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Panel overhauls - regrets

I did a fairly extensive, and I think successful, panel refurb in my PA46 a couple of years ago. Before pulling the trigger, I spent years thinking about it, from the points of view of features, ergonomics, aesthetics and future upgrade paths. Several hundred flight hours later, I have exactly three regrets, in increasing order:

  • Not putting USB ports in the back
  • Not putting more powerful USB ports (although not sure there were any available back then)
  • Not putting a Pilot Isolation button on the yoke.

The latter is something I really miss. It takes 3 button pushes to do this on the GTN, either to cut yourself from pax, or the music, and 5 to do both. Because some of the seats are backward facing, my passengers often miss my frantic gestures to stay quiet, and I do (to my shame) find myself just shouting “shut up!” especially when trying to listen to controllers with bad transmitters/headsets/etc, e.g. in Italy.

I thought it would be useful to have a thread on that so others can learn before pulling the trigger !

EGTF, LFTF

denopa wrote:

Not putting a Pilot Isolation button on the yoke.

This must be one of the most important switches in a small airplane that’s often flown with more than one pax. Don’t you have an intercom where that could be installed?

It’s one of the main things I miss when they upgraded our GPS’s to a GTN650/750 combo. They removed the GMA audio panel. Sure you can get everything done through the touch interface on the 750, but nothing beats a dedicated button to press.

Bushpilot C208/C182
FMMI/EHRD, Madagascar

Don’t you have an intercom where that could be installed?

As Officer alludes to, in most GTN installations the audio panel goes remote, and you need a couple of presses to access its settings. So no, I’d have to get a button installed on the panel (with aesthetics downside) or the yoke (with costs downside, or rather upside). It’s particularly stupid of me because I have a Push to Control and a COM1 switch (to toggle between active and standby frequencies) button on the right horn of the yoke, and it would have been easy to install a Pilot Isolation switch…

EGTF, LFTF

denopa wrote:

Not putting a Pilot Isolation button on the yoke.
The latter is something I really miss.

You have a GMA 35 remote audio panel controlled by the GTN, right? Then you can install a hardware button for passenger isolation as an afterthought, it’s pin 14 on the audio panel connector J3502 – grounding it will isolate the passengers from pilot+copilot.

Last Edited by Ultranomad at 13 Aug 20:08
LKBU (near Prague), Czech Republic

Yes you’re right, I still can do it thankfully !

So I’m the only one with even a small regret on their panel upgrade ? You guys are making me feel bad 😢

EGTF, LFTF

Very few write such openly about regrets, because things that’ve cost at least several 10 aviation units simply have to be “perfect”. And your “regrets” are really small, in the end.

But I agree to the passenger isolation button. I have the “old style” GMA panel and the dedicated buttons for several zones (pilot only, PIC/CO, or all). Especially with small kids on board it’s useless to shout, mine start to argue!

I’ve not yet upgraded anything in a panel, but bought my plane with a perfectly upgraded panel. And although I really like fiddling around with those toys, from all that I’ve learned it might come cheaper to buy another plane than to install any new stuff in my plane, if I’d wanted it So I will just stay with what I have and use it.

I never thought about putting USB ports in the back, although it would be rather easy. I have a battery pack for USB recharge. It’s principal usage is thought as a backup power source if several things would have gone wrong before, so to have a last source of power for my tablets in the cockpit. But as I do have USB sockets in the panel, as long as they work it can be used in the back as USB socket. So you can “install” such a thing with a very small invest. There exist battery packs to put in a cup holder and so on. You could do a “medium-fix install” and put a cable to one of the USB sockets in the panel to recharge the battery pack during flight. But I do not, I have it in my flight bag and recharge it at home every now and then.

Regarding the more powerful USB ports, I think you use it during flights for charging iPads? You might take into account, that the more power they get, the warmer they get and iPads do shut down if they get too warm. So low charging current could be better than anything, if it is sufficient to keep the battery level.

Germany

Well, this is as far as we’ve got. So no regrets yet.

Glenswinton, SW Scotland, United Kingdom

denopa wrote:

Not putting a Pilot Isolation button on the yoke.
The latter is something I really miss. It takes 3 button pushes to do this on the GTN, either to cut yourself from pax, or the music, and 5 to do both.

This is one of the big problems with having other avionics controlled from a central touch screen. Personally, I want every box to have its own controls. I can go as far as to accept autoslew HSI and remotely tuning the DME from the NAV receiver.

(Ok, I’m exaggerating a bit, but not much.)

Last Edited by Airborne_Again at 15 Aug 12:19
ESKC (Uppsala/Sundbro), Sweden

Agree to the higher power USB ports – but pretty sure they have not been available when I did my upgrade.

The pilot isolation button is an interesting idea, but I don’t miss it too much. I very rarely fly with people who are not “experienced passengers” and hence know when to shut up.

What I miss is Music Input jacks at the rear seats: The chief entertainment officer on my flights is typically sitting on a back seat and therefore it would be handy to avoid the long cable to the Aux In Jack in the panel…

Germany
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