8/13/2007
No building today, but I did get my angle of attack gauge in the mail! This is a neat little alternative to the popular, pricey gauges currently available. An acquaintance of mine is building these in his retirement. He built a Zenith 601, and has used this gauge in his airplane for almost two years and it works FLAWLESSLY! It's his version of the LRI gauge that has been around for a little while. For $190 ($175 for the kit, and $15 for shipping), you get the whole install kit! Here's the kit and a close up of the gauge.
I'm pretty excited about this find! The LRI gauge runs $500, and the Advanced Flight Systems AoA runs $900 for the Sport, and the Pro is $1500. This is the exact same thing as the LRI, and similar to the AFS (AFS has aural warnings built in).
Get in touch with me, and I'll forward you the info on how to get a hold of him if you want one. I think he is making 2-3 per month right now.
I also updated my panel this weekend to reflect what I'm currently thinking for a layout. No EFIS, but I am wanting to integrate the electronic instruments from MGL, and the Micro Encoder from Rocky Mountain Instruments.
The Becker comm and transponder will not go way over in the corner. I plan to mount them in a small sub-panel in the middle.
Kinda neat how real the paper instruments look in that pic!
The plan to get back to building is Wednesday evening. I have several buds coming over to help mate the wings.
Tomorrow, if the weather cooperates, I'm getting a ride in an O-320 powered 7A! That should give me a good idea of what to expect if I choose that engine for mine.