And she's changing to glass

[gkey]

This is what the panel is going to look like so far. Again, the ADF and attitude instruments should be reversed.

[WebMaster]

I know that the Aspen is the latest, coolest thing out there, but in your considerations, did you consider the Bendix King PFD??

I like that it is larger, and very cool looking

https://www.bendixking.com/apexedgeseries/index.html

[gkey]

Very valid question. Short answer: no. I did not even occur to me. I guess this one went past me because I do not regard myself as a B/K fan.

But at quick glance the B/K MFD looks very cool, I agree. I'll have to read up about it first though. For starters, if I have to give advice so far to others planning a similar venture with their panel, I would caution on available estate on the panel. These panels are a lot smaller than we think. The B/K is 8.5" wide x 7" tall. It actually works out better (read:smaller) than the 3-piece Aspen glass, which is (per unit) 3.5" wide x 7" tall. Something to consider indeed. With my setup I do not have enough panel space to install all three 2" mini instrumetns in a cluster together, hence the mini-ASI and mini ALT on the left side and the normal attitude indicator on the right side (it would just look funny if it was a mini too).

Another winning ingredient is the cheaper price for the B/K vs. the full set of 3 Aspens.
OTOH, the Aspen can direct the MFD to take over PFD duties in case of failure, which the B/K can't do. It is very unlikely that all three or even two Aspen screens will die simultaneously.

Make no mistake, I am still very smitten with the Aspen setup. But I do know of at least 2 problems it has (defaulting to HDG mode during landing and attitude problems in certain conditions), but Aspen is working on a software solution to be released (hopefully) soon. I would like to study the B/K unit as well and see if it has similar quirks.

[gkey]

Update - The shop dry-fitted everything (left panel and centre stack) over the last few days. They completed the harnesses and connected everything, and then bench-checked the system. The Aspen, 530W, S-Tec 55 and SL-30 work seemlessly together with no glitches. Everyone is happy. Over the next day or two they will cut the new aluminum panels and dry-fit them to the panel frame to check for accuracy. Then they will send them off to be powder coated.

There are four 2" holes in the panel that will be plugged for the time being. Mid-Continent takes about 120 days to deliver the 2" ASI and Altimeter, and the other two 2" holes are for the cooling fans of the soon-to-be installed Aspens 1000 EFD and 500 EFD.

[GJ Humphrey]

Hi All,

Had the Aspen Pro istalled about two months ago. Fabulous piece of equipment. Everything worked as advertised right from the first flight. Best aviation invention since the wing!

I made one error. Notice in the mock-up panel in the photo submitted by Jakes Dekkers, that the Aspen is offset about 1.5" to the left of the control wheel shaft. This is because the Aspen fits into the hole left by removal of the attitude indicator, and on my ship and, apparently, Mr. Dekkers', the AI is not centered. over the shaft. Once the Aspen is installed, it's such a Christmas tree, with all the glowing colors and wealth of information beautifully and compactly displayed, the off-center position of the unit seems really assymetrical and weird.

I had an aluminum panel overlay made up and could have changed the layout slightly to achieve symmetry, had I noticed the problem beforehand. If you're going to spend the money, you want a nice-appearing panel, not one that's lop-sided. I plan to have mine redone at some point in the future.

Got rid of the super-junky, brittle and cracked plastic Cessna overlay in the process.

Next dream project: getting rid of the rectangular 1948 Studebaker engine instrument and fuel gauge cluster. Worst thing in the airplane in appearance and function.

GJ Humphrey
Concord, NH
N3CU, 1973 T337G, SN P3370063

[hharney]

Gordon
How about a photo. I am curious about the placement and the view.

[gkey]

Originally Posted by GJ Humphrey

Notice in the mock-up panel in the photo submitted by Jakes Dekker, that the Aspen is offset about 1.5" to the left of the control wheel shaft. This is because the Aspen fits into the hole left by removal of the attitude indicator, and on my ship and, apparently, Dr. Dekkers', the AI is not centered over the shaft. Once the Aspen is installed, it's such a Christmas tree, with all the glowing colors and wealth of information beautifully and compactly displayed, the off-center position of the unit seems really assymetrical and weird.

