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Dear Friends. There is not much more to say to what to put into a coupes panel after reading Greg Bullough's comments. I only want to add only something about the actual Layout of the holes. The Coupe was built for simplicity. So the first Instruments have been positioned in the middle section of he panel, giving pilot and copilot equal sight onto them. It was found after the first few Ercoupes delivered that the tachometer (working with a variable magnetic field) just right under the Compass influenced it in unacceptable manner. A redesign of the panel did happen and the new location found for it was on the left side of the panel . But not only that happened . ERCO also realized that safety through simplicity does not only means a random layout of a few instruments but also in GROUPING them by ordering them with their tasks. So ALL engine instruments you ever need in a coupe are located to the left of the panel. If you are not working in design like I do it is hard to realize, but now checking all the engine parameters is just one check into the low left corner. Then you go and check the next group and so on. In my panel I keep the grouping as follows: After engine comes Main flight : Airspeed and Altimeter, Then T&B plus VSI, next group is Navigation, with Compass in the middle on top of panel and NAV indicator plus GPS all to the right. I saw other Layouts. I saw Panel where instruments were ordered by size. (????) or very often I see the GPS to be the main instrument of some fellow coupe drivers. Don't we have to fly the plane first ???? What makes it flY ? No GPS not. As for Gyros: I wanted one, stepping into my coupe just right after leaving the Tomahawk I learned in. My flight instructor told me NOT to get one (ever) 'because it makes you want to fly into the clouds even more' he said. He was right. I did not get one and was a few times in clouds even without. Not a good thing. Without the EXPERIENCE and TRAINING to use your instruments they are practically worthless. One has to practice a 180 with a T&B for a while to get it right. Especially in rough weather. What I am trying to say here is that unless you go for an IFR rating, there is no need for expensive gyros in a coupe. (the electrical ones don't fit anyway and the ventury driven ones just eat your performance) But I also own a Lowrance 300 and use it primarily in its compass rose mode, substituting a Dir Gyro (the only one one would ever need in VFR flying ) . This thing is awesome, it shows the course flying, not my heading. Thus giving me a simple means for adjusting for different winds. From what I have learned you won't find a reasonable priced panel mounted GPS which fits a coupe and has this kind of awesome display which all these cheaper handhelds do these days. So what is this weird GErman trying to message here one might think to himself. Keep it simple, even with the instrumentation of your coupes . The coupe was build with simplicity in mind. Simplicity is a safety factor. And we all want to fly safe, don't we ? Folks, forgive me the (ab)use of the english language. Hartmut, the German. ERCOUPE 415 - E (conversion) N3330H ==^================================================================ This email was sent to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?bz8Sid.bAhN69 Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^================================================================
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