Where did you get the purple lights EM?

DCO-65 wrote:Man if I had a panel like Emfly's, I think I would just sit in the airplane so I could look at all the lights.

That appears to be all you are doing until we actually see pictures of you out flying it.

Like this:

Scolopax wrote:Where did you get the purple lights EM?

They are available from a variety of sources but I got them here: http://www.pilotlights.net/ - they are actually a dual LED set up, white and blue. Blue is supposed to be better for true dark, while white better for dusk. They are each on an adjustable dimmer (which kept going out - so now they are just both on full bright when you flip the switch).

That must be me making airplane noises

8GCBC wrote:I stopped using vacuum gyros in anything. Even an old bush-bird.

....

Don't buy http://www.aircraftspruce.com/catalog/inpages/rca26akbk.php?clickkey=5335 Opinion.

I just got a sweet bargain on one of those, yellow tagged, and planned to have it installed soon. Got it with 8 degree tilt for the price of a normal new vacuum unit. What was your experience; should I be throwing it on ebay?

sophis wrote:

8GCBC wrote:I stopped using vacuum gyros in anything. Even an old bush-bird.

....

Don't buy http://www.aircraftspruce.com/catalog/inpages/rca26akbk.php?clickkey=5335 Opinion.

I just got a sweet bargain on one of those, yellow tagged, and planned to have it installed soon. Got it with 8 degree tilt for the price of a normal new vacuum unit. What was your experience; should I be throwing it on ebay?

The one I had ( just one ) never erected straight to 0 degrees. RC Allen did not really care. It was dangerous. This was about 10 years ago. I sent it back to Spruce for a full refund. I like CastleBerry and Sigmatec, excellent products compared to RC Allen. Never again for me. Your experience could greatly differ. Not trying to bash, just giving facts as I can recall. Let me know if it works for you?

Thanks. I'll try it out and hope the last rebuild (it was yellow tagged after a rebuild) was a quality one. I was excited to get an electric unit for a reasonable price.

I really hope it works for you, RC Allen has good market share and I hope they do well with it.

We put several RC Allen electric gyros in our airplanes, and none of them went more than 200 hours. I sure wouldn't bet my life on one in actual IMC. We had some that rolled over almost immediately. RC Allen as noted above, didn't seem to care.

Scary product, especially considering their market share. These were installed in Huskys and Cubs, so vibration is an issue no doubt, but.....

MTV

Panel vibration is an issue with many single engine aircraft. My CastleBerry electric attitude gyro is doing pretty well in the Scout. It will vibrate occasionally if the engine mixture, prop speed, and manifold pressure are not aligned. But, I would recommend it. Not cheap, from what I remember.

I went with garmin for the 180: 430W, SL30, 340 audio p, GTX330, 796 (panel mt) and (2) 106s.

bigrenna wrote:I went with garmin for the 180: 430W, SL30, 340 audio p, GTX330, 796 (panel mt) and (2) 106s.

That's nearly identical to what AKTahoe is running, minus the 796. That is a nice arrangement for IFR.

Again,since you noted that you are planning "light" IFR, I'd strongly suggest looking carefully at the WHOLE instrument panel. There are some good suggestions on here for radios, but If limited funds are an issue, I'd be looking carefully at instrumentation as well as radios. Good instrumentation and some backup can save your life in IMC.

So, save some of that budget for instrumentation as well as radios.

MTV

The thread has drifted over from radios to some light IFR flying.
I remember being in Switzerland with the owner of an airframe manufacturer. He was arguing against new glass panels and AHRS units. I leaned over and asked him if he had wound his watch this morning.
He says.... Neeek (Nick) I no winda my watch.... eeees electric.
See Remo, I tell him, no more Swiss watch makers depending on springs and gears and jewels.
The point of this short story is depending on vacuum pumps in the clouds. Bad ju ju.

For your low cost panel.... look at the Dynon portable EFIS. About $1300 and you just clip the mount into an empty 3 1/8 panel hole. Runs on eithe the internal lithium or external power.
I picked one up 6 months ago. It has been running since and never rolls over or dies.
Has pseudo airspeed tape and altimeter tape. Also heading and a slip skid ball. Pretty much duplicates what is in their panel mount gear for the experimental crowd.
And by the way folks... Dogpilot has about the most accurate real world data that I have seen out there. Where I work... we sell over 10K items from the catalog to avionics shops. I visit shops weekly.
I hear the horror stories of the local FSDO coming over to "approve" things. Now why a 406 replacing a 121.5 is a systems change is beyond me. As Dogpilot mentioned, the FAA is no longer about safety.
I used to really piss them off when they ranted about safety. I always asked how many pilot funerals they had attended. none.... They don't really care about you, your safety, the public's safety or the history of aviation. Just the paycheck. And the last one I had a close encounter with was really enamored with his shiny gold badge and leather case they had given him.

