Skywagon City for the louvers and the STC from the Skywagon club.

Been meaning to get this pic posted for a while now. It is of the new panels, the final major project for the 185 (for now). I am thrilled with how things came out.

Pictures don't do any justice!!!

Looks first class!!

Looks great! We need more pictures!

robw56 wrote:Looks great! We need more pictures!

Happy to oblige. Pictures of ???

Maybe I don't need more pictures It's been a while since I've seen your thread and I forgot what the rest looked like! I just looked through the rest of the pages, nice looking airplane! More pics are always welcome though... Keeps me motivated for my project

Phil-

Super job! Wish I was that dedicated!

gunny

Thanks guys. Thought I point out a couple of items that may not be so obvious from left to right (picture below) beginning with:

Dual accessory plugs (on both sides)
Initially I installed one on each side, but they are so convenient, allowing me to keep my iPhone. iPad, Stratus and inReach in a constant, full state of charge, that I added a second one on each side. I keep dual 2.1 amp USB adapters in each of the accessory plugs so I could power eight USB devices at once. I'm consuming four spots so that leaves room for people flying with me to keep their phone and/or tablet charged.

It's not that often I have folks in the back seats, but I wish I had added accessory plugs there when that area was gutted.

Carbon Monoxide, Density Altitude etc
Getting this gauge and locating it where I did was absolutely the right thing to do. It's prominent location reminds me to check the DA before takeoff, and when CO is present I detect the gauge change almost immediately, and it has a warning light if the CO reaches a dangerous level.

inReach SE
Ram Mount makes a holder for the inReach SE. I wasn't able to locate it on their website but Delorme has it for purchase on theirs. I mounted it just below the chicken strap on the door post. Perfect, out of the way location, yet within easy reach for me and the right seat occupant in case the S.O.S. needs to be triggered. I configured it to power on when it receives power through the accessory plug so I don't have to remember to turn it on, but I do have to remember to turn it off once I'm back on the ground. I could configure it to turn off automatically but would negate its usefulness in the event of a forced landing.

Powered Headset Jacks (LEMO)
Absolutely love these. No more changing out headset batteries. I will definitely add these to the SQ-2 as soon as it's down here.

Cup Holders
Haven't actually used these yet, but they seem like a good idea. Cessna part and are surprisingly inexpensive. They don't weigh anything. There usefulness is restricted to tapered cups, but I figure they're better then nothing.

Switches
I put these in an order that made sense to me. Basically how I power things up (from left to right) and how I power things down (right to left). I also chose the switch cover colors, which was quite a laugh for my IA as they apparently don't coincide with how they are usually used. But made sense to me. Here is my thinking.
Red - the beacon is red (at least the front half). I leave this switch in the on position always.
Black - the avionics stack looks black
Green - cause I couldn't find a cover that was half green and half red and I am already using red for the beacon
White - cause strobe lights are white
Maxpulse - I love the functions of this switch
Blue - cause ice is blue, or at least usually represented by blue

If I had this to do over what would I change?
Only one thing. I'd loose the arm rests on the door panels. Their only usefulness is to pull the door closed, and then only when the seats are back. Could easily accomplish this with chicken straps placed more forward and higher up on the door, that would make sitting side by side much more comfortable.

What do I still want to do?
Add altitude hold to the autopilot. $7k job which I will do later this year.

What might I do?
I'm still being drawn to adding R-STOL. But I need to fly a 185 that has one first before I decide.

3-blade prop. Would either be an MT or a Mac 401 86". But I'd need to fly 185's that have them before deciding. And I'm not disappointed with my 86" Mac 2-blade, so not sure if I will ever make this change.

Anyway, thanks for letting me share this project and thanks for sharing yours, and sharing your opinions. You guys have been a great help.

Thanks for the update Phil. Well done on the 185 project!

It looks much better in person. Pictures don't do it any justice.

Where did you get the USB plugs? My cub doesn't have any 12v plugs or anything, I need to add them

Tom wrote:Where did you get the USB plugs? My cub doesn't have any 12v plugs or anything, I need to add them

The USB chargers I got here:
http://www.scosche.com/usb-car-charger-dual-port

The accessory plugs I got here:
http://12vtechnology.ecrater.com/

Out of interest who ended up doing your panel blanks? I know you we're having a few issues along the way. PM me if you don't want to diss any shop on here
Got my MT on order Phil, will let you know what I think in a couple of months when it finally gets here!

NZMaule wrote:Out of interest who ended up doing your panel blanks? I know you we're having a few issues along the way. PM me if you don't want to diss any shop on here
Got my MT on order Phil, will let you know what I think in a couple of months when it finally gets here!

Excited for you about the prop, looking forward to pictures and a performance report.

