Well, I attached a paper cutout of the instrument panel to the blank instrument panel in the plane tonight to have a look at how the layout feels. My, I must say that I really like the big LCD displays. They are at a perfect distance and about the right height. Overall, I am very pleased with the sematry of the layout and the ergonomics of adjusting the various knobs and controls.
It seems that the CAD instrument panel that I downloaded from Van's web site and used to build the mockup is a bit deceiving in the amount of vertical space available. The CAD drawing shows the whole instrument panel, but doesn't indicate that the bottom 3/4" is bent forward forming the stiffening angle. While that's great for knee room, its not so good for the instrument layout where I used up all of the vertical height of the panel with nothing to spare. That being said, I think that I can weasel out a little bit more space by moving the three main LCD displays up by about 1/2" or so. Its gonna be a tight squeeze, that's for sure.
Instrument Panel Mockup
Matt Dralle At The Controls - (Insert Airplane Noises)
Matt Dralle At The Controls - (Insert MORE Airplane Noises)
