New guy with build questions

[Scott Todd]

I agree with Bryan. NEVER get dependent on attitude instruments in VFR. That being said, Sonex's are really not IFR platforms and are meant to be Day VFR airplanes. If you think you want more, get a different airplane.

I've flown dozens of home builts, test flown a dozen (4 Sonex's), and given 1000 hours of dual over most of the lot. When I do a flight review, I like to cover the panel and simulate an engine out after a few regular ones. With some practice, you can do just fine and get to that picked spot every time. Its important to LOOK outside! I see too many Private pilots get too dependent on instruments. If you look at stall/spin accidents, it happens because they are not following basic airman-ship. They are not following the airspeed indicator OR what the sight picture outside the airplane is telling them.

Everyone wants their shiny new airplane to look like a Space Shuttle panel with all the back-ups, what-ifs, etc. Modern EFIS panels just don't quit. And if it does, you are in day VFR, have practiced flying by looking outside, and can just fly to an airport. If it all fails on that rare cross country where you don't know where you are, you can of course whip out your smart phone and pull up your favorite app to give you some info. You've practiced that too, right?

And after you have flown it a few years, learned all about how it flies and what you REALLY want to do with it, you can change the panel. You did make it easily removable, right? After all, you will have to get back there one day anyways. Just ask any airplane owner. Too many builders get locked into a panel design thinking they will be stuck with it.

[fastj22]

Panel dreaming is fun when you are building. Even more fun when you go window shopping at KOSH. A few years ago I was an RCH from buying that fancy HUD from Grand Rapids and repaneling my ship! It was too cool! What do they say about a fool and his money?

But too often impulse buys get you too much panel too early. By the time you are ready to fly, its 3 generations old. And you spend a great deal of time troubleshooting installation. If going the EFIS route, first wait until you actually have to install it (which should be one of the last things you do), then lean towards the smallest, simplest model. If going steam, you really only need Altimeter, ASI, compass and all those can be picked up cheap on Ebay. And to boost, the ole timers at the airfield will consider you a real pilot.

[Rynoth]

I made a short video demonstrating an LRI in action

Thank you, that is helpful. I am curious why you did not calibrate the stall indicator to be at the top edge of the red arc to be more precise on the reading. Is it possible to fine tune it like that?

Personal preference. I could easily re-calibrate it for stall break at top of the red, but I wanted a bit more information on the high end of the scale (before it pegs out on the top of the green arc.)

Basically, for me the top of the red is roughly where a typical stall warning horn would sound. As I go deeper into the red buffeting starts and middle of the red is the full stall break. Again, personal preference. Yellow is slow-flight. Middle of the green is best-glide. Calibration is simply loosening the nut on the probe and changing the angle a few degrees.

Interestingly, and this wouldn't be true for all airplanes, the stall indication doesn't appear to change much at all in terms of what the LRI shows with flaps up/down. It does compensate for weight and wing loading though, since it's just measuring AOA in a sense. Those are the things an airspeed indicator alone can't tell you.

[lakespookie]

Dynon and Garmin both have Backup instruments that basically have everything you need in an emergency if you lose the efis to put it on the ground safely

Are you saying that the efis systems have backup batteries in them that will continue to function for a period of time after power failure? I was not aware of that. That would be helpful.

G5 and Dynon D10 can both be setup with an battery backup and should be setup that way when being used as a standby instrument. for a glass panel. a secondary bus with its own battery is also a good option as well, That being said alot of that is going to be overkill due to the fact the sonex really is a VFR platform as others have said and will all say.

[OtterlyFoolish]

An AOA should be a required instrument on all GA airplanes. If price is a factor the plans are free on the internet. I built mine out of scrap aluminum with a $65.00 differential pressure gauge.

I will definitely try that out. I love fabricating things and always learn a lot while doing so.

[OtterlyFoolish]

I agree with Bryan. NEVER get dependent on attitude instruments in VFR. That being said, Sonex's are really not IFR platforms and are meant to be Day VFR airplanes. If you think you want more, get a different airplane.

