Jay Honeck
Touchdown! Greaser!
As many of you know, we purchased an already-flying Van's RV-8A last summer. She's been a great plane, but she was cursed with what I call a "drunk monkey" panel. In other words, it looked like a drunk monkey hurled parts at the panel, and wherever they stuck, they were installed.
Not that it was all bad. The Garmin GNC-300XL was a fine, if old tech GPS/Com, and the TruTrack autopilot simply can't be beat. When the time came to upgrade the panel, I decided to retain those two instruments -- and not much else.
Here's the panel we started with:
Note the low-hanging panel extension on the left side (for the carb and cabin heat controls) as well as the transponder on the right hanging down like an old 8-track player in a '74 Pinto. Both of those items were responsible for multiple cuts and bruises to my knees, and had to go!
Step 1 -- Which glass?
One of the reasons we jumped to Experimental was the cost to upgrade our Cherokee 235 Pathfinder with modern avionics was cost prohibitive. In fact, the estimates I received exceeded the value of the plane, which made upgrading absurd.
With E-AB aircraft, we had several options to choose from. These were:
- Garmin
- Dynon
- Grand Rapids Technologies (GRT)
- Advanced
All of these were fine products, with approximately equivalent capabilities. Garmin had the gravitas of being, well, Garmin (but at a significantly higher price tag). Dynon is the industry leader in RV avionics. Advanced I knew very little about (and still don't know much about them).
And then there was GRT. All of my engine instrumentation was GRT brand stuff, connected to the (truly awful) GRT EIS 4000 in the top dead center of our panel. This instrument was NOT a selling point, for me -- in fact, it's a laughably bad instrument for the depiction of engine information -- but their Horizon line of EFIS had a fine reputation, and linked seamlessly to the EIS 4000, eliminating the need for it in the panel.
After some research, I decided to go with the GRT Horizon HXr 10.5" screen. This decision meant that we did not have to do any work from the firewall forward -- everything connected from the EIS to the EFIS with just a single wire.
Another reason to go with GRT was that their EFIS bluetoothed to any Android tablet, reproducing the information on the EFIS. In a tandem-seat plane like the RV-8A, this meant that we would instantly have a full back-seat EFIS, essentially for free, displayed on our Android Nexus 7 tablet! Sweet.
Step 2 - Decide what you want -- and DON'T want.
The EFIS's available today have the ability to do everything, from autopilot, to radios, to transponder and ADS-B. I decided that I wanted the radios SEPARATE from the big screen, I wanted to retain the excellent, stand-alone TruTrak autopilot, but that the transponder and ADS-B stuff should be integral to the EFIS. So that's the way we went, adding a PS Engineering PAR-100 com/intercom/entertainment/audio panel, retaining the Garmin GNC-300XL as Com 2, and going with the GRT's built-in transponder and ADS-B in/out.
And size really does matter. I was set on getting the (cheaper) 8" screen, until I made the mistake of sitting in an RV-7 with BOTH sizes on the panel. The 10.5" screen was a tight fit in the -8, but there is simply no comparison. And my 55-year-old eyes appreciate it.
Step 3 - Layout
One of the hardest things about doing a new panel is the layout. In the olden days, you would take cardboard cutouts and move them around on the panel until it looked "right". Nowadays, places like SteinAir (in Minneapolis) offer panel design and layout for free, letting you mix, match, and experiment with ease. Best of all, they know the space requirements of each instrument, and the details of what is behind your aircraft's panel -- so the guesswork is largely removed.
Because my buddy who was going to help me with the install is based in Minnesota, I opted to go with Stein for design, and the purchase of all avionics. This worked out well, and -- after a dozen or more tweaks via email -- we arrived at a beautiful and functional design.
Step 4 - Installation.
Even though I knew it would be difficult, I grossly underestimated the complexity of ripping out an instrument panel and starting over. Thankfully, I recruited expert assistance and advice from my friend who helped me find Amelia in the first place -- a guy with years of experience building RVs. Without him, the installation would have taken five times longer, and not been nearly as good.
Even WITH him, it was ten 10-hour days of hard, non-stop, few-breaks work. It's not a job for the faint of heart.
