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.

 

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