Gerry Holland wrote:
>I too have started to look at modifying the Europa Instrument Panel with
>the same thoughts regarding Radio stack and wasted space with 'shelf'.
>
>How has it all turned out and what process etc did you go through?
It turned out very well, we are more than satisfied with
our new panel. We have three aluminium panels which can be
removed seperately; left, right and middle. The middle panel
is slightly offset to the right.
Building it was not a hard thing to do. First we made a panel
out of foam until it fitted well into our cockpit. Then we glued
some paper instruments on it until we had a nice configuration.
We could then trim back the underside of the panel and some of the
righthand side of the middle panel to create more leg room.
After waxing the foam we layed up three plies of bid, then three
plywood panels (left, middle, right) and three plies of bid again.
Most of the plywood is removed afterwards when the aluminium panels
with the instruments are attached, but remaining plywood creates
more than enough stiffness. It was impossible to remove the foam
in one piece, so the mould was lost.
Although the whole thing is only a few grams heavier than the
original panel we probably could do with one or two plies of bid
less. With the instruments fitted the panel is quite heavy though,
so in the end we are glad to have build it this robust.
We painted the aluminium panels light-gray which looks very nice
with the black instruments. The top will be covered with some
leather-like fabric. We even fitted a windscreen blower made out
of a small hairdrier (be careful though, wife looks terrible after
that).
Happy building (and flying)
Bart & Henk #264
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