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My new panel

You need this:

http://www.xpanelsoftware.com/

Then you can move around and see how things shape up in virtual reality. I bought it and use it, well worth the money even for minor jobs. You can add instruments and panel shapes yourself if some of the defaults do not fit.

The elephant is the circulation
ENVA ENOP ENMO, Norway

@LeSving

That looks great, thanks! Did you also try to import the full size engineering drawing into some CNC software?

JP-Avionics
EHMZ

there is quite some weight from instruments on panels

It has always been self-evident to me that heavy instruments (which are preciously rare in my craft…) would be suspended at the rear side anyway, so as to avoid stressing the dashboard? It isn’t exactly hard to to, nylon tie-wraps are omnipresent these days; but some more solid-looking kind of support could be devised: I was thinking of a frame of L-shaped alu lining, supported from above.

Given some kind of support on the far end, even the heaviest instruments would only stress the panel vertically, where most strength is available.

Or what am I missing?

Last Edited by at 22 Apr 15:20
EBZH Kiewit, Belgium

http://www.xpanelsoftware.com/

That kind of stuff ought to be available in the public domain, there’s little magic about creating it. It is one of many ideas on my list of things to do after retirement.

Last Edited by at 22 Apr 15:22
EBZH Kiewit, Belgium

Did you also try to import the full size engineering drawing into some CNC software?

No, I use it to plan, then cut manually.

The elephant is the circulation
ENVA ENOP ENMO, Norway

It has always been self-evident to me that heavy instruments (which are preciously rare in my craft…) would be suspended at the rear side anyway

With most avionics there is no provision for a rear support. One just doesn’t have substantial enough screws there, in most cases.

I have seen a bodged Sandel EHSI installation where some “installer” managed to attach a bent-up metal strap to one of the rear screws

which was doubly bad because the instrument panel was antivibration mounted so the metal strap just served to transmit vibration directly to the back of the instrument… It was even worse because the tilting panel could no longer be tilted until the strap was removed.

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

Here’s hoping aviation graduates to USB / HDMI type connectors sometime this century…

I think to much is made of rear supports for instrument panels, twenty years of flying around with a full king IFR stack including HSI/RMI and all the conventional instruments and the panel exhibited no ill effects, the latest panel with a lot of glass is 20-25% lighter.

I will replace the anti vibration mounts but the security of the pannels has been demonstrated just by surviving so long.

I think to much is made of rear supports for instrument panels, twenty years of flying around with a full king IFR stack including HSI/RMI and all the conventional instruments and the panel exhibited no ill effects, the latest panel with a lot of glass is 20-25% lighter.

Normally instrument are not supported at the rear, radio racks normally do, this prevents the radio’s also from dropping down. Sometimes this is neglected, and visible from the pilot’s side, as all front/face plates tilted up.

A panel which holds instrument is normally has a thickness of 1.5-3 mm and has reinforcments, often by bending the edges or by angles rivited to the panel.

JP-Avionics
EHMZ

Jesse.

You are quite correct, the panel has bends top and bottom to give rigidity as well as right angle extrusions that support the radio racks.

Without this stiffening the whole thing would undoubtedly flex and eventually break, I had considered some support at the rear of the radio rack but this would have to be using the same anti vibration mounts as on the front of the panel, having kicked the idea around with a few guys in the “stress” business we decided that the OE panel mounts had demonstrated their ability in service to carry the panel loads so that is the way I am going, the manufacture includes periodic inspections and replacement of the anti vibration mounts and we will continue to respect these.

The radio rack will be supported at the rear but only by a support from the top of the aft face of the panel.

Last Edited by A_and_C at 25 Apr 10:49
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