Panel Upgrade Part 1

While we’re sorting out the propeller I decided to dive into the panel. As you can see in this original plane interior shot there’s plenty to repair and improve. I mostly do VFR and some “light” IFR flying and want a pretty basic panel to support that mission set. Cost has been a significant factor since most of our near term budget has gone toward airworthiness issues. Fortunately I have a bunch of stuff left over from other projects. In my pile of avionics there’s most of a Garmin / Apollo SL series stack and a bunch of Narco stuff. I really like the Garmin/Apollo radios and the matching audio panel is a re-badged PS Engineering model. I added to this 2 overhauled NARCO 824/5 NAV radios. The line up would look something like this.

While this stuff is pretty old it all works and the physical layout supports easy upgrades. The GX60 is the same size as a Garmin GNC 355 and the NARCO Transponder is the same size as any newer Garmin or Stratus. Best of all, the only thing this set up cost me was two weekends and some wire. The first step is demo of the old stuff.

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During the demo, I found a lot of unapproved wires and a massive number of splices. These ended up on the floor along with the original Piper Autopilot servo. Everything was pretty well labeled with masking tape, which I appreciated. I also found the backplate to the DG was cracked and the automotive fuel line had been used for the vacuum system. With everything on the bench I assessed the instruments and determined the ASI, DG, and VSI needed an overhaul, and sent them to Aircraft Quality Instruments in Wichita for work.

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With the round dials off to the repair station, I worked on building the rack wiring harness to include both the intercom system and headphone jacks. All new mil-spec wire here with minimal soldered splicing. The racks went in easily with minimal modification and drilling of the panel structure. I’ll cover the final install in the next post.