Cockpit design

[Skyhawk]

Hi!
Just curios if any of you tandem drivers have thought about making youir cockpit look like a modern fighter aircraft?
I´m not one of those lucky fellows that can fly arond our landscape in mach 2, but i had the pleasure to sit and play in a modern fighter once and really liked the design. (JAS 39 Gripen).
http://www.canit.se/~griffon/aviatio...n/cockpit.html
Amazing ergonomy.
Whith a lot of glass and carbonfibre you could have dublicated this. Plus three nice lcd:s. Anyones thought?

[RVadmirer]

That's a big website. What are you referring to.....?

[panhandler1956]

I think Paul Dye has one of the most military looking panels going, obviously inspired by his NASA exposure (I love it, by the way). Noteworthy is the well done annuciator panel, the use of switch guards, and overall good ergos. Looks like he thought about every square inch.

Also there are some guys who have done tilt panels, which are nice, but the shelf below the tilt panel kind of looses out in my opinion, but I have only studied photos- no real experience.

I downloaded the cockpit shot of the Gripen for inspiration though! Wish there was room between the rudder pedals for a center console, but with the gear towers on the straight 8 there's no room plus I think the stick would interfer.

I think "the office" is probably the most exciting part of the build for me, but also the most fretful as I'll spend WAY too much time thinking about it.

Fun to dream about this stuff while I'm still under construction!

http://www.vansairforce.com/communit...ead.php?t=5213



Example of a tilt panel and rearward moved throttle quadrant.

[panhandler1956]

Originally Posted by RVadmirer

That's a big website. What are you referring to.....?

Here you go.

[Ironflight]

Hello Skyhawk,

I am one of those folks that believes it's "all about the cockpit"! Thanks for the compliments Brent (and for posting the picture - saves me from going to find the link). Designing the perfect "front office" the way you want it is a great achievement - after all, the basic Van's design is pretty good to begin with, and unless you are optimizing the airplane for one particular point in th envelope (such as outright speed), there aren't many other things to go creative with - he's a pretty good designer!

I personally like the looks of a center console avionics stack, but once I really got into the design, i realized that it wasn't the way to go in a cross-country airplane where you might fly four hour legs. it's nice to be able to move around a bit more than is possible with "leg wells". At least, that's the way it works for me!

Enjoy the design process, and let us know what you come up with. Be prepared for a surprise when you realize that you are on your 50th iteration, and each one you thought was going to be "it"!