Inside looking out

Something a little different, long hours boring over the ocean at cruise make you look at things a little differently.

Have it your way...

This is the default engine page as the Skyview Classic comes from the factory. If you wanted to, you could fly almost any airplane with this generic set up.

But half the fun of homebuilding is having things your way. I spent a layover watching the engine configuration video, by the time I came home I was rarin' to start pushing buttons and twiddling knobs. After getting the honeydos done, I spent a jetlagged afternoon in my hangar messing around and have a start, I know it will change as things go.

From L-R, is tach time, I reconfigured the CHT and EGT to vertical bars instead of horizontal, engine oil temp and pressure, then RPM and manifold pressure. Upper right is battery voltage and amps, lower right is fuel flow and quantity.

Dynon also allows a variety of ways to display your information (see also: finger fire), 100%, 50%, and 20%. This is 50/50 with the Map mode, the next challenge will be to find a way to present similar information across all three sizes of displays.

The most common things said in a glass cockpit

What's it doing?
Why is it doing it?
How do I stop it?

Taking a break from running wires, I've been sitting down and working with the Dynon, customizing my display for what I want.

With somewhere around 20,000 hours flying glass cockpit aircraft, in everything from the ATR turboprop to the 787, I've come to appreciate the many advantages modern avionics bring to aviation. HOWEVER, at work I am in a multi-crew environment, where one person flys the airplane, allowing to other pilot to put their full attention on twiddling knobs and touching buttons, taking the time to go through an OODA loop, something a single engine, single pilot cannot do.I've seen so many GA pilots get so enraptured with the magic of glass they forget they're also supposed to be flying an airplane, or they get confused, go down a wrong path into a "finger fire" and make bad situations worse. Even with our disciplined, structured training programs at work we sometimes have crews fall down the rabbit hole (guilty), best thing we can do is learn from them.

One thing that's funny to me is to draw on my widely varied background, such as years in retail sales. For instance, did you know that humans are horizontal scanners, and anything presented in a horizontal format tends to be skipped/scanned, whereas if you want to get someone's attention you put the display in a vertical layout? Check it out next time you're in a retail store, do you scan over and notice things that are displayed horizontally, or vertically? There's a reason. (although, hmmm.... is it a Western thing, since we read horizontally, as opposed to Asian writing that's vertical and read top to bottom? How about those who read languages from right to left, as opposed to those who read left to right?? Anyone know?

What does this have to do with Dynon? Check out the display below. Notice that some instruments are horizontal vs vertical.

and as a flashback, remember this?

Of check out this 1960s image of the XB-70 cockpit with vertical tapes and round dials. No horizontal displays here.

When I get home I'll take some time and see if there are instruments Dynon have limited to horizontal vs vertical displays, should be interesting. Fortunately, Dynon has produced some excellent videos about how to rearrange their displays, here's one of several I've been watching.

And of course, a few minutes of guidance from Syd saves me hours of staring at a problem. 

Take a break. Like many of my generation, I grew up flying/crashing Cox PT-19s, there's one next door at the Heritage Flight Museum, and to get to work on it once in a while is just plane fun.

Work. Narita.

Things will get better. 

Smoke check: Good

Funny, but the closer I got to finishing the more I found myself dragging my feet. I knew that if I had anything wired wrong I could burn tens of thousands of dollars with the flick of a switch. And if it was really bad, I might burn the damn thing up. It was getting late in the afternoon, a good time to move OspRey outside, just in case....

 In this case, red Xs are a good sign. No smoke.
 

Back inside, her red beacon is beating again. 

Get Juiced.

Christmas in May. 

I had sent the ACI Power Buss away for a checkover, while it was there Ben & I worked together to change some of the assignments, decrease some of the PTCs and increase others. Fun to have a customized electrical system.

 

I'm getting better at my linesman splices, too. Practice makes perfect. 

LEDs, again. The VAF guys turned me on to another supplier of LED warning lights, Oznium. I ordered a few different ones and holy cow, are they bright.

The thing I really like is that they screw in from the back, making replacement easy. 

And they look good from the front. Way too bright, though, we'll be working on that.

And let's run them wires. This is just temporary for testing and fit, when installed on the panel the adel clamp will be mounted from the top.

Changing the runs will result in a lot of extra wire that will have to be trimmed. Should save a couple of pounds.

Blue for signal wires, in this case, audio from the Gear Alert System and ACI Buss warning annunciators.

And a new toy, 2020 GPS/ADS-B receiver.

Question: is the positive screw on a capacitor a Phillips so you know it's a +, and the negative terminal a blade so you know the - by feel??

Rack it up.

Power lines from buss to the switches all colored and grouped.

And now for something completely different. Time to install the radio rack.

From past experience I learned the rack had a front lip that extends to be flush with the panel, but the sides go BEHIND the panel.

So to line things up, hang the lip over the edge of the workbench.

Of course, I've had a couple spectators. I love birds, but I've discovered swallows make a hell of a mess if they hang out in your hangar. Anyone got any ideas to keep them out?

Braces from the top, but...

shit. Bringing in the braces from the top doesn't leave enough room for the LED night light rings.

Ok, back to the drawing board. How about from the bottom?

That works.

Now, let's mount those rings.

This is a really cool tool Syd loaned me, you tighten a bolt against 2 discs, and they cut into the metal.

Takes a lot of force, I was worried I had torqued the panel and bent it. The front wrench is my dad's old one, one of the few tools I have left of his.

Nice clean cut.

Some day I'll drill a perfect pilot hole that doesn't skate on me and end up misaligned.The rings ended up about 1/16" to the left, oh well.

And another toy from the museum to line up the mounting holes.

No tools to line up the holes from the Dynon, I just had to put it in place and drill very carefully.

Whew!!

Perfection is attained by slow, obsessive strokes of a file.