Finally!!

It was a long wait overnight, Gordon was kind enough to wait for me to show up before we unwrapped it. I was so excited I forgot to take a picture of it fresh out of the bag

 
I immediately took it out to the hangar (ok, I went home and took a nap first.) and started fitting it. 

Note the blue tape arrow reminding me which side was up.

Later, Gordon came out to help fit it, and instead of my (dumb) idea of holding it to the panel and trying to trace a line, we put the panel on the mold, sat the deck on top of it, then traced the line. We thought the wings at the edge of the panel would tend to splay out, we were wrong. More on that later.

Um, I was a little nervous about making the cut. No going back if it went bad. (by the way, has anyone seen my hairline? If found please return it to me.)

Concentration and teamwork. Gordon held, I cut. The blade bogged down when it hit the Bondo at the angles, even with a fine tooth blade it took some gentle persuasion to get it through.

We were a little nervous about doing the cut so soon after the layup, but I'm on the road for the next two weeks and wanted to get it shipped to Jim before I left. A little sandpaper to take the fuzz from the cutting off....

And it was time for trimming, fine tuning and fitting. 

Remember what I said earlier about the wings splaying out? Either they did not, or (more likely) the hull was wider than the nosedeck. As we started lowering the panel into the hull we noticed the top was higher while the edges were flush. Time to stop, look, talk, measure, look again, remeasure, take a deep breath, cut, and.....

admire a perfect fit.

 

Now to lock it in. 

Looks a little Steampunk with the screws. Note the final panel design in the background.

Victors get rewarded. 

It's already on the way to Florida for the winter. Jim will mark the locations of the various instruments and switches, ship it back to Gordon for cutting, staining and finishing, then back to Jim for wiring.

Final layup

Final layup in progress, can't wait to see it in the morning.

 

(Yes, I worked. I just like taking pics too.)


After the layup was done Gordon suggested I go practice cutting the panel with the old pieces. Good idea.

The Fabulous Stains

What color would you like your instrument panel to be?

I like a natural look, not a big fan of makeup, so its no surprise we're going with a clear stain (on the far right) to just bring out the grain. A few minutes of sliding the template around the sheet of veneer to decide what piece...

and the veneer gets clamped over the weekend to take the curve out. Hopefully we'll do the layup Tuesday or Wednesday, and while I'm gone on my next trips Gordon will stain and varnish it. After that it's back to the hangar to be fitted to the nosedeck, then the whole mess gets shipped down to Jim.

With the piece selected we tried some unscientific destructive testing. The veneer ripped before the epoxy bond gave.

Wood paneling

We did the first veneer layup last night using the new technique with West Systems 207 clear hardener, came out great. Doing another try with a slight modification and some experimentation today, hope to do the final layup later this week.

A sneak peek at what we're saving for the final pull

Shooting the engineers

It's been fun playing with layout and design. Frustrating at times, but enjoyable and I'm a little sorry to see this phase coming to a close. I know things will change once we start cutting and installing, but (for now) here's the final layout.

Aesthetically, I liked this version of the panel better, the lines were cleaner and it flowed better. But the version above is a more practical layout.

I stopped by Gordon's, the new veneer has come in and next week we'll do the first test layup. These are the bad pieces, we're not going to show you the good ones. They're spectacular.

It ain't over until....

I submitted the last panel to a couple high time SeaRey pilots who I greatly respect, one pointed out that it was a long reach to the flap control and that I should do a little rearranging. Good point, and done.

The gear warning button and CB are now on the far right, with the ACI flap controller on the left. The backup fuel pump remains in place, easily reached next to the flap controller. The gear warning alerts will require a reach to press, but that will (hopefully) make me think of what I'm doing. No system is foolproof, because there's always a smarter fool out there. But you can try to minimize the chances.

Still, I couldn't resist a little messing around. As Hal says "Eventually you have to shoot the engineers and build the thing." but until then, who's to say you can't try to improve it? In this case, I'm trying to make the gear warning system cautions easier to reach, and it brings the lights/systems switches closer, too.

So, would it work better to have the selector lights on top...

on bottom

or leave them on the far right side?

I thought about color coding the selector buttons for green and blue, but they don't make the pushbutton switches in blue. Oh well, it was an idea.  

Note: after asking on a couple internet forums, it's been determined that the 12:00 instrument story is incorrect. Good idea though.

