Panel, comments

Peter wrote:

I think this comes down to your attitude to risk; specifically whether you adopt the traditional “VFR only aircraft” position that entering IMC means death, and that is acceptable.

Not with an EFIS !!! As explained, with an EFIS you get full IFR capability. You only need an extra altimeter, but that is covered with two EFISes or whatever other gadget you want, a G5 for instance. My little Onex will be (according to the regulations) fully IFR capable, at least NVFR capable without me having to do anything. To actually fly IFR I also need avionics, so it is out of the question.

An EFIS will give you enough instrument to fly whatever you want to fly. The iEFIS also has full synthetic vision with hires 3D map. I don’t think IMC means sudden death by any means. The gyros are there as some kind of backup for me, just in case, but there is no need to back up the backup so to speak.

Was tipped about GRT Avionics. They have lots of EFIS’es for the experimental market, and seems to be more popular than Garmin in the US.

Here is a snippet from their site:

At first glance, it may seem like overkill to install a sophisticated electronic display into a home-built airplane or LSA. You might be saying, “Why do I need all that stuff?” The answer is easy. Instead of a complex system of heavy and expensive analog instruments clustered in your panel, you can cut down on weight, installation time, and even cost by going electronic.

Traditional analog engine instruments require you to actively scan them to spot problems. The GRT Engine Information System will alert you to potential problems early with flashing yellow or red indicators inside your field of vision on the EFIS flight display. The EFIS Engine page shows a large graphical display of all engine and environmental data, including a handy EGT/CHT line graph that shows your temperature trends over time– very useful for troubleshooting a rough engine.

With a traditional “six pack” instrument scan in the clouds, your brain must constantly synthesize many different pieces of data to assemble a picture of your attitude in space. In contrast, the “glass panel” overlays airspeed and altitude tapes, nav & heading information, and rate of turn over top of a full-screen attitude indicator. The attitude portion of the scan fades into your periphery, similar to looking out the window– which allows more brain power for other tasks and reduces fatigue. Features like GPS moving map, Synthetic Vision 3D terrain, traffic alerts, and airborne weather will give you a sense of situational awareness you’ve never experienced in an airplane with round dials–even under VFR.

tomjnx wrote:

Peter wrote:
I am surprised a turn coordinator is a requirement in Europe.
It isn’t. You can substitute it for a second AI as well.

It probably isn’t, haven’t checked. It’s just that for experimental aircraft (all Annex II in fact), part NCO is not applicable, we have to use the old national regulations. I would think you can equip the aircraft according to Part NCO as well, without the CAA arguing about that (which would be a very strange thing for them to do), but you don’t have to.

Finally ordered all the gadgets. This is what the panel will look like (somewhat approximated):

It is an MGL iEFIS Explorer (8.5 inch screen). It has AHRS built in and an external magnetometer and RDAC for the engine. All communication is CAN bus. Radio and transponder are from Trig (TT21 and Ty91). All in all a basic standard non-certified setup. Also include the MGL Infinity ASX-1 (alt and ASI). The MGL EFIS use map data from EasyVFR, updated all the time, and has of course full navigation capabilities, so there will be no real need for the phablet, but, as a backup and various other things I guess it won’t hurt, and could be useful. On the picture is the aerobatics “page” I made on the MGL simuator/editor. Looks cool IMO, but only by trying it out I will see if it useful (fun to edit anyway, so it will probably be modded a lot )

Norway is pretty much a desert when it comes to aviation equipment related shops. What I did not expect however, was that UK is starting to sail up as the place to purchase stuff for non-certified aircraft. I have ordered everything from the UK. Best prices, best shipping options, best “packet” discounts, and generally just looks to be up to date and in sync with what people wants. I have ordered a few things from the UK earlier also. I have used ACS a lot, but have to reconsider this because they are clueless about shipping, as everybody in the US has become during the last 10 years.

It will be fun to see how it all turns out in the end.