Instrumentation for the Pietenpol

[Bradley Coleman]

I'm currently still in the very early stages of building my Pietenpol (waiting for wood for wing ribs).
often times in my boredom between my Accounting 202 and ECON 201 classes I get lost in day dreaming about what I could do. Ultimately, I want it to look like a classy wooden plane from its own design days, but when you sit in the cockpit I want that old world to clash with this generation of technology. I haven't given this much thought so forgive my ignorance but... could I install an EFD instead of drilling multiple holes for a number of instruments?
i guess my concerns would be the peripherals that I'm not think of that would need to be installed on the plane. I'm up for it all, so long it doesn't make massive changes to the CG of the plane.

[rwanttaja]

I saw this a couple of weeks back, and seriously drooled at the idea of putting it in a Fly Baby. It's the Aeolus Sense by Talon Avionics. For $600, you get a box that does all the sensing, and wirelessly sends to an Android or Apple Tablet:

http://www.talosavionics.com/aeolus-sense/

Good video explaining the setup:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5EyxTI8fL34

Ron Wanttaja

[Bradley Coleman]

WOW! That's amazing! The only thing you would have to ensure is that you can keep the device of choice charging throughout the flight!

[rwanttaja]

WOW! That's amazing! The only thing you would have to ensure is that you can keep the device of choice charging throughout the flight!

Plenty of car chargers available; one could permanently install one with the appropriate connector on the panel where the tablet goes.

My personal inclination is to just buy a dedicated tablet for the airplane and clamp it to the panel. Tablets are pretty cheap these days, and certainly a used one would be even cheaper and probably a good option.

My only concern would be sunlight readability. However, for a low-and-slow airplane like the Piet or Fly Baby, the EFIS would be more an occasional reference rather than a vital item.

Ron Wanttaja

[Bradley Coleman]

Plenty of car chargers available; one could permanently install one with the appropriate connector on the panel where the tablet goes.

My personal inclination is to just buy a dedicated tablet for the airplane and clamp it to the panel. Tablets are pretty cheap these days, and certainly a used one would be even cheaper and probably a good option.

My only concern would be sunlight readability. However, for a low-and-slow airplane like the Piet or Fly Baby, the EFIS would be more an occasional reference rather than a vital item.

Ron Wanttaja

There are tons a quality glare protectors that are dirt cheap and do a fantastic job. The most common thing I see happen for pilots who use tablets are overheating in direct sunlight. However I can't see this being a problem in open cockpits.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[rwanttaja]

...The most common thing I see happen for pilots who use tablets are overheating in direct sunlight. However I can't see this being a problem in open cockpits.

Well...I've been flying open cockpit almost exclusively for thirty years, and and not as sanguine about avoiding overheating.

A well-designed open cockpit isn't all that drafty, and the slipstream normally won't directly impinge on the panel. And an open-cockpit airplane is probably more likely to be flying on hot days. Plus, of course, the tablet will heat up in the direct sunlight, at least during some parts of the day/some aircraft headings.

There's also the case of the airplane heating up while sitting on the ground. With the sun at the wrong angle, it'll be directly impacting the device. Which, while off, has a dark screen and is more likely to absorb solar heating. Sitting all day at a Fly-In isn't going to help. Though, of course, you would probably dismount the panel for theft prevention anyway. But like I posted earlier, I'm more tending towards a permanent installation.

I'm just a little sensitive about the heat-soak issue. Couple of summers back, my Fly Baby's wings swelled in the heat and sun on the ground enough to cause interference to the ailerons.

http://www.bowersflybaby.com/tech/heat_controls.html

But please, don't take my comments as being negative on the concept. I'd be happy to do it, myself. The only way to really know if one would have a glare or heat problem is to actually install an EFIS in an open-cockpit machine, and I'd love to give it a shot. The great things about Piets and Fly Babies is that the instruments are really secondary; they're not truly vital for flight. If an EFIS craps out in flight, those planes can be easily flown back and landed without gauges.

Ron Wanttaja