"About there", aka Human Factors

Digital instrumentation has it's uses, but sometimes all you need is a quick glance. I don't know if this is true or not, but I was told that in WW II bombers such as the B-17, 24, and 29 the engine panel was designed so that when things were normal in cruise, all the needles would be at the 12:00 position. That way a quick glance would show the instruments to be either at 12:00 and nominal, or not at 12:00 and there was a problem.


Let's face it: there are times when you don't need to know that your altitude is 2,451', when all you want to know is that you're within 100' of your assigned altitude of 2,500' when passing through the Seattle Class B VFR corridor, and are busy aviating, navigating, and communicating.

Because of this, when the problem of having the compass too close to the radio came up it gave me an opportunity to rethink my panel. While most of my flying will be in a non-radio/ATC environment at low level (below 1,0'), occasionally when going across the border or transiting other airspace under ATC control, I may be assigned an altitude and need to stick to it. In that situation the Skyview would have a split display of engine instruments on one side and airspace on the other, leaving me with a small digital readout of altitude mixed into the airspace display. If I was flying with another pilot in the left seat and I was in the right seat, it might be difficult to see.

The end result is that in order to minimize electrical interference with compass, I've decided to add an analog altimeter to my center panel. I'm really liking this version of the panel, and consider it final. Can't wait to start building it.

Going with the flow

So there I was in June 1996. 35 years old, finally got my first professional pilot job and learning the meaning of the phrase "Drinking from a firehose." during ATR systems ground school at Flight Safety Hobby. I was having lunch with a group of classmates one day when someone asked how I was coming with my flows.

Uhhh...... What's a flow?


Commercial aircraft use two different philosophies when it comes to getting an airplane ready to fly. One is to use a checklist as a "Do list", where each item is read and done. Others use it as a true checklist, where each segment of flight (Preflight, Before Engine Start, After Engine Start, etc) has a "flow" accomplished where systems are turned on or off, then the checklist verifies the correct setting.

While you'd think that aircraft manufacturers such as Boeing, Embraer, etc would have their flows and checklists wrtten in stone, this is not true, as each airline has their own operational preference depending on their past history. It's pretty interesting to jumpseat on Alaska, Southwest, and my own airline and see radically different ways of getting the same type of airplane ready to fly. In fact, one of the biggest operational challenges at my airline during our merger has been the melding of the different styles, and our checklists/flows have gone through a couple iterations, with each airline believing their way is best.

Over the last couple years I've visited the factory a few times, and attended a couple Garner's Landing fly-ins. In each visit I took photos of other SeaRey instrument panels, and I've also availed myself of threads on the private SeaRey Tech site. I've seen good and bad things, debated and sketched ideas, and my panel is a distillation of what I've learned from everyone else, filtered through my own experiences. Oddly, I also reached way, way back into another part of my life when I was in retail sales. Building displays I learned that our eyes scan horizontally, so we were taught to build our displays with like items in vertical rows to interrupt this scan and get peoples attention. (Check it out next time you're at the mall.) If I have a horizontal flow it moves better, but it also encourages scanning and skipping, especially when fatigued or complacent. A vertical flow is less natural, but by interrupting the natural flow it forces you to pay attention.


So there I was last week, sitting in a cold hangar making zoom-zoom airplane noises and pretending to go through my checklists. I'm using XPanel 5000 to help design my panel, it lets me mess around while I'm on the road and play with different setups.

In this picture I'm concentrating on the left wing panel, and the location of the battery switch, primary fuel pump switch, and the ignition switch.

Should I have the battery power on the bottom right, and my power-up flow is upward, turning the battery switch on, then the primary fuel pump? That way when powering down the flow reverses, and I turn the fuel pump switch off/down, followed naturally downward by the battery switch.

Or should I place the battery switch in the upper left and the fuel pump in the upper right, so my flow goes left-right/right-left?

Each version has pros and cons. I'll have to think about it, hopefully without overthinking it.


