11/1 More panel work

Drilled the radio stack holes to No 30 and disassembled radio stack from panel. Countersunk holes in panel and riveted radio stack brackets to panel. Reattached radio stack to panel and temp fitted in aircraft.














The bracket that held the VP-100 was hitting the top radio stack after the panel was reattached. I removed an inch from the VP-100 support brackets and moved the bracket that held the VP-100 forward about an inch. Now nothing is touching.














I can move the VP-100 to the right instead on having it centered on the bracket.
The two pictures below show the different locations looking down on the VP-100.














If I move the VP-100 to the right it gives a lot more clearance but I lose a little access on the right side to items below the VP-100 like the brakes and rudders. However, the VP-100 can easily be unhooked and removed to allow access in the future, if access is needed. I am going to run these two scenarios by Vertical Power and see what they think.

10/31 Creating a new radio stack

The first step after removing the trays from the aircraft is to remove all of the existing attach brackets. The radios were mounted in separate locations in a subpanel under the instrument panel. Now they will be in one stack in the instrument panel since a lot of room has been freed up.














2 -3" pieces of 3/4 angle were used to make the side angles. Side angles were drilled and attached to the trays with 8/32 screws and lock-nuts.














Radio stack was temp fitted to instrument panel and the final hole for the radio stack was enlarged slightly to allow the stack to fit at the top.

10/26 New Panel work

Worked in the hanger for a couple of hours after regular work and finished up most of the work on the new instrument panel. The holes for the radio stack and the VP-100 switch panel are a little undersized yet. Will match to the actual parts when they go in.

10/25 New Panel Cut

My wife and I have been sick the last couple of days so havent got much done. I was feeling better this afternoon and went out to the hanger and got a big portion of the new panel cut. The holes for the Dynon PFD and EMS, the Trio Autopilot and the VP-100 are rough cut.
Still need to do the cutout for the radio stack and a few small items.
I took a picture, but the camera didnt focus right so its blurry. Will replace with a better picture later.

10/23 Creating the new panel

We removed all of the instruments from the old panel today so we can use the old panel as a template for the new panel. The curve around the top of the new panel must match the old panel. We are going to try to reuse the old angle from this panel.














The picture below shows the old panel on top of the new panel so the curve can be transferred.














Heres a picture of the new panel with the curve cut and the old angle clecoed onto the new panel. The attach holes for the canopy lock have been match drilled into the new panel as well as the attach holes to mount the panel to the fuselage side panels.