John Meyers

John Meyers

Active Member
Paid up lurker here. My RV-6a was built by another party...is great steam gauge IFR ship. I'm interested in upgrading, glassify-ing it. So far I like the looks of Garmin G3x, not enamored by touch screen so I think -370 portrait displays are fine.

The RV-6 panel does not leave a lot of room for building-in display redundancy...except to install one screen...keep some round dials... in my opinion.

Anyway my intent is to retain most of the excellent existing com/nav stack (GNS430W, SL-30, GTX-327, dual VOR/ILS heads), acquire unified glass system including autopilot, solve the ADS-B problem, and NOT spoil my IFR capabilities/redundancies.

Googling or searching VAF doesn't produce any pics of one-screen set-ups that I consider IFR... but I'm sure they are out there.

Any suggestions...discussion ?

John Meyers Sequim WA
Harmon Rocket ... sold
RV-6a ... built by other
 
We actually had plenty of room for the dual screens to the left of the radio stack, and a spot to the left of that for a Tru Trak Gemini John. Worked really well until we replaced the two screens with the large Touch for testing purposes.

There's got to be a picture here somewhere on VAF - we did that dual-screen about two or three years ago.

Paul
 
Single screen IFR

I originally thought I wanted the non touch G3X, but the Touch provides interconnect abilities with the IPad. It will even send attitude data and provides a synthetic display of a PFD. I can do all my flight planning and push the flight plan to both the GTN and the G3X Touch. It essentially gives me a dual display setup without having to buy two displays.
 
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FWIW... I've flown both the regular G3X and the Touch. The regular one is ok. The Touch user interface is very intelligently designed and easy to use. In IFR, the fewer button presses it takes to do a task, the better off you are. Turbulence can be annoying, but the simple user interface makes up for it. And there's a hard BACK key so if you do happen to touch the wrong thing, you can back right out of it.
 
Check it out.

Your timing for this question is good as if you look at the lead stories of the last week you will fine that D. R. just finished his I.F.R. check ride in his "6" with the legacy G3X screens in it. Both the older none touch and the newer touch are good systems and you will do well by either of them. The newer has a lot more "C.P.U." for down the road upgrades and such, so we went with it, as our panel space is that of an "8" but we still like to turn the knobs as well.
Yours, R.E.A. III #80888
 
Just food for thought. IMO it's not all about the EFIS itself, but the interface of the EFIS to the rest of the avionics to include the autopilot - this is where you really get into the amount of "button" pushing required.

For example, I got my IR behind a G1000. IMO this is the top tier of integration and flying any approach is pretty simple to setup. In my own plane I have a legacy 2-screen G3X and GX Pilot A/P fed by an SL30 and GTN 650. These give me almost the same capability as the G1000 GFC700 combo (more like G1000 and KAP140). Anyway, it takes a bit more thought and physical actions to accomplish the same task with my setup than the G1000.
 
Thanks for replies

Folks... thanks for ongoing replies.
The comments, suggestions, pics are all helpful.
So... for an existing airworthy IFR ship, an RV-6a slider... I am pondering tearing up a perfect but dated (turn of the century) steam gauge panel. Will be a big gulp. The builder provided good elect diagrams.. and segmented the panel nicely. I am hoping I can work from the panel front.

Anyone else worked the conversion steam to G3x glass ? Slider ? Fused almost no CBs. Vacuum to disappear. Etc.

I made a list of all components (LRUs) in the G3x. Can all this stuff find homes behind the panel ? Accessible from the front ? (as opposed to laying on back / head at rudder pedals ?).

J. Meyers
 
John Meyers said:
Folks... thanks for ongoing replies.
The comments, suggestions, pics are all helpful.
So... for an existing airworthy IFR ship, an RV-6a slider... I am pondering tearing up a perfect but dated (turn of the century) steam gauge panel. Will be a big gulp. The builder provided good elect diagrams.. and segmented the panel nicely. I am hoping I can work from the panel front.

Anyone else worked the conversion steam to G3x glass ? Slider ? Fused almost no CBs. Vacuum to disappear. Etc.

I made a list of all components (LRUs) in the G3x. Can all this stuff find homes behind the panel ? Accessible from the front ? (as opposed to laying on back / head at rudder pedals ?).

J. Meyers
Click to expand...

I did just what you are doing, only with Skyview, SV transponder, SV ADS-B in, AP, SL30/40. The Skyview was a complete dual system except for the EMS. Everything not panel mounted fit on the sub panel, except that I mounted the ADAHRS' aft of the baggage compt.

The original panel was 1 piece, riveted in. I cut the panel out leaving a .75" flange or so, made a new panel, and put nutplates on the flange. That way I had a removable panel that could be built up on the bench. And the access to the sub panel was fully open. Even with the panel in place, with the displays removed you can get to most everything easily.
 
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