KR2S Instrument Panel 03

Just thought I'd throw up the latest work on the instrument panel.

I have added the Dynon AP74 autopilot controller to the right of the 2 circular cutouts and an engraved switch decal. This decal I am very impressed with. I used the same drawing I used for the waterjet cutting of the panel so I knew the holes would line up.

Most of the switches are the standard ON-OFF type including:

• Master (battery relay)


• Emergency (battery relay)


• Bus Tie (relay to tie the two batteries together for emergency start)


• Avionics


• Gen 1 and 2 (field) (only #1 operational at the moment)


• Nav, Landing Instrument and interior lights

The next ones get a little tricky:

• the "Primer" is momentary on for an electric prime solenoid


• Fuel (pump) #1 and #2 are centre off, Up for main battery and down for emergency battery

The next 4 switches are clustered close to my right hand so I can get to them fast and without much movement of my right hand while flying with my left. During the more dangerous phases of flight I like to rest my right hand on the throttle which makes these switches very handy.

• "Trim Isolate" and "AP isolate" switches remove all power from control surfaces.


• "Trim" is a momentary switch right beside the throttle. I can operate it while controlling the throttle during landing.


• "Flaps" is a momentary down / locking up type switch. I did the non-momentary up so I can dump the flaps if I need to go around (my flaps are split flaps and will be used mainly for drag).

The row of holes above the switched are for LEDs. The one above the avionics switch has the LED inserted.

Some will be Red warning lights like the starter engaged, alternator fail, bus tie, AP and Trim Isolate. Most of the others will be Green for normal operations.

KR2S Instrument Panel 02

It's been a while since my last post ... been buying a 12 acre property for our future retirement and setting it up for tenants.

In an earlier post on my instrument panel it finished off looking like this, a mock up of the instrument panel. I had decided to mould it out of carbon fibre firstly because it looks good and secondly because I wanted to curve and roll the lower edge under.


Here I've glued a stack of MDF to create a mould for the lower edge of the panel. Hardest thing is to remember to work in reverse. As they say ... think it through 30 times, measure 20 times and cut once (hopefully only once).

Painting and sanding to a smooth finish.

This is my stack under vacuum. 1st a nice looking twill CF then a second CF this time biaxial then 4 layers of Inegera (new fibre like Kevlar but cheaper and easier to use). This then followed up with 2 more layers of the biaxial. I had a seal problem that took a while to sort out so the result wasn't as perfect as I wanted but it will do. {Learning all the time} (the CF on top of the stack is a dodgy old piece I was using to help absorb excess resin)

Out of the mould and trimmed slightly. Doesn't look half bad =).

More trimming and fitted in the aircraft. Looking better all the time. Can't wait to have all the hardware in it.

Next is a drawing in Autosketch (baby brother to Autocad) most of these lines were sent to a waterjet contractor to do the cutting for me.

This is a trial run of the watrejet. had to make a few adjustments but pleased with the accuracy of the result.

Final cut and populated with hardware. Ain't she pretty?

and one installed in the plane.

Here I an filling a few pinholes with a mixture of epoxy and carbon black. I will paint the panel later with urethane.

Bonding the D180 mount with epoxy/flox. It doesn't need to be overly strong as the instrument will pull it into the panel. I didn't want rivets or screws showing.

These warning lights are dual colored LEDs. They will be soft green when the switch is on and the fuse is OK but will glare bright red if the fuse blows.

One of my pet gripes about panels with steam gauges in smaller aircraft is there is no room for a glovebox to chuck the ERSA, a chocolate bar and a drink into. So I went for a glass panel and built myself a glovebox.

A close look at the glovebox.

As you can see I left plenty of space between the instruments and the locker for cabling and connectors ... or so I thought.

As you can see instead of the Microair transponder I planned for (180mm deep installed) I ended up sourcing a Becker at a good price. The Becker is 240mm installed and I had allowed only 200mm behind the panel.

The offending Becker transponder installed, nice pair!

Well something had to give, and I wasn't about to go backwards and install a Microair transponder. Some slight modifications to the locker were in order. Mark up a relief ...

and cut along the dotted line. Oh how I hate cutting already finished =(

Reverse the piece just cut out and I almost have it sorted.

Next I need to flox some captive nuts into the edge of the forward deck so I can fasten the instrument panel to it. I twisted the wings up on these panel nuts for better resistance to twisting and loosened the crimped in threads a bit. Stood off to the correct depth with brass tubing left over from the pitot tube. This tube will remain bonded in place and act as a guide for the screw. Tape is so the flox won't bond to the panel and you can just see I have painted release agent on the tip of the screw so no epoxy can get down the threads. Worked a treat.

I carved pockets in the forward deck, filled them with flox and then strapped the panel in place. Whan the flox went off I removed the screws and let the whole thing harden.

The result looks great, I went to great lengths to get black 6-32 hex head screws and with the orange fibre washers under then I think they look a treat.

Couldn't resist loading up the panel to see what it looks like. I am very pleased with the result. The space to the right of the radios is for my GPS.

KR2S Instrument Panel 01

Here is my journey to work out the instrument panel layout. KR-2 has limited panel space so the options are to fill the entire panel with conventional "steam" gauges or go electronic and get a MFD. I chose the second because I wanted a neater setup and some well needed storage space.

This is some early work the previous owner did on the panel.


As you can imagine, slip a transponder, some switches, circuit breakers and lights and there isn't space for much else. Adding weight to my decision was that only a couple of the gauges you see here came with the panel. Time to modernise.

This is the first attempt at an instrument panel. Grabbed some cheap ply and started cutting. Whatever didn't look much like instrument panel went in the scrap bin.

First attempt is a little squeezy.

Second attempt a little better after chopping the sides out a bit.

A friend challenged me to think asymmetric. I'm 5'8" but If i were to take a taller passenger they would need more knee room. So after a little more trimming the final shape is this.

Starting to lay out components leaving sufficient room for a generous Glove box/map locker.

Components from Top L to Btm R are:

• ASX-2 combined ASI/Alt as a backup.


• Daynon D-180 EFIS and Engine monitor


• Master Warning Lamp


• Flightcom LSA (2 place) intercom


• Microair 760 Com


• Transponder (TBD)


• GPS moving map (initially a PDA running OziExplorer later a 7" LCD running off a laptop)


• Glovebox with power and computer connections inside


• Air vent


• Start Master/Start switch


• 13 toggle switches with polyfuse protection and dual color LEDs to show normal or fail modes


• Carby Heat


• Throttle


• Mixture


• (passenger side has an air vent, 12v outlet and an audio input jack wired to the intercom.

Here it is with real or simulated components in it. Ill play around with the placement a little before I cut the real thing. Actually went with the 2.25" ASX-1 as the digits are only 1mm shorter than the ASX-2.

And a little more mockup work

Suggestions anybody???