Me...my opinion is just the opposite when it comes to the hinged panels. I've seen all sorts, including one just like the one being discussed. The problem is that in theory and when empty they work great. When loaded up with a typical panel full of stuff they frankly are normally almost useless. Here's why.
Normally, people are putting in radios that are in need of going through the sub-panel, and many times the racks are attached to the sub panel - so there you now have a problem with the radio stack. Even if they aren't attached, you have to hog a hole big enough to let them rotate out of there. Then, you have to make sure you have a huge hunk of antenna pigtail so it can move, along with any associated other items hooked into the stack like EGT/CHT probes (if you put an engine monitor in the stack), pitot static lines (autopilot), etc.. Next, you have a ton of other things coming and going, like a fat wire to power the whole panel, many people have control cables like carb heat/alt. air, throttle/prop/mixture (none of which move well).
I'm not saying it won't work, just that in order to make them tilt like you want; you end up with a lot of extra work, weight, time, and not a huge amount of benefit. Rarely do they work when populated and wired up like they do when blank. If you put in any modern EFIS (like Dynon, AFS, GRT, et.al) when you remove them you have a big gaping hole that is pretty easy to work through for things behind the panel.
Lastly, I'm not a huge fan of this exact design, because I like to see plenty of airflow around the avionics, and being able to "reach" up under the panel is really slick. Typically most of the electrically important things are along the bottom of the panel anyway, and sitting in the seat makes them easy to get to. With this desing, now all your switches and breakes if traditionally isntalled are almost entirely inaccessible, and unless the panel is rotated completely down 90degrees, the switches/circuit breakers will be hidden under all the other "stuff" in the panel. I'm curious to see what he intends to do with all the control cables in this installation. They don't normally like to be bent in any sort of tight radius.
Anyway, I'm not flaming Dann's install, because it probably just might work with his stuff he plans to install (of course I'd encourage him to toss all the round gauges along with the VM1000 and go with a couple Dynon's or something - the pricing would work out almost the same and he'd have lots of added functionality). What I am saying is that with the typical radios (Garmin SL's, etc..) and other stuff in the stack, it's unlikely to work as well as one might think. This is definately a case of "been there done that" (not by me, but by many others)....and it rarely adds much benefit other than a wow factor.
Just my 2 cents as usual and no flames intended.
Cheers,
Stein.
