Identify the missing instrument!
 

This panel (D31 Turbulent) already has all the instruments a person could wish for. So what's the missing one?

https://c3.staticflickr.com/9/8493/2...6800bdf3f0.jpg

Where's the artificial horizon ?

Easy, the GPS.

G meter.

(min post length addition)

Love the clock

The cut out is sized for a clock or G meter (or cabin pressurization controller, but I'm not thinking that one).

Consider the possible effect of the turn and bank on the compass. Turn and banks are intended for positioning lower left in the panel, so not typically near the compass, and are not necessarily magnetically inert. It may introduce compass deviation.

What an odd bunch of instruments!


An ASI from a helicopter?
VSI and Turn indicator, a waste of weight (slip ball would be sufficient)
RPM, 0-8000rpm?
French mag switch?


Whatever is missing, it will fly better without it :).


What does the rest of the aeroplane look like?


J.J.

It's got a switch for the maggies and an oil pressure switch - what else do you need? :)

I take it that the Blue-Tak was only rated for 3G.
.

That must depend on the person. I've met at least one who considers a HSI essential.

Hmm... It's not aerobatic but I don't know whether that makes a G-Meter more or less useful. A clock would make sense.

I like the comment on the blue-tack, but the previous owner (presumably) had blu-tacked a small pad there for writing en-route info down, I guess. I took it off to take a picture of the panel. I guess the blue-tack is because someone banned him from using a screwdriver.

The mag switch is from the Jos Pollak Corp. who I gather were from the US.

Presumably the tachometer is from a car, as is the engine. I agree it would be nicer to have one 'ranged' for an aircraft.

Step turn: your point about magnetism and the compass is well taken, but I think it's from an era before vfr panels were in any way standardised. If you want to see some even weirder ones try this page: Fly Baby Instrument Panels

The few Turbulent cockpits I've seen on Google Images seem to have turn and bank indicators. Most of them seem to have venturi tubes so must have vacuum instruments of some sort or another. It's not an aircraft I would like to fly in IMC but I suppose it would give you a sporting chance of an encounter with a small cloud. I wonder whether it was a requirement of the time?

The rest of the aircraft was built by an expert, maintained by a numpty who did stuff like this:
https://c2.staticflickr.com/1/755/22...d8928be590.jpg
It's currently a bit tatty, but it's had all the important bits fixed - much like every other aircraft I've flown. The big one is the paint which was applied to the previous scheme without preparation. It looks good, but is flaking off. For trim he'd used yellow electrician's tape which started flapping in the breeze. I've removed it: it pulls off the new paint as I do so.

Gyrocompass
Also possibly an ADF has ben removed because there are very few beacons left

No electrical system so I think electrical instruments such as an ADF unlikely.

Identify the missing instrument!
 

A Waltham 8 day clock is whats missing from that hole.

The missing instrument is a G meter. The Blue tack was to hold the small display card for the manoeuvre's at an airshow. The Tiger Club Turbulent's would probably have something similar, as they have limited or no electrics. The rev counter is red lined at about 5,000 as it is a VW Beetle engine. That wire locking surely is a temporary fit as no one could seriously consider that normal as it should go anticlockwise around each bolt head. The Propeller is a Chris Lodge type of at least 10 years old -- i hope it has been stored horizontal otherwise it will not be balanced anymore.

Mach indicator.

The propeller is a 'propellers inc.' prop now being kept horizontal. I have no reason to think that it didn't fly with the safety wiring shown: much of it was similarly bad.

Just for clarity, wire locking should "pull" clockwise round each bolt in that view, not anti-clockwise.

Yes, correct but depends on how you describe it.

I've been working on some kill markings for whenever I down a spamcan:

http://www.cessna150-152.com/images/1977.gif

Problem is they're all faster than me, and I can't catch them.

I think it might have been a clock in the vacant hole. The watch looks like a recent make shift addition to me.

Never mind the missing instrument, is the VSI actually a glider variometer? Winter?

With the cutout bottom left it would suggest a DI, cutout being for the setting knob.

I don't know who made the vsi. To me, a clock makes the most sense so far.

Electric vario/glide computer?

No. The Turbulent has many qualities, but gliding isn't one of them.

Seems alright to me. Must be some useless bit of an ancient steam driven mechanism removed to make room for a GPS. :ok:

a trombone

Thread about id'ing a Turbulent project in Sussex over on the Flypast - included a link to a nice article by James Gilbert which appeared in Flying in 1971.

Click here...

Isn't it just. They don't write magazines like they used to, I'm afraid.

Yes, thanks for that link, treadi.
Excellent article - informative and entertaining. :ok:
But, as abgd says above,,,, :(

treadigraph,

Thanks for the link to the '71 magazine. While we're on the subject of panels, look at the magazine advert for the Bellanca Viking. It's advertising the panel as being must up-to-date. I have to say that the distribution of the instruments is most definitely NOT what we'd expect to see today. The DI and AI are transposed, the ASI is where the turn co-ordinator would normally be and the TC itself is in the middle of the panel, about where you'd find the transponder! I guess we've come a long way in 45 years...

TOO

Thanks from me too for the link, treadi, but reading it has provided yet another illustration of my failing memory. I knew the story about trimming the prop on Stoma, halfway between Caithness and Orkney, but in my memory Neil Williams was the culprit.

Have a look at Westach CHT gauges. I'd put money on it having had one in there at some point. VW heads, as you know, cook. :)

Only if you leave them without baffles.

DeltaV, Neil Williams' part in "The Caithness Saga" involved landing one of the "single seat" Super Tigers in a remote and sheep filled Scottish pasture :} to pack James Baring into the front cockpit (along with sundry baggage and the cockpit fairing) after Baring's Turb had split an oil line and force landed in the field!


There wasn't much room for Baring as that was where Rollason's had relocated the fuel tank during the mod to Super Tiger standard so I think he stood and clutched the cabane struts!


I think half the Tiger Club fleet had flown up to Caithness for a display and the adventures and tales of the trip were many and varied!

ha....it is clearly a "fun detector" and as such is totally unnecessary.
what a magic flying machine.

treadigraph, thank's for reassuring me that I'm not completely gaga. I knew Neil Williams was involved somehow even if I mis-remembered the actual detail.
The 'Flying circus' to Caithness was at Castletown airfield, I believe.

Oh, and don't try that on Stroma these days. No one lives there now and the lighthouse is unmanned. The sheep farmers visit periodically in the summer months but other than that you'd be on your own.

Clearly for the highly necessary Autopilot....