How NOT to mount a Garmin 195 in the back seat of a RV-8

Bubblehead · #1 03-23-2008, 06:01 PM

My wife and I have several trips lined up for this flying season, and I felt inspired to give Judy some instrumentation or navigation information in the back seat of our RV-8. I've seen several mounts for 296/396/496s that looked nice, and my sister had an unused 195 sitting in a box in the basement so I thought, why not put the 195 in the back seat?

Well, I found out why to not do it, but had fun anyway. I designed something up in SolidWorks, took the flat pattern to a local sheet metal shop, and had a prototype mounting bracket made up in .032" aluminum. They were so easy to make, and the guy was using up some scrap pieces, so he ended up making 4 for me! Let me know if you have a use for the other three!

Oh, and yes, I did intend to add some diagonal supports under the bracket. This was just step one of the development plan.

Friday night I mounted the 195 mount to the bracket, and Saturday (after chores) I headed for the hanger. I mounted the bracket and mount to the angle on the top of the front seat back, put the seat back back (?) into the plane, and slid down into the back seat with the GPS 195.

Unfortunately, the 195 is very big, and is oriented such that there is barely enough room for it and me! OK, some of that is my love of food and beverage, but even a more svelte person would not be able to get a straight look at the screen.

So the backup plan is to make a new mount for a 296 and find a good used one. For the viewing enjoyment and the furtherance of everyone's education, here are some pictures of my 195 mounting bracket. I did not take one of it installed in the plane. At the time there did not seem any point, but take my word for it. The 195 is so long that it ends up under your chin!

RV8N · #2 03-24-2008, 07:45 AM

I had a Lowrance Airmap 100 mounted in the front and replaced it with the 600C last year. My wife enjoys flying on cross-country's from the back so I was going to mount the Airmap 100 in the back for her. I was trying to use the yoke-mount off the seat-back support but it was either in the way of your knee or was right in front of your face. I'm still contemplating but haven't come up with a good solution.

Karl

Dave62 · #3 03-24-2008, 09:10 AM

I like the bracket. Can't you angle it down quite a bit more and get it to not stick out so far?
Dave (Swift driver)

Bubblehead · #4 03-24-2008, 10:20 AM

Dave62 - If you angle it down more, the screen becomes unviewable. This is an old black and white (green?) display, with very low resolution screen, and you really need to be looking straight on to see it at all. I also thought about mounting it off the top of the roll bar. Any way you look at it, this is old technology. I think I'll snag a used 296 off ebay or see what's available at Sun-n-Fun.

Thanks for the suggestion.

RV8N - I had not sat in the back seat for quite a while and had forgotten how little space there is between the front seat back and your eye-balls.

G-force · #5 03-24-2008, 01:32 PM

How about replacing the top mount with a piece of hinge, and build a folding prop rod for the back. That way it will hang vertical when your getting in and out, and can swing it up and kick the prop rod out to hold it at a good viewing angle? Perhaps push the whole assembly to one side of the seatback and angle it towards the passenger so its not "under their chin."

Bubblehead · #6 03-24-2008, 03:13 PM

The getting in and out was not the real problem. The real problem is once you're in it is impossible to get the screen in a position where you can easily see it. The 195's long, big case makes puts the screen right below your chin! With the low resolution green and black screen you have to look directly at the screen to read anything, which makes the location even worse.

The geometry just does not work! Thanks again for the suggestion. It's a good one for another project but probably not applicable here.