mandm
Pattern Altitude
This was a fun project, thanks to YouTube and a couple POA users I was able to get it done. Thank you!
Before
Difficult to see attitude indicator and manifold pressure, used my handy red flashlight while flying at night. Dome light was sporadically working.
After
Able to read all of the instruments, very happy with the end result. The Hobbs meter does not have a light, is this normal? Also the master switch, fuel pump landing light etc do not have any light so it’s difficult to see which one is which at night. EGT light is working too, but the view is blocked by the right seat yoke in the image.
The process
POA has a 10 photo limit otherwise I would have posted more photos. Hope this helps someone else looking to do the same. Remove the panel and twist and turn out the old bulbs, see those silver clips? Those easily fall behind the panel which will result in many %#&$ words trying to get it back in. Use your handy tweezers and take it slow so you don’t lose the bulb housing behind the panel. Luckily all of my panel housing bulbs were changed without issue. The panel plastic is easy to crack and likely you will have an oops, take it slow and be gentle.
Look at that beauty, test them before securing the panel back. Now if you loosen some ground wires in the process you might have to put those back first, I’m not sure. Keep a box to put all of your parts in as stuff will start falling everywhere and you’ll discover new screws even while loosing the ones you need.
The panel bulbs are the easiest. The next part is the bulbs behind the fuel gauges. I removed that wood looking panel, which took a long time, only to discover those instruments cannot be moved and the bulbs have to be accessed invisibly from behind. Move your hand around and use a flashlight (headlamp works best) until you see yourself touching/playing with the bulb, it comes out easily, and the bulb is in pretty tight. You likely won’t be able to see much with your eyes, this is a touch and feel job and here’s an iPhone selfie pic of the bulb.
This part was pretty easy too, there’s 4 bulbs to replace.
The hard part
The bottom left and right (two sides for double the trouble), and the reason it’s difficult is because of the non-removable landing gear knob, alt air knob (at least I think it’s non-removable), and of course other add-ons over the years that further secure the plastic, I didn’t want to unscrew everything so I tried to make enough room to access the space, while causing a couple cracks, oops, but as long as it’s small enough it will go right back in place.
The lost bulb
Just sitting there not allowing me to read the manifold pressure at night. It probably took me an hour or more to get this bulb back into place as it’s impossible to use your thumb and I had to use two fingers to fit it in.
Hope this helps! & some questions
I also changed the red dome light which works nicely. I changed the white dome light too, but now I cannot turn it on. Does anyone know why? There are a couple grounding wires that I secured back and it worked while testing it. I’m not sure if both the red light and dome light won’t work at the same time? Also the red light I do not believe it is a red light, rather a white light with a red plate cover, there was also electrical? tape I imagine to prevent light seepage. Does anyone know what kind of tape it is? The red light is the most important for me and would randomly work before so I’m happy it’s working now, during the day I don’t need the white dome light but I would like to address it eventually. I did also notice that the white dome light was considerably bigger than the red dome light, also the white dome light cover is extremely difficult to remove and I cracked a little corner of it but it goes back up just fine.
Before
Difficult to see attitude indicator and manifold pressure, used my handy red flashlight while flying at night. Dome light was sporadically working.
After
Able to read all of the instruments, very happy with the end result. The Hobbs meter does not have a light, is this normal? Also the master switch, fuel pump landing light etc do not have any light so it’s difficult to see which one is which at night. EGT light is working too, but the view is blocked by the right seat yoke in the image.
The process
POA has a 10 photo limit otherwise I would have posted more photos. Hope this helps someone else looking to do the same. Remove the panel and twist and turn out the old bulbs, see those silver clips? Those easily fall behind the panel which will result in many %#&$ words trying to get it back in. Use your handy tweezers and take it slow so you don’t lose the bulb housing behind the panel. Luckily all of my panel housing bulbs were changed without issue. The panel plastic is easy to crack and likely you will have an oops, take it slow and be gentle.
Look at that beauty, test them before securing the panel back. Now if you loosen some ground wires in the process you might have to put those back first, I’m not sure. Keep a box to put all of your parts in as stuff will start falling everywhere and you’ll discover new screws even while loosing the ones you need.
The panel bulbs are the easiest. The next part is the bulbs behind the fuel gauges. I removed that wood looking panel, which took a long time, only to discover those instruments cannot be moved and the bulbs have to be accessed invisibly from behind. Move your hand around and use a flashlight (headlamp works best) until you see yourself touching/playing with the bulb, it comes out easily, and the bulb is in pretty tight. You likely won’t be able to see much with your eyes, this is a touch and feel job and here’s an iPhone selfie pic of the bulb.
This part was pretty easy too, there’s 4 bulbs to replace.
The hard part
The bottom left and right (two sides for double the trouble), and the reason it’s difficult is because of the non-removable landing gear knob, alt air knob (at least I think it’s non-removable), and of course other add-ons over the years that further secure the plastic, I didn’t want to unscrew everything so I tried to make enough room to access the space, while causing a couple cracks, oops, but as long as it’s small enough it will go right back in place.
The lost bulb
Just sitting there not allowing me to read the manifold pressure at night. It probably took me an hour or more to get this bulb back into place as it’s impossible to use your thumb and I had to use two fingers to fit it in.
Hope this helps! & some questions
I also changed the red dome light which works nicely. I changed the white dome light too, but now I cannot turn it on. Does anyone know why? There are a couple grounding wires that I secured back and it worked while testing it. I’m not sure if both the red light and dome light won’t work at the same time? Also the red light I do not believe it is a red light, rather a white light with a red plate cover, there was also electrical? tape I imagine to prevent light seepage. Does anyone know what kind of tape it is? The red light is the most important for me and would randomly work before so I’m happy it’s working now, during the day I don’t need the white dome light but I would like to address it eventually. I did also notice that the white dome light was considerably bigger than the red dome light, also the white dome light cover is extremely difficult to remove and I cracked a little corner of it but it goes back up just fine.
