Questions regarding pull-out-in-instrument-panel-tray-table.

[Pilottonny]

Hello fellow builders, I have some special questions this time.

Being inspired by seeing some airliner cockpits, I am going to install a ? retractable ?in-instrument panel-tray-table? . Well,?...actually it is going to be a replacement for a knee-pad. It will be approx. 6? W X 10? L, when pulled out. When not in use it will slide under/inside the instrument panel. It should allow me to clip A5 size ?Bottlang Airport Manuals?, flight plans, etc. to it and even write on it. To hold the paper, I will steel a spring-clamp from an ordinary clipboard.

It will be installed in the center of the instrument panel, under the Throttle/Prop/Mixture- controls (I do not have a sub-panel). For easy viewing and writing and extra clearance from the T/P/M-controls, it will be slightly tilted downwards and therefore be lower than the top of the stick (stick is still in original length). So obviously I have to be careful about stick-clearance.

Now to the questions:

• What is the stick side-to-side movement when the ailerons are connected. i.e: when the pilot stick is moved to the right, how far is the top of the stick from the centerline of the instrument panel. (and what is the length of your stick, from seat pan to top of the stick grip !).
• Did you shorten your stick?, by how much? and do you still feel you have good control?
• The T/P/M- vernier controls will be above the tray-table and their cables might interfere with the tray-table when it is in the fore ward position. Are the push-pull cables flexible enough to be routed slightly upward and than downward, to clear the tray table?

If any of the above causes a problem, I could move it more to the passenger side and only use it with the passenger stick removed, but I only want to do that if everything else fails.

Thanks in advance for the input on this.

Kind regards, PilotTonny