Late June through July 5,
2002 - Back to Work!!
The Instrument Panel
A new house sure can eat up a lot of time. I was
finally able to get the shop set up and get back to work on the
Hawk in late June.
I'd been using a simple drafting program to design
my instrument panels since I built the Coyote. I kept the template
around for re-use on the Aventura, and now the Hawk. You can see
the remnants of the Aventura panel along the top. All I needed
was the dimensions of the new panel, and I could drop the instruments
in.
I wanted to try something smaller than the standard
Hawk panel, to leave myself room for a "navigation desk."
I tried a lot of "what-if" scenarios, and finally on
the 17th iteration, adopted the layout above.
From the layout, I printed a full-scale drilling template.
I just taped it over the blank panel and punched through it to
mark the drilling locations.
And here's how it turned out. Left to right, the instruments
are: Airspeed, Altimeter, Compass, MicroAir Radio, and Grand Rapids
Technology's EIS. The instruments are specifically arranged this
way so I can monitor the airspeed and engine from the back seat,
even with the front seat passenger's head in the way.
I used the panel shipped with the kit to create my
"navigation desk," which will be covered with velcro
so I can stick down timers, plotting tools, GPS's, etc. - maybe
even someday my iBook running moving map software.
To the left is the switch panel. Top to bottom, the
switches will be: Master, Avionics, Strobe Light, and Landing
Light.
"O'Hare tower, ultralight Hawk on ten mile straight-in
final for three six. See you in ten minutes."
Mi amigo Pancho Pete Nunez enjoying a virtual flight
in the new shop.