I've flown dozens of home builts, test flown a dozen (4 Sonex's), and given 1000 hours of dual over most of the lot. When I do a flight review, I like to cover the panel and simulate an engine out after a few regular ones. With some practice, you can do just fine and get to that picked spot every time. Its important to LOOK outside! I see too many Private pilots get too dependent on instruments. If you look at stall/spin accidents, it happens because they are not following basic airman-ship. They are not following the airspeed indicator OR what the sight picture outside the airplane is telling them.

Everyone wants their shiny new airplane to look like a Space Shuttle panel with all the back-ups, what-ifs, etc. Modern EFIS panels just don't quit. And if it does, you are in day VFR, have practiced flying by looking outside, and can just fly to an airport. If it all fails on that rare cross country where you don't know where you are, you can of course whip out your smart phone and pull up your favorite app to give you some info. You've practiced that too, right?

And after you have flown it a few years, learned all about how it flies and what you REALLY want to do with it, you can change the panel. You did make it easily removable, right? After all, you will have to get back there one day anyways. Just ask any airplane owner. Too many builders get locked into a panel design thinking they will be stuck with it.

I am sure that I will have a much better understanding of what I want/need as I get more hours in the left seat. I am fairly sure that I will end up with a different plane for more cross country down the road but the Waiex looks like a good time builder that will also be a lot of fun until then. Who knows, I might end up with two. LOL

[OtterlyFoolish]

Panel dreaming is fun when you are building. Even more fun when you go window shopping at KOSH. A few years ago I was an RCH from buying that fancy HUD from Grand Rapids and repaneling my ship! It was too cool! What do they say about a fool and his money?

But too often impulse buys get you too much panel too early. By the time you are ready to fly, its 3 generations old. And you spend a great deal of time troubleshooting installation. If going the EFIS route, first wait until you actually have to install it (which should be one of the last things you do), then lean towards the smallest, simplest model. If going steam, you really only need Altimeter, ASI, compass and all those can be picked up cheap on Ebay. And to boost, the ole timers at the airfield will consider you a real pilot.

I am really just seeing what the options are and I know that they will most likely change before I am ready to purchase. I am trying to gathering information and opinions at this point. At a minimum I think that I want Altimeter, ASI, compass and EMS. The efis would be more of a luxury I think but you never know. I think that if I wanted autopilot then I would get the efis so that it was all in one panel.

[OtterlyFoolish]

Personal preference. I could easily re-calibrate it for stall break at top of the red, but I wanted a bit more information on the high end of the scale (before it pegs out on the top of the green arc.)

Basically, for me the top of the red is roughly where a typical stall warning horn would sound. As I go deeper into the red buffeting starts and middle of the red is the full stall break. Again, personal preference. Yellow is slow-flight. Middle of the green is best-glide. Calibration is simply loosening the nut on the probe and changing the angle a few degrees.

Interestingly, and this wouldn't be true for all airplanes, the stall indication doesn't appear to change much at all in terms of what the LRI shows with flaps up/down. It does compensate for weight and wing loading though, since it's just measuring AOA in a sense. Those are the things an airspeed indicator alone can't tell you.

I can understand wanting to get more information from the top of the gauge. I wonder how hard it would be to replace the colored arch on the dial face to achieve accuracy at both ends?

[OneTallShort]

You might be interested to know that MGL has an expansion box (<$300) with a differential pressure port that can be added to their IEFIS line of instruments. This can be plumbed to a hollow rivet in the top of the wing, and will provide AOA information on the screen and audibly. As in an increasing beeping rate as you get closer to a stall. I've got this setup, but it isn't flying yet.

Gregg Short
Sonex-A 715
Burbank, OH

[OtterlyFoolish]

You might be interested to know that MGL has an expansion box (<$300) with a differential pressure port that can be added to their IEFIS line of instruments. This can be plumbed to a hollow rivet in the top of the wing, and will provide AOA information on the screen and audibly. As in an increasing beeping rate as you get closer to a stall. I've got this setup, but it isn't flying yet.

That sounds like a simple enough solution if I end up going the MGL route.