Hi Ron,
It is always prudent to design in storage for a small cockpit.
With a mono, a map case is very difficult but there are ways around it.
A pocket can be made by simply laying up three to four layers of glass to make
a roughly conformal plate for your center tunnel or fuselage side pocket area.
I would make a two layer and trap fabric between each glass layer then glue it
together and mount it. The stitching in of a pocket to the glass after
painting and fussing over the attachment (glue works best) is always a test of
your craftsmanship. Never use a fastener that extends into the cockpit near
your legs as in the event of an accident it can rip you wide open. Keep the
inside pockets and other doo dads clear of your body parts. I personally don’t
make hard fiberglass pockets or slots because of leg interference also.
The same sewn pocket can be done with the instrument panel top surface. Of
course, that is a matter of taste, but a couple of slots in a molded or fabric
piece across the glare shield can be useful and very easy to grab in flight.
Be sure to add grommets to secure the thing from sliding around. (Nothing is
quick and fast.)
Other things to plan (which I think you have already done):
Make a spot out of plexiglass for your registration (as it must be displayed) I
put mine behind the pilot on the fuselage. On other aircraft I put it on the
fuel neck cover.
Although the headrests are open many times, they are not good for charts or
even good access.
I fly with chart backup when flying cross country and my map case comes in
handy, but for your mono it’s a bit too hard to do that.
In the early F-4 and A-7 our parachute shops made a leather panel top cover
with two pockets just map sized that fastened on the instrument glare shield
for the maps as there was no storage for the pilot other than our G suit. On
later models they did away with this for some reason. Probably because we wore
G suits, and they made the pockets larger for just this sort of thing.
Today we have cargo pants and some of these pants have large pockets on the
lower leg. ( I’ve even seen some vests that are quite good looking and may be
useful but too hot to wear for Florida.) These cargo pants pockets were handy
for me for quick in-flight map grabs from my G suit but in Florida I wear
shorts 10 months out of the year so pockets in the plane cockpit on the tunnel
was necessary for me. I keep my checklist there with spare pencils and paper
if needed. Although I have the capability for putting the checklist in my EFIS
and Phone, I find using the electronic checklist to be tedious.
Even with a painted cockpit, it is not cost prohibitive to have an upholsterer
make a cover for your center console sides and put in pockets. Lay it out in
paper for him because the XS cockpit is rather odd shaped, and he can pattern
from that. It won’t be cheap, but with a couple of grommets or simply fabric
glue (3M 77 or similar strong contact cement) it will stick the saddle type
cover on for years and be handy..
I got tired of the scratches in my tray on the pax side because guys would
throw their keys and other pocket contents into the tray area scratching it all
up. That was a pain. I ended up molding in an insert to make it easy to keep
nice looking. I also put in a pylon with a Ram mount for holding phones/iPad
etc. Maybe I should have made the tray with some fabric so I wouldn’t have to
repaint it. (Later!)
Since maps are now so passe, and we have electronic doo dads to fly with, I
made a phone holder for the console to keep my android phone with my mapping
program, and other info. Anything else I need to fly with or consult for
planning is in my phone (except my checklist). Many use a small tablet or iPad
mini for this also. I have files on the phone for everything: Mx mapping
program (Avare), Flight Planning info and prep, plus all the repair manuals,
personal medical, insurance, registration, my custom repair and mx items
specific to my plane, my building info (panel wiring, engine mx, mods, and
field repair info just in case) and all of it in the tablet/phone so stuff in
the cockpit is now cut down to where even I fly in a near paperless cockpit.
(Although I still have a kneeboard, pencil, and paper on my leg as I don't go
heads down to punch buttons or try to select/deselect on computers which I
think is really annoying while flying. As you have seen, I have a personal
Europa checklist to fly with that is laminated and a cockpit pocket to keep
handy is a necessity for me.)
Keep in mind, any tablet will suck your head and hands away from job 1 of
flying the plane which means getting you off course, altitude and perhaps even
in an unusual attitude when inputting or searching for data. Without an
autopilot I find these cockpit devices actually add to the cockpit workload.
Plus, with my CRS, I have to look at the NAV computer manual to figure out how
to put in that dammed extra nav point while flying. I’ve had to add the
procedure to my in-flight checklist. (That is when grabbing the chart and
finger plotting a basic heading is nice (VFR Flying of course)). To remedy
that CRS issue, I should fly cross country more also.
Enjoy your building,
Bud Yerly
-----Original Message-----
From: owner-europa-list-server@matronics.com
<owner-europa-list-server@matronics.com> On Behalf Of rparigoris
Sent: Monday, December 18, 2023 1:07 PM
To: europa-list@matronics.com
Subject: Europa-List: Any suggestions for pockets with painted interior?
--> Europa-List message posted by: "rparigoris"
<rparigor@hotmail.com<mailto:rparigor@hotmail.com>>
Hi Group
Happy Holidays to all!
We're in process of painting interior of our XS Mono.
Any suggestions for install of desirable pockets or pouches?
Thx.
Ron P.
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