It is a very valid point. Actually, we were paying a lot of attention to that. We were torn over the two choices we had: (a) centre the PFD over the steering column, or (b) centre it over the amber warning light directly beneath it. Option (b) made more sense for 2 reasons: (i) the basic structure of the panel support allowed for it very easily, and (ii) visually it looked better when centred over the yellow warning light. We also pasted real-life size pictures of the MFD's either side of the PFD, and when the area covered by Aspens is bigger, the little offset is almost not noticeble.

It's weird, but in the "old" steam gauge configuration everything was also 1,5" off to the left - I did not even notice it then.

[gkey]

Time sure goes by verrryyyy slooooowwww when your plane is in the shop. I do get pictures from the shop on a semi-regular basis, showing the progress that's been made. The aluminum left panel has been cut and the new radio rack has been installed. Now the panel has to go to the shop that will be powder coating it (grey). In the meanwhile a new breaker panel was also cut to house the new avionics breakers, and this panel will go to a shop in the States that makes electroluminescent panels, so one can actually read the different breakers' assignments.

Tic toc tic toc...

[gkey]

And in case anyone is wondering, I'm still waiting for GKEY to be finished. Good thing the winter up here in Cold Lake (no pun intended) is so bitterly cold (- 31 C) that nothing can survive outside, so no flying would have been possible anyways.

The avionics shop is waiting for the powder coated instrument panel to return, and then the assembly of the panel can begin. The harnasses are all in, new radio racks fitted and the new windscreen is ready for installation. They did find one last problem though (that once known about, if left un-corrected would have invalidated the airworthiness): a previous person working on the plane had disconnected the wires to the windscreen defrost unit the way Cessna intended it to work, and hardwired it directly to the battery and the switch. This is dangerous, since the defroster can work while the plane is not moving, and has no airflow over the windscreen, thereby damaging or even cracking or melting the windscreen. The factory-fitted way dictates that the defroster cannot work when (a) the wheels are down, and (b) the front engine is not running (aka my shop). So they changed the wiring back to the way it was supposed to be. Airwothyness saved.

[gkey]

The (expensive) upgrade is almost done, and yet the Gremlins keep coming out from somewhere...

Newest Gremlin: My windscreen hotplate has decided to finally part with this world. It has been fixed twice before, but this time it could not be revived. Where I fly a hotplate is needed about 6 months of the year.

Anybody wants to sell a hotplate?

[gkey]

OK, we're almost done now. GKEY is still enjoying her stay "at the spa", but things are coming to a close for this phase of the upgrades.

Besides the 2" ASI and ALT intruments that are still coming, the rest is in the panel and ready to play. They did a power up test again, this time with everything installed (previous time was on the bench).
I got some pics, and boy! Wow. I'm in awe.

From the pics I can see that the Garmin 530W and Aspen Pro and all the other fancy stuff are communicating with each other just fine. This morning they have completed configuration of the Garmin 530W, the GTX 330 and Aspen's colorbands on the ASI. Due to a newly known glitch on the software ver.3.2 on the 530W, I have opted to stay with the previous software version until Garmin issues a fix for their new problem.

This week they are taking her out of the hangar to do the compass swing with the wet compass and the Aspen. Then they will put back the cosmetic trimmings, and voila!

I asked for a physical weight assessment since so many things have changed, and that will be done when they do the new W&B.

Did you ever post picture of the completed project. I am very interested in seeing how it turned out. How does the Xerion AuRACLE 2120 work?
Thanks.

[gkey]

No, I have not done the right panel yet. The centre stack turned out extremely well, and the left panel looks beautiful. Unfortunately, I had a few problems with it (i) The Aspen could not keep it's heading straight or accurate. My shop talked to Aspen, and they replaced the RSM with a new one that will work better in the high lattitudes. Now the Aspen gives heading within 1 degree of the wet compass and the 530W. (ii) The new panel kept heating up terribly. It would become so hot, that the S-Tec 55 would disconnect during flight. After about an hour's flight, one could not touch the adjustment knob of the altimeter without feeling the burn. I swear, you could bake an egg on that thing, if it wasn't vertical. That got fixed too, and the problem was the heating duct. When they installed all these things for me, somehow the cable to the heating duct got loose, and it wouldn't close properly. (iii) I very recently found out why Auracle has not been answering my emails for the last 6 months - they were selling out to someone else! I am going to get into contact with the new company, and ask them if they would honor my order and also my deposit I paid...

Glad to hear you got all the bugs worked out. To bad about the Auracle. Hopefully they come through for you. I have been trying to get info on it and can't find anything on pricing. I guess that's why.