Glass cockpit for O-2A picture

[ConwayB]

G'day All,

I thought you might like to see the cockpit of the O-2A. A bit of a far cry from the days in Vietnam, huh?

Cheers
Conway
www.ipas.com.au

[hharney]

You dog! That is the baddest panel ever on a Skymaster. Can't wait to see the real stuff Conway. You rock mate.

[WebMaster]

That is beyond belief cool. Wait, what does the iPhone do for you???
This is the ultimate panel for any airplane. VHF and UHF!!! Listen, if you need someone to handle the workstation, just let me know and I'll clear my calendar.

[ConwayB]

G'day Guys,

Thanks for the comments. Unfortunately, she hasn't been flying in Australian skies yet. I have to wait for the FAA to de-register its 'N' number before I can register it here... but I've taxiied her around and done radio checks and so far, so good.

The radio fitout is a requirement for working with the emergency services here and this aircraft will be pursuing that sort of work. Basically, it will be doing FAC work but instead of using napalm to start fires, the aircraft it will be controlling will be using retardant to stop fires.

Mobile (cell) phones are also a requirement for aircraft engaged in this sort of work and I decided on an iPhone because I can log flight plans with ATC or check on the weather or the any satpics without having to fork out for expensive avionics. It's also the in-flight entertainment piping music through the ICS. Of course, it works like a normal phone and acts like a radio.

The radio fit is:

Radio 1 Aviation VHF
Radio 2 Aviation VHF
Radio 3 Emergency Services UHF
Radio 4 Standard VHF and UHF for marine band and emergency services
Radio 5 3G cell phone

There's also a yoke mounted GPS for the emergency services person sitting in the co-pilot's seat so he doesn't need to play with my GNS 430 and can do his own thing. When not, it becomes my back up GPS.

Cheers
Conway

PS Check out my website at www.ipas.com.au if you like aviation and military art.

[Roger]

The panel looks awesome. I have been thinking about doing something like that to mine, although it has really up to date steam gauges, HSI, 530, etc so it is a bit hard to justify. Keep us informed on how she operates.

Meanwhile I see your Avatar and wonder if you are familiar with :

http://www.janchurchill.com/hit_my_smoke.htm

This and other books were written by this great lady: Jan Churchill, who I met because she put her beloved O-2 (337H) up for sale as she was no longer flying it. She bought it new from Cessna and had it painted in military livery to tour the US airshows, which she did for 25 years and 1500 hours TTL. I snapped it up immediately 5 years ago for the asking price, and it is what I now fly.

There is a long history with my/her plane full of famous people who flew in it. For example there is a little plaque on the panel that says "flown by Gabby Gibresky". But Jan told me that while she would let people like Gabby fly it "in flight" she never let anyone but herself take off and land.

So essentially I have the only o2/337 on the planet that was only flown by a little old lady on the weekends And to this date I am the only other person to ever fly it.

[ConwayB]

G'day Roger,

Thanks for your reply. I'll let you know how she goes. I flew it for a few hours in OKC when Don Nieser and I did some test flying on it. She seemed to go well, although a little slower than I expected.

The G500 worked well and so did the STEC autopilot. It flew a GPS RNAV approach nicely without any pilot input, except for the power change to start the descent.

Is your machine an actual O-2 or a C337 that's painted up as an O-2?

It's interesting that you should speak about that book after seeing my avatar. I created that design as part of the marketing for the aircraft (eg at airshows, stickers, t-shirts, caps, etc) and AussieO2, a member of this forum, provided me with some history on my aircraft beyond that which Don had. It turns out my machine was flown by the 21st TASS whos motto was... Wait for it... "HIT MY SMOKE!" Amazing coincidence, huh? I was under the impression that the aircraft remained 'Stateside' during the VN war only to find out that the 21st TASS had it on their charge.


Cheers
Conway
www.ipas.com.au

[AussieO2]

Hi Conway and all, I checked out your O-2A at high noon today. Looking good, (the boys are working on it, so did not interrupt them). Congrats!