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Originally Posted by mandm1516
I'm with you Prporter. I have visited all the sites you linked to Alan--thanks for those. I don't want to bug the contacts until I'm closer to needing their services, but one of the holes in my financial plan is how much it costs to have someone put together a panel. I know the typical answer is 'it depends' on what I want in the panel. Is there a ballpark figure I can use/add to the vans cost estimator or a rule of thumb like price of avionics plus X%?
Mike
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Most will tell you that to get a final cost for any specific kit, take the cost of the kit, add it again for the engine and a 3rd time for the panel. 3x the kit cost for a completed airplane. Just a rule of thumb, but pretty close.
A couple of other pointers.
Avoincs are changing so quickly, that if you aren't within 4-6 mo's of flying, then ignore the panel until you are and don't spend any money until you get closer.
Shop the major shows for excellent specials. I shaved about 10K off the cost of avionics in that panel as a result.
Get an actual flight demo behind anything you decide upon *before* you buy it. Look at all the problems BMA is having with the 4th Generation products as an example.
When you get close, most of those places above will do *free* paper layout for you, up to a point... For example, and I don't know if Lancair still does this. I got 3 revisions to a paper drawing before they wanted a basic commitment with money paid down. This means use all the free services on the net before you start bugging a design house. But if you get something close on the free services (epanelbuilder.com for example), send it to the others and get an actual drawing. Its amazing how many little things like spacing on breakers and switches that you can't do on the free services that will rear their ugly head when it's actually layed out in CAD and will cause you to re-think your placements.
"Think ahead" in your panel design. For example. You can see where I put in and SL-30 *and* and SL-40, but I only bought the SL-30. The 40 is just wired in and I'll add it later as funds support. Also, you can't tell this from the above, but you can see from the two drawings below. I forward thought the steam gauges a little. I included spacing on that whole left side panel to allow for an upgrad from an electric AI to a 3" EFIS.
Also, think outside the box. If you are going to go with an all electric panel. you don't need to buy that 3K Mid Continent Attitude indicator, just get the TSO'd TC replacement from Sportys for 1.9K (used to be 1.5K
). It's an awesome AI that has a level on it and can double as a TC. Also, stuggle to work with 3 1/8 flight instruments instead of 2 1/4. Those little 2 1/4's are *really* expensive especially if you want electric version. I had Lancair move my Chelton panels up on the left metal panel to allow for 3 1/8 steam gauges. At first they said it couldn't be done, but I insisted. As it turns out only could it be done, but as a result of my design in this panel, they are now building the same panel for one of their new demonstrators.
Final Panel:
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Steam Gauge Upgrade
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Hope this helps?
Alan
Panel builder/designer?
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