The dynon unit's look pretty nice flightlogic! Might have to install one of those.

I will reconsider my instrument selection as well before I fly any IFR MTV. My RC Allen vacuum driven attitude indicator went tango uniform a few hours ago. It would be very discomforting to experience such a failure in the clouds. I always figured that the vacuum gauge technology had proven its reliability and dependability.

My opinion on vacuum pumps...very very dangerous, complicated. Backup suction devices are a joke! I have tried them in my early days. Never was happy. Frustrating.

Electric gyros costs more but, for IMC, I would not use anything else. Present day electronics makes good sense to me. Hopefully China will receive PMA and offer $150 flight gyros.

Vacuum, electric, all that stuff fails and at about the same rates. The great hope is solid state. With a shrinking market, I do not expect them to be cheaper, ever. To add some smoke to the mix, NTSB has now made blacked out EFIS, of any kind, a reportable incident. While some may have had better luck with electrics, being a re-seller, I love the overhaul prices. It is far better to make 15% of $2k than $300. Electrics are just about double to triple the OH price or initial purchase price. I've got a pair for sale if anybody's wants some. If you like Castleberry, then you will really love them when you have to fix it. The standby Castelberry or their remarked Mid-Continent versions of it at over $10K! Just put two in to back up Garmin 600 systems in a government Twin Otter (that is the gyro with the 30 minute battery, to comply with regs).

While I have solid state in my personal aircraft, I have it backed up with vacuum. I have had to do a no gyro hard IFR approach due to complete electrical failure, on an aircraft that in theory cannot have a complete electrical failure (E2C, no battery BTW and cost $205,000,000 each). I don't think the controllers are very good at stop turn, start turn directions any more, and there are very few GCA's left. Vacuum vs electrics is a chevy ford argument, put in whatever you can afford and hope for the best. Practice partial panel, the stuff will fail, all of it, and always on a dark and stormy night. While my aircraft is IFR, I do not intentionally launch into hard IFR in little planes. It is there to get me out of trouble or to go to more urbane areas on a IFR flight plan and let down through some layers. Yes I'm now a chicken, but the small aircraft are not as stable as a Chieftain for example and make pretty awful IFR platforms in the long run. Great to practice with a safety pilot and learn, but not really the safest thing to do actual in as a regular practice.

The big issue is indicators, like CDI's. The sway in prices is huge, depending rectilinear, composite VOR and so on. Lots of older units are not comparable with some GPS. Wiring units that take composite is very simple, as is nav switching to single indicators. R/L Up/Down wiring is more complex, but opens up a wider field of indicators. If your GPS is handheld, then your options for display are kind of restricted to the unit itself. This makes the GPS for backup only to traditional approaches. Money solves all these issues.

That a lot of issues.

Lots of food for thought. One good point made though. Hard IFR & little one motor planes:trouble.
Eventually. Unless you stay in a position to see out the window. Great for ratings and a low layer now and then. ICE? Forget it. You don't have bleed air heat or enough power to out climb it.
Good luck and thanks for spending money. Keeps the economy going.

I went real simple, 3 screens and 2 boxes. That's it, but this setup does double what any GA plane I've ever piloted could do.

EFIS - EMS - GPS - Radio/Transponder

(oh and remote ELT switch, master, ignition, fuses, etc etc of course)

EFIS and EMS screens are both the big Dynon kind, with functionality abound, from DA calcs and winds aloft on-screen to all the fuel calcs, shock-cooling detection, AoA, g-forces, and all fully configurable..... I have yet to even remember it all they do so much.....
The GPS is Garmin 296 but mounted in-panel, you know what they do. The radio is MGL-V6 and can monitor dual channels, does intercom, music, phone calls, noise filtering, everything but make breakfast, and is smaller & lighter than the box of tea bags you'd need for breakfast. I was genuinely impressed.
The Transponder is just a stock KT76A made from two broken units (real cheap).

The whole install would barely break 20lbs!!! I tell you what, experimental avionics have come a long way.

Edit to add photo: