N307TW’s Panel is finally done!

[n307tw]

After over a year of planning and fabricating the custom panel myself I finally finished my B-Model main panel, and audio panels today. It’s been a relief getting the custom touches completed. Here is some background on the custom panel and for those wanting a bigger EFIS on the B-Model panel, how I did it.

I was told the bottom support couldn’t be cut for structural reasons on the B-Model so I decided to go up instead. I really liked the bigger screen and capability of the Garmin system and didn’t want to compromise.


I first started by cutting into the glareshield, built custom brackets, and built a fiberglass hump and while its not the most aesthetically appealing, it’s quite functional and enabled me to do several things. It allowed me to install a flush mounted compass, it also allowed me to install a float fuel level sender in the top of the fuel tank instead of mounting the standard Sonex capacitance probe from the bottom. That way if it ever needs to be replaced I can easily remove the fiberglass hump and replace it with five screws. The mount the float goes into is permanently bolted and sealed to the tank. All holes in the tank including oops fittings were coated with the 3M ProSeal found most affordably through Vans Aircraft. The hump also allowed me to route the fresh air vents to the top of the panel rather than underneath.



The hump is secured with 3M dual lock industrial Velcro and four plastic fender retainers. I also built out a larger lip to install some red LED lighting for night flights. The larger lip will also block out some sun and prevent glare hopefully. Everything from the panel to the glareshield, lip, and hump is wrapped with carbon fiber vinyl. The switch panels are 1/8” plastic which are painted and then laser etched and backlit with led strips. There’s a built in cup holder that came out of a wrecked Audi that pushes in and out of the panel with the touch of a finger mechanically.

Since I went higher, I designed larger sub panel pieces that are flush riveted to the original panel plate provided by Sonex. The larger panels are made of .050” T6061 to give it more strength as well. The holes for EFIS, Air Ducts and IPad were CNC’d to make it look nicer for installation. Nothing was made removable since the EFIS hole is so large I can get to everything from that hole or from up above with the fiberglass hump removed. The EFIS is the 10.6” Garmin GDU 460 from the G3X platform. There was room to mount the engine monitor (GEA 24) directly behind it. The transponder, radio, ELT, and other assorted equipment were all remote mounted behind the seat in the cargo area. The iPad Mini is mounted using a flush mount by Guardian and there is a USB port behind the panel to give it power. There’s an additional USB power port on right side of panel. The cigarette plug is always powered in case of emergencies or to back feed the battery with a possible solar array in the future.

The entire system is based on automotive fuses but there are many components that utilize Garmin’s vertical power unit (GAD 27). The flaps, manual trim tab (with Ray Allen Servo) and landing lights all run through it. There is also the B&C overvoltage crowbar system integrated in my electrical system as well. The avionics bus has its own fuse panel in the cargo area. The only systems to have circuit breakers are the roll/pitch autopilot servos, flaps, and trim servos. This is in case any one of these components runaway; I can easily pull the power. Garmin states it’s autopilot servos have a clutch system, but it is peace of mind.

The audio panels are located behind the pilot/passenger and have integrated Bose ANR ports for the A20 headset or standard headset connections. The circuit breakers like mentioned above are on the passenger side for easy access to the pilot to pull in an emergency.



There are a lot of controls integrated into the stick grip which I think is pretty neat but also a safety feature. Elevator trim, flaps, pilot PTT, frequency swap, wings emergency level, and autopilot disconnect are the main functions I decided should be at my fingertips without trying to look at and fumble with buttons on the panel. Of course with more functions, comes more wiring and complexity but that of course now comes with experience.

I hope this gives a little insight as to my thought process and my OCD for a perfect panel. I’m sure I missed something, feel free to reach out if you have any questions!

-Tim


All lit up!



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Spaceman]

Very nice! I am pretty far into the planning stage of a G3X system for my B model. I gave up trying to figure out how to squeeze a GDU 460 in pretty early so I'm planning on using a 450... I hadn't considered expanding upward!! I wish they had like a 9" display.

Have you wired up the rest of your Garmin stuff yet? If you have any pics or diagrams I'd love to see them. I just posted my planned G3X diagram in my thread in the electrical forum.

[n307tw]

Yes everything is up and running with my system. The only exception is my roll servo which is in my left wing and not attached to the plane. My setup includes the following LRUs:

GDU 460 - 10.6” PFD
GEA 24 - EIS
GSU 25 - AHARS
GMU 11 - Magnetometer
GAD 27 - VPU
GPS 20 - WAAS GPS
GTR 20 - Remote Comm
GTX 35R - Mode S Transponder/ADS-B Out
GSA 28 - Roll Autopilot Servo
GSA 28 - Pitch Autopilot Servo
GDL 39 - ADS-B In (Backup AHARS)
ACK-E04 - ELT

I fabricated a shelf behind the seat and wired up a separate 12VDC bus and ground bus for the avionics. When I formalize the electrical drawings for the DAR I will post them. (This is an older picture some things have changed including some wire placement).


Any other questions, let me know!

-Tim


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Spaceman]

Looks good! I am planning all the same LRU's except the smaller display and no GAD 27. I was thinking of using a GTX 45R for transponder and ADSB in/out all in one, but what you're doing is quite a bit cheaper so maybe I'll change my plan a bit.

So you're putting everything in the baggage area. Are you going to make another panel to cover all that stuff so you still have a baggage compartment? I haven't bought anything yet except one servo and mounting brackets for the servos and ELT. I got the servo mounts crammed under the seat, and I was thinking I'd put the GEA and GSU on the side of the forward fuselage somewhere, and the GPS, GTR, and GTX maybe on the side panels in the baggage compartment... Something like that. Where are you putting the GMU? That one seemed to have the most strict mounting considerations. I figured somewhere in the aft fuselage but I haven't gotten that far yet!

