Fairly soon we will run out of excuses and have to fly our Europa. I might add
that excuses we hadn't thought of keep appearing :-(
The panel has involved a lot of head scratching. One thought that is ringing
loud bells is "what about a laptop?" The reliability of modern electronic gear
is quite possibly better than traditional mechanical instruments. It makes sense
to have the engine monitoring done by a computer which squeals as soon as any
parameter goes off limits. There is already softwear which will run a moving map
---From a GPS position, it's even possible ( but not cheaper) to add a card +
softwear and convert the laptop into a GPS. Traditional thinking suggests "hang
on a bit!" but the big boys have "glass cockpits" so I don't see why we
shouldn't.
We legally have to have ASI, Altimeter and Compass. The rest could be electronic
and much much lighter. Try weighing a full panel. 35Lbs?!
That's a possible extra 3+ gallons of fuel allowable.
Graham
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