The end results, however, are stunning. Amelia now sports a 21st-century panel, with synthetic vision, live traffic and weather (ADS-B in and out), all slaved to a world-class autopilot that will fly a synthetic approach (Highway in the Sky) to any runway in North America -- even grass strips.
I no longer have an unreliable vacuum system to worry about -- we pulled the pump and all associated hoses, and put a cap on the engine where the pump once mounted. Everything has been moved up in the panel, so I no longer bloody my knees every time we fly. Best of all, I ended up with a panel that offers more capability than the ones we looked at adding to our Cherokee -- for about 1/5th the price.
Here are a bunch of pix from the installation. It was quite an ordeal, but well worth it in the end!
Here's a view inside the luggage compartment -- which provides access to the back of the panel. Much of what we did was done through the access panels.
The old panel and vacuum system OUT:
You know you're in deep water when your panel looks like this:
First fitting of the big screen. One big advantage to such a big screen is that you can do most of the panel work THROUGH that big hole!
This was my view for ten days.
"Wings" made, everything ready for assembly.
Lots and lots of bench work, metal work, etc.
The days dragged on, and on...
Keeping long wire harnesses straight was a 2-man job. This goes to the magnetometer in the tail.
Tom is a bit smaller than me, so he drew the short straw and had to shinny into the tailcone of an RV-8A! There is NO room in there!
It's not just panel and tail work. Three new antennas had to be installed on the belly, and two new GPS antennas on the panel.
Stein's blueprints were very good.
Gotta paint everything...
Let final reassembly of the painted parts commence!
Starting to look like a panel!
Once it's all working, you've got a day of configuring everything. It's basically a big computer.
End results: Mary flying the Synthetic Approach to RWY 12 at Mustang Beach Airport (KRAS), our home 'drome.
Here's a pic of the GRT Horizon screen showing ADS-B weather (in the right inset screen), and the matching view out the windscreen. Run away!
EDIT: Almost forgot -- did you wonder where the EIS-4000 ended up being mounted? You can't remove it, because it acts as a "compiler" of engine data that is then fed to the EFIS -- but where to put it? (Lots of guys mount it under/behind the panel, out of sight forever.)
How about in the luggage compartment? If we're working on the engine, we can read the data (from its rudimentary screen), and get SOME use out of it!
Questions? Shoot away!
Not that it was all bad. The Garmin GNC-300XL was a fine, if old tech GPS/Com, and the TruTrack autopilot simply can't be beat. When the time came to upgrade the panel, I decided to retain those two instruments -- and not much else.
Here's the panel we started with:
Note the low-hanging panel extension on the left side (for the carb and cabin heat controls) as well as the transponder on the right hanging down like an old 8-track player in a '74 Pinto. Both of those items were responsible for multiple cuts and bruises to my knees, and had to go!
Step 1 -- Which glass?
One of the reasons we jumped to Experimental was the cost to upgrade our Cherokee 235 Pathfinder with modern avionics was cost prohibitive. In fact, the estimates I received exceeded the value of the plane, which made upgrading absurd.
With E-AB aircraft, we had several options to choose from. These were:
- Garmin
- Dynon
- Grand Rapids Technologies (GRT)
- Advanced
All of these were fine products, with approximately equivalent capabilities. Garmin had the gravitas of being, well, Garmin (but at a significantly higher price tag). Dynon is the industry leader in RV avionics. Advanced I knew very little about (and still don't know much about them).
And then there was GRT. All of my engine instrumentation was GRT brand stuff, connected to the (truly awful) GRT EIS 4000 in the top dead center of our panel. This instrument was NOT a selling point, for me -- in fact, it's a laughably bad instrument for the depiction of engine information -- but their Horizon line of EFIS had a fine reputation, and linked seamlessly to the EIS 4000, eliminating the need for it in the panel.
After some research, I decided to go with the GRT Horizon HXr 10.5" screen. This decision meant that we did not have to do any work from the firewall forward -- everything connected from the EIS to the EFIS with just a single wire.
Another reason to go with GRT was that their EFIS bluetoothed to any Android tablet, reproducing the information on the EFIS. In a tandem-seat plane like the RV-8A, this meant that we would instantly have a full back-seat EFIS, essentially for free, displayed on our Android Nexus 7 tablet! Sweet.