[WaiexN143NM]

Wow tim!
beautiful work ! will look forward to see it in person at oshkosh flightline.

best,

WaiexN143NM
Michael

[Spaceman]

I was thinking about this GDL for ADSB-In more last night and I think it's a pretty good idea. I'm also planning to use an iPad mount next to my display. A GDL and iPad of course each have their own battery, so even with a total aircraft electrical failure you'd have a charged iPad with Foreflight or whatever, being fed GPS position/altitude/speed from the (also charged) GDL. My plan to use a GTX 45R would give me the iPad backup but nothing to feed it data, so I was considering bringing a Stratus or something along, but this will do all that and it's cheaper!

I was shopping for GDL 39's and it looks like the one with AHRS is the GDL 39 3D. I couldn't really find them for sale, looks like they've been superseded by the GDL 50.

Here are the MSRP's of these bits for anyone else working on figuring this out too... it's painful how expensive this stuff is. I'm starting to think I'll swap from option 1 to option 3!

[n307tw]

Thanks Michael! Looking forward to Oshkosh as well.

Spaceman,

I already had the GDL39 and iPad so I didn’t have to incur those costs again. That’s why I went with that Ads-b in option. The two additional costs associated with that however were the permanent antenna I mounted underneath the fuselage for it and the power/rs-232 cable for it as well. I’m using the RS-232 connection directly into the GDU-460 for traffic in but can also use the built in Bluetooth as backup for the foreflight in the iPad like I’m used to when I rent my 172 currently. Lots of redundancy.

The GMU11 I mounted up high in the turtledeck away from metallic objects like directed. I couldn’t get it 6 feet away like preferred but it is 3 feet from anything steel. Hoping there is minimal interference there. I decided to mount the roll servo in the left wing near the aileron crank and the pitch servo on my avionics shelf attached to the control rod connection.

As far as the baggage area I’m going to make up a soft sling type baggage area similar to what Mike Smith has in his plane. It will be shallower than his and I’ll be able to get to it either from above in the cockpit or will have a zipper access so I can get to it from the cargo door I installed on the pilot side of the plane. It will have aluminum tubing reinforcement on the bottom also similar to what he has as well. I really like his setup. Below the baggage sling is spare space on a metal shelf I built where I will have my small tool bag with necessary tools for small repairs permanently strapped down. Next to it is my avionics bus fuse panel and my GDL39 that I can take out and use if I decide to go fly something else.



Thanks for the questions!

-Tim

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Spaceman]

Looks good!! Thanks for the pictures. That GMU spot looks about like what I was picturing. That's probably as good as you can get in our plane, besides putting it in a wing!

What are you using for your remote GDL ADSB-in antenna? Is that required or is it just to get better reception than the little built-in antenna? Where are you mounting all your antennas? That's one thing still on my list that I haven't really started thinking about yet. They all have restrictions and limitations that it seems like it'll be hard to adhere to on such a small plane.

That cargo door looks great! Is that a static port behind it? I take it you're using the Garmin pitot/AOA probe... any issues mounting that thing? When I built my wings I mounted the plans specified Aircraft Spruce pitot tube. I'm planning on replacing that with the Garmin one and using the pneumatic lines that I already ran for it, and just adding a static port somewhere.

Thanks!

[n307tw]

I am using the Rami AV-74 antenna for both the transponder ADS-B out and another one two feet over right next to it for ADS-B in. There’s no restriction for the GDL as far as how close it is to the transponder and I did it purely for reception since I did not want to to mount the GDL on the dash and have it possibly overheat in the sun. I’m also not using it for GPS reception so that’s why it’s in the cargo hold. The only thing you need is a SMA cable and a SMA to BNC adaptor for the antenna. I have both transponder/ADS-B antennas mounted underneath the forward fuselage near the rear spar channel.

As far as the Garmin AOA probe I am using the un-heated one. I bought the Universal mount for it from ACS and then I had Mike at mykitplanes.com (same guy who made me the cargo door) make me a custom mount that will screw into the wing skin. There’s a backing that I already riveted in place that gives it strength and has nutplates integrated as well.



Good eye on the static port I have one on either side of the fuselage in the same exact spot that are tee’d in together. They are held onto the skin with 3M pro-seal the same stuff used in the fuel tank and bought from Vans. This is commonly used by the RV guys and seems to be holding up well.

The rest of the antennas are mounted on the turtledeck and held in place with nutplates for easy access with the exception of the ELT antenna. From front to rear is the SiriusXM for my portable radio, the Garmin GPS antenna, ACK ELT antenna, and Rami AV-10 Comm antenna. Garmin says the Comm antenna has to be a of minimum three feet from GPS and transponder and this spot meets both requirements. Hope that helps with your planning.



-Tim


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[richd]

Hi Tim, careful with the pro seal. I recall reading someplace that nothing will bond with that tank material. You may find you pro seal in the gas filter at some point while flying. Maybe check with Kerry at Sonex.

Also, thanks so much for posting this. I too don’t think i can compromise and will do almost anything to get the GSU460 in the Sonex B model. Do you have some more pictures of what it looks like behind the g3x? Looking to see what structural you have under the fiberglass hump. Did you put some kind of cross bar or something to tie the fiberglass together under the fiberglass?

Also, it looks like you just need an extra inch to get the gsu460 in. Is there any reason you went so much higher than you May have needed to to fit the gsu460 in?