SairCorp/Flight Boss Ltd was the company I started with on the panels, and ultimately who made the panels. The quality of work is second to none. I would use them again. But....

The panel project was without a doubt the most expensive, annoying, and time consuming part of this project. I'm glad I did it and would do it again (but wouldn't be happy while it was going on). From start to finish it took about six months. Part of the problem was I wanted to keep flying the 185 until we were ready to actually install the new panels. In hindsight I could have cut the time in half if I had been willing to ground the plane for the duration.

For those who haven't followed this, about four months in I was getting very frustrated and tried to get panels locally. One local vendor said they could create the cad drawings, send it to another local vendor to be cut, and a third local vendor to be powder coated. And everything would be done in two weeks. After three weeks the cad drawings hadn't even been done. Fortunately I hadn't burned any bridges so just continued the project with SairCorp/Flight Boss.

A big time killer was shipping. They'd ship pvc templates (that would take four or five days) we'd mark up corrections and ship them back (that would take four or five days). Repeat. In between of course I'd have to get on my IA's schedule (he was real good about getting me in), and they would have to make changes to the cad drawing and recut the templates.

Once my A&P/IA and I had approved the final pvc templates the metal panels had to be cut and shipped for final test fitting. It was at this point that we pulled every instrument and switch out of the plane. Prior to this we just overlayed the templates and took measurements - lots of measurements. But we were still off just a little. At this point I went to shipping everything overnight, both ways. You can imagine the cost. But that created a sense of urgency for everyone and I was put on the front burner.

Now we had the completed panels in hand and it was time to install them, beginning with the lower panel containing the switches and breakers. Should be easy yes. Just swap wiring off the old breaker to the new one. Nope. After 40 years of mechanics working on the plane none of the breakers actually did what they were labeled they did. None. And of course there were wires that went nowhere. And wires that went from one side of the cockpit to the other, around instruments, and hooked right back into the same wire they came off of - just at a different location. And wires that weren't hooked up right - which probably explained why the 185 flew in a giant circle on autopilot coupled to the gps before, and has tracked fine after, even though we didn't address the problem directly.

I have to smile, as we started the install of the new panels, before the wiring lunacy was identified, my A&P/IA told me it should only take maybe three days. Of course it took two weeks. I was at his side the entire time acting as his "nurse". Each night I'd come home and my wife would ask "is it done now?" knowing full well what the answer was.

The end result is worth it. Front to back the plane is now wired correctly, and everything is protected with dedicated circuit breakers. What a project.

Thanks for the update, can't see myself having the time and resources to do the panel just yet. Sounds like a major PITA and I doubt my 40 year old wiring will be any better than yours. I'll have to put up with the plastic panels, Velcro and whatever else semi holds them on for a while yet.

Phil

Looks great and functional!

Barnstormer wrote:...After 40 years of mechanics working on the plane none of the breakers actually did what they were labeled they did. None. And of course there were wires that went nowhere. And wires that went from one side of the cockpit to the other, around instruments, and hooked right back into the same wire they came off of - just at a different location. And wires that weren't hooked up right...

Sorry but I had to chuckle at this comment, this is the exact reason I started tearing into my 180 recently. After finding a couple hot wires in the spaghetti mess terminated with a side cutter, I decided it was time for a wiring and panel makeover...I just couldn't bear the thought of an electrical fire in flight.

Of course that project turned into a whole different beast, and I hate being AOG, but I'll sure fly more comfortably once she's back in the air.

Sometimes I wonder how an A&P could let some of this fly (pun intended)

bart wrote:...After finding a couple hot wires in the spaghetti mess terminated with a side cutter, I decided it was time for a wiring and panel makeover...I just couldn't bear the thought of an electrical fire in flight.

Oh yea I had a couple of those as well. Scary.

And just when you think you've seen it all you come across a bundle of wires that goes right through the center, at a 90 degree angle, of another bundle of wires. What? Ran out of tie-wraps did we? (Or more likely that cool twisty stuff my A&P/IA introduced me to that reminded me of twist ties used to seal plastic bags. What are they called? Can't recall)

One of our local 185's had a wire that was laying on the fuel flow meter line. After a zillion hours it wore through the teflon and arced a tiny hole in the fuel line. That proceeded to pump out a fuel mist. The wire arced again and WHOOOFF, instant fireball wrapping around the pilot's legs.

Jason dove for the ground (small poof poof poofing under the panel after the initial fireball), landed on Hwy 25 south of town (was on hydraulic skis but didn't have them down and opted for the road), missed signs and mailboxes and bailed out of the airplane. Got enough courage to crawl back and shut the master off and other than a burned wire bundle, no damage. WHEW!

Barnstormer,

How do these cessna cup holders work? Could you share a part number and source for them? Thanks!