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I live in the Florida Keys. I've been in the military and worked inside the Beltway. I've had 22 technical books and two novels published. I fly, boat, dive, shoot, and swim pretty damn well.

Sunday, June 3, 2007

Planning a Cockpit Layout


I made an assumption and it did make an ass of me. The great joy of buying a new plane is that you get to plan the panel layout. The folks at AMD who made my Zodiac 601XL have some nice panel planning software.
But, apparently during an attack of the "cheaps", I didn't give the person in the right seat a direct view of any type of artificial horizon. I assumed that co-pilot could just glance over and see the very large AI display on the Dynon D180 in front of the pilot. It just isn't so. And, of course, one thing you learn from flying in Florida is that the real horizon often isn't there. We call it flying "inside the milk bottle". Sea glare, clouds, moisture, smoke, and other tricks of nature all conspire to remove the horizon in Florida. I should have coughed up the bucks and put a smaller Dynon D-10A on the right side. Now, I would have to relocate the trim indicators and the ELT controls to get it in. I might squeeze in a small electric AI, but the D-10A isn't much bigger and it provides 100% backup.
Lessons learned.

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