Moving on, across the top are the caution/alert lights for various systems. An analog airspeed indicator is prominently located in the center for easy reference by either pilot. Digital instruments and readouts have their uses, but they require the numbers to be read, interpreted, analyzed, and acted on. In the low altitude seaplanes operate in, this can result in too much time taken away from flying the airplane with fatal results, and a few years ago when digital panels started coming into vogue some SeaRey pilots reintroduced this low tech instrument to their panels. It's a great idea, when doing a glassy water landing you don't need to know that you're at 71, 72, or 73 knots, you just need to know that your speed in "this far" in the green and stable. Or that it's "about there" approaching the bottom of the arc, and you better get some smash back into the plane.

There's a bit of concern about where I have the vertical card compass, it should be 4" away from any other electrical component (such as a radio), and that might change, I might relocated the compass and put an analog altimeter in there. Both will feed off the Skyview.

The PAR100EX has a built-in intercom, one less box on the panel but another one inside.

The backup fuel pump for the Rotax 914 is next to the Dynon. I want it located where I'll remember to turn it on/off for landing, not buried in the switches on the far right (more on those later), but I also don't want it in the way where it will easily get turned off by accident.Sitting in the airplane it seems to be ok.....

The red CHECK GEAR sign is over an ACI Gear Alert System. This "Bitching Betty" verbally prompts you to select either a water or ground landing, and checks if the position of the gear is correct. If the gear is in the incorrect position, in a voice like a high speed blender grinding a hunk of copper wire she seductively whispers for you to fix it. Now.

I wasn't going to install a Gear Alert System. After all, I'm a professional pilot and wannabe junior SkyGod. But after listening to some real SkyGods I changed my mind and will be putting one in. Gear switches and lights, and a simple mnemonic that will hopefully keep me out of trouble are next.


The green squares are another ACI product, with pushbutton selection of 4 flap positions (up, 10, 22 or 30 degrees). No holding down a momentary ON switch to retract or extend flaps, just PTFB and get them up or down.


Note the switches. The row on top is systems, the bottom row is lighting. Remember what I was saying about flows? The lights also serve as confirmation of each checklist step, since the last item in each checklist is a light of some kind. Power up? Nav lights. Before start? Beacon. After start? Landing/taxi lights. Cleared for takeoff? Strobes. So by the time you're ready to go flying the entire bottom row should be up, shutting down they should all be down. That's the theory, at least.

The far right wing panel gets the ELT controls, there will be a clip for a iPod, and a 12v aux power output that will also serve as an input for trickle battery charger or GPU for starting.


Like they say, no plan survives the first shot, so this is all subject to change. But for now, it looks good.

Yes, Virginia...

There is a North Pole. Coming home from Delhi Christmas Eve we skirted the Claus Prohibited Area around his workshop.

Merry Christmas

Oh nose!!!!

I'm an idiot when it comes to electrical systems, so my electrical system and panel are going to be built by Jim Ratte. He's asked that I ship everything down to him, which means building a big crate.

Call me cheap, call me sentimental, but these are the screws from the original shipping crate. Some of the wood is being used for the dolly, and the rest was used by another person to crate T-6 parts.

Before I ship everything off Jim asked that I mate the nosedeck to the hull, and trim the panel to fit when the veneer is done. Apparently each nosedeck and hull have some minor variations, so it makes sense.

First, cleanup the flashing on the edge.

Measure 1" in. I added 0.25 for a little safety margin.

And carefully cut. 

The panel will be attached to this lip.  

For the umpteenth time, a fit check. 

 .

Then use a rivet spacer to set the 3" spacing. Note the stereo heaters.

Deep breaths, start drilling and clecoing from the front. 

She's got a little bit of an overbite. 

Some corrective surgery on her lower lip fixes it.

Much better. Still got a little hook, but a SeaHawk's beak is supposed to.

Almost looks like she's smiling. 

I was going to use ratchet straps to pull the deck and hull together, but they kept slipping on the curve of the bow. I finally just forced them together and it worked fine.

But the ends just did not sit flush. I'm told that's normal and it will be covered with the edge strip. After these were taken I added a few more clecoes.

OspRey doing her catfish impersonation. Note that to make it fit I had to add more clecoes every so often off the spacing I had set earlier.  

Kinda weird to see open space there. 

That's better. 

And it's time to make the final decisions about switch layout, radio, etc. 

Here's the current almost-final design. After decades of flying rental aircraft with crappy radios I swore that when I owned an airplane I'd have excellent radios, so (this week) I've decided to go with a PAR100EX radio/intercom system.

Merry Christmas, Happy Solstice, and Go SeaHawks!!!!!!