Step 2 - Decide what you want -- and DON'T want.
The EFIS's available today have the ability to do everything, from autopilot, to radios, to transponder and ADS-B. I decided that I wanted the radios SEPARATE from the big screen, I wanted to retain the excellent, stand-alone TruTrak autopilot, but that the transponder and ADS-B stuff should be integral to the EFIS. So that's the way we went, adding a PS Engineering PAR-100 com/intercom/entertainment/audio panel, retaining the Garmin GNC-300XL as Com 2, and going with the GRT's built-in transponder and ADS-B in/out.
And size really does matter. I was set on getting the (cheaper) 8" screen, until I made the mistake of sitting in an RV-7 with BOTH sizes on the panel. The 10.5" screen was a tight fit in the -8, but there is simply no comparison. And my 55-year-old eyes appreciate it.
Step 3 - Layout
One of the hardest things about doing a new panel is the layout. In the olden days, you would take cardboard cutouts and move them around on the panel until it looked "right". Nowadays, places like SteinAir (in Minneapolis) offer panel design and layout for free, letting you mix, match, and experiment with ease. Best of all, they know the space requirements of each instrument, and the details of what is behind your aircraft's panel -- so the guesswork is largely removed.
Because my buddy who was going to help me with the install is based in Minnesota, I opted to go with Stein for design, and the purchase of all avionics. This worked out well, and -- after a dozen or more tweaks via email -- we arrived at a beautiful and functional design.
Step 4 - Installation.
Even though I knew it would be difficult, I grossly underestimated the complexity of ripping out an instrument panel and starting over. Thankfully, I recruited expert assistance and advice from my friend who helped me find Amelia in the first place -- a guy with years of experience building RVs. Without him, the installation would have taken five times longer, and not been nearly as good.
Even WITH him, it was ten 10-hour days of hard, non-stop, few-breaks work. It's not a job for the faint of heart.
The end results, however, are stunning. Amelia now sports a 21st-century panel, with synthetic vision, live traffic and weather (ADS-B in and out), all slaved to a world-class autopilot that will fly a synthetic approach (Highway in the Sky) to any runway in North America -- even grass strips.
I no longer have an unreliable vacuum system to worry about -- we pulled the pump and all associated hoses, and put a cap on the engine where the pump once mounted. Everything has been moved up in the panel, so I no longer bloody my knees every time we fly. Best of all, I ended up with a panel that offers more capability than the ones we looked at adding to our Cherokee -- for about 1/5th the price.
Here are a bunch of pix from the installation. It was quite an ordeal, but well worth it in the end!
Here's a view inside the luggage compartment -- which provides access to the back of the panel. Much of what we did was done through the access panels.
The old panel and vacuum system OUT:
You know you're in deep water when your panel looks like this:
First fitting of the big screen. One big advantage to such a big screen is that you can do most of the panel work THROUGH that big hole!
This was my view for ten days.
"Wings" made, everything ready for assembly.
Lots and lots of bench work, metal work, etc.
The days dragged on, and on...
Keeping long wire harnesses straight was a 2-man job. This goes to the magnetometer in the tail.
Tom is a bit smaller than me, so he drew the short straw and had to shinny into the tailcone of an RV-8A! There is NO room in there!
It's not just panel and tail work. Three new antennas had to be installed on the belly, and two new GPS antennas on the panel.
Stein's blueprints were very good.
Gotta paint everything...
Let final reassembly of the painted parts commence!
Starting to look like a panel!
Once it's all working, you've got a day of configuring everything. It's basically a big computer.
End results: Mary flying the Synthetic Approach to RWY 12 at Mustang Beach Airport (KRAS), our home 'drome.
Here's a pic of the GRT Horizon screen showing ADS-B weather (in the right inset screen), and the matching view out the windscreen. Run away!
EDIT: Almost forgot -- did you wonder where the EIS-4000 ended up being mounted? You can't remove it, because it acts as a "compiler" of engine data that is then fed to the EFIS -- but where to put it? (Lots of guys mount it under/behind the panel, out of sight forever.)
How about in the luggage compartment? If we're working on the engine, we can read the data (from its rudimentary screen), and get SOME use out of it!
Questions? Shoot away!
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