Saturday 18 February 2012

EFIS 1931 style

It is interesting to see exacting replicas, or restored antiques, which have modern instruments installed in them.
I know of one fellow who is currently planning on fitting a full glass cockpit to a 1930`s Monocoupe. Ouch!


Well I have been trying to locate all of the original instruments, and have so far managed to find most of them.
The original SS had a mix of Pioneer and US gauge instruments fit, some were quite unique, others fairly generic.
Probably the most unique was the Pioneer Turn and Bank with the "shiny steel ball" 
This was only made for a very short time, as I believe the ball would become magnetised and the compass would always point at the T&B. 
(Not an ideal result in an airplane designed for cross country racing)


I managed to locate this exact T&B
Another fairly hard to find instrument is the Pioneer Bubble face compass. They do come up time to time, but they are getting very expensive. I was lucky to locate this one some time ago.
I have also found the floor mounted second compass which was installed for the trans continental record flights.
I will be interesting to see if they both agree after rebuild, I guess this aircraft needs 2 correction cards.
I have had mixed results to date with the balance of the instruments, I have most of the engine instruments, with the exception of the correct RPM gauge. 
I have also found a few suitable Lunkheimer primers, and the correct Scintilla mag switch.
Regards the flight instruments, again I have some, but not all.
I have the correct pioneer ROC, but I have yet to locate the correct Altimeter and ASI. 


I would really like to hear from anyone who may have the correct ASI, ALT, or Tach and would like to sell or trade them. I do have plenty of other instruments for trade. 


Here is a list of all the instruments as originally fit:


Pioneer floor compass and drift meter
Pioneer Airspeed 50 to 350 mph 175 at bottom dead center
Pioneer turn and bank 3 1/8th No dog houses shiny steel ball
Pioneer rate of climb +/- 2000 fpm 1000' at bottom, 2000' at 3 O'clock
Pioneer tachometer 600-3000 rpm. 1900 rpm at Bottom dead center
Altimeter, insensitive 0 to 15000' setting know at bottom dead center
cylinder head temp 0 to 600 F
US gauge oil temperature 2 1/4 0 to 100 C 50 degrees at top dead center
US gauge oil pressure 2 1/4 0 to 120 psi 60 psi at top dead center
US gauge fuel pressure 2 1/4 0 to 10 psi 5 psi at top dead center
mag switch scintilla vintage



Once I have all the correct instruments I will send them off in one shipment for rebuild.


Based on the available visibility I may as well fit a DVD player in the panel, at least you could watch an inflight movie!

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