is offline
 
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Ironflight View Post
You don't need to back up "glass" with Steam....you can back it up with dissimilar glass just as well.
I've been much more serious about a panel refresh lately and looking at efficient implementations by respected builders.

Paul - can you give some insight for choosing a traditional airspeed indicator for your RV-3B ?
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  #76  
Old 11-19-2012, 08:56 AM
Bill Phillips Bill Phillips is offline
 
Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: Forsyth, GA
Posts: 219
Default I bought a iFly as Backup

The iFly 720 GPS I have is my glass backup for my MGL Odyssey. The 720 has an instruments page that is very accurate except air speed is a bit lower than true. It also has a weather option I plan to use when the price of the rec/trans devices go down. I am impressed with the iFly and it will serve well as a backup if the MGL fails. What's more, as tecs change and it becomes obsolete it is a lot simpler to just trade up than to refill holes in the panel.
Bill Phillips
RV-8a Bluebird
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  #77  
Old 11-19-2012, 10:17 AM
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MikeyDale MikeyDale is offline
 
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Back in the late 80's, I was a young pup and I bought a 59' PA 22/20 from a dear crop duster friend of mine. He had experienced and lived thru several wrecks in his 70 yrs in Stearmans to Agtractors. He flew with me every day for about a week until I could land it halfway decent. If he caught me looking at my gauges on short final or landing, he would give me a sharp elbow right in the ribs! It was very uncomfortable at first but I caught on quick. My 7 is going to have all the glass I can afford and maybe a round ASI and Alt but the first thing Im going to work on is keeping my head out of the cockpit!
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  #78  
Old 11-19-2012, 01:46 PM
pvalovich pvalovich is offline
 
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Location: Ridgecrest, CA
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Default Habit Patterns

In my -8A I have steam gage airspeed, VSI and altimeter backups below my AFS 4500. Rarely look at airspeed indicator, often look at altimeter, but almost always use the VSI. Guess my mind likes the trending info provided by a moving needle.
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  #79  
Old 11-19-2012, 05:45 PM
2bolts 2bolts is offline
 
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Toobuilder View Post
How did people ever fly Luscombes and J-3?s back in the ?old days??
Easily, head out of the window, not watching the multitude of pretty coloured lines moving up and down and/or side to side. I used to fly an 8a.
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