Hi Ron,
It is always prudent to design in storage for a small cockpit.
With a mono, a map case is very difficult but there are ways around it.
A pocket can be made by simply laying up three to four layers of glass to m
ake a roughly conformal plate for your center tunnel or fuselage side pocke
t area. I would make a two layer and trap fabric between each glass layer
then glue it together and mount it. The stitching in of a pocket to the gl
ass after painting and fussing over the attachment (glue works best) is alw
ays a test of your craftsmanship. Never use a fastener that extends into t
he cockpit near your legs as in the event of an accident it can rip you wid
e open. Keep the inside pockets and other doo dads clear of your body part
s. I personally don=92t make hard fiberglass pockets or slots because of l
eg interference also.
The same sewn pocket can be done with the instrument panel top surface. Of
course, that is a matter of taste, but a couple of slots in a molded or fa
bric piece across the glare shield can be useful and very easy to grab in f
light. Be sure to add grommets to secure the thing from sliding around. (
Nothing is quick and fast.)
Other things to plan (which I think you have already done):
Make a spot out of plexiglass for your registration (as it must be displaye
d) I put mine behind the pilot on the fuselage. On other aircraft I put it
on the fuel neck cover.
Although the headrests are open many times, they are not good for charts or
even good access.
I fly with chart backup when flying cross country and my map case comes in
handy, but for your mono it=92s a bit too hard to do that.
In the early F-4 and A-7 our parachute shops made a leather panel top cover
with two pockets just map sized that fastened on the instrument glare shie
ld for the maps as there was no storage for the pilot other than our G suit
. On later models they did away with this for some reason. Probably becau
se we wore G suits, and they made the pockets larger for just this sort of
thing.
Today we have cargo pants and some of these pants have large pockets on the
lower leg. ( I=92ve even seen some vests that are quite good looking and m
ay be useful but too hot to wear for Florida.) These cargo pants pockets we
re handy for me for quick in-flight map grabs from my G suit but in Florida
I wear shorts 10 months out of the year so pockets in the plane cockpit on
the tunnel was necessary for me. I keep my checklist there with spare pen
cils and paper if needed. Although I have the capability for putting the c
hecklist in my EFIS and Phone, I find using the electronic checklist to be
tedious.
Even with a painted cockpit, it is not cost prohibitive to have an upholste
rer make a cover for your center console sides and put in pockets. Lay it
out in paper for him because the XS cockpit is rather odd shaped, and he ca
n pattern from that. It won=92t be cheap, but with a couple of grommets or
simply fabric glue (3M 77 or similar strong contact cement) it will stick
the saddle type cover on for years and be handy..
I got tired of the scratches in my tray on the pax side because guys would
throw their keys and other pocket contents into the tray area scratching it
all up. That was a pain. I ended up molding in an insert to make it easy
to keep nice looking. I also put in a pylon with a Ram mount for holding
phones/iPad etc. Maybe I should have made the tray with some fabric so I w
ouldn=92t have to repaint it. (Later!)
Since maps are now so passe, and we have electronic doo dads to fly with, I
made a phone holder for the console to keep my android phone with my mappi
ng program, and other info. Anything else I need to fly with or consult fo
r planning is in my phone (except my checklist). Many use a small tablet o
r iPad mini for this also. I have files on the phone for everything: Mx m
apping program (Avare), Flight Planning info and prep, plus all the repair
manuals, personal medical, insurance, registration, my custom repair and mx
items specific to my plane, my building info (panel wiring, engine mx, mod
s, and field repair info just in case) and all of it in the tablet/phone so
stuff in the cockpit is now cut down to where even I fly in a near paperle
ss cockpit. (Although I still have a kneeboard, pencil, and paper on my le
g as I don't go heads down to punch buttons or try to select/deselect on co
mputers which I think is really annoying while flying. As you have seen, I
have a personal Europa checklist to fly with that is laminated and a cockp
it pocket to keep handy is a necessity for me.)
Keep in mind, any tablet will suck your head and hands away from job 1 of f
lying the plane which means getting you off course, altitude and perhaps ev
en in an unusual attitude when inputting or searching for data. Without an
autopilot I find these cockpit devices actually add to the cockpit workloa
d. Plus, with my CRS, I have to look at the NAV computer manual to figure
out how to put in that dammed extra nav point while flying. I=92ve had to
add the procedure to my in-flight checklist. (That is when grabbing the ch
art and finger plotting a basic heading is nice (VFR Flying of course)). T
o remedy that CRS issue, I should fly cross country more also.
Enjoy your building,
Bud Yerly
-----Original Message-----
From: owner-europa-list-server@matronics.com <owner-europa-list-server@matr
onics.com> On Behalf Of rparigoris
Sent: Monday, December 18, 2023 1:07 PM
Subject: Europa-List: Any suggestions for pockets with painted interior?
o:rparigor@hotmail.com>>
Hi Group
Happy Holidays to all!
We're in process of painting interior of our XS Mono.
Any suggestions for install of desirable pockets or pouches?
Thx.
Ron P.
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