GA Flight Deck Organizing Suggestions and Methods

I’ve all the time been of the opinion that if I die in my airplane, I need it to be for a extremely good motive. Enemy missiles taking me down, for instance. Perhaps an unforecasted asteroid slicing by way of the airframe, or a zombie horde descending upon me as I frantically attempt to get the engine began. One thing respectable and fascinating. Simply as long as it’s not one thing silly, like a damaged axle flipping me over at 40 mph or a random object changing into jammed within the flight controls.

That final situation had been on my thoughts over the previous couple of months. As I turned accustomed to my airplane, I’d regularly recognized a number of annoyances to handle, and topping the listing was the dearth of locations to place issues. Pens, iPad, water bottle, notepad, telephone…it had all been sliding round on the passenger seat and getting in the way in which. Cockpit group was missing, and to stop one thing from dropping into some random crevasse and creating issues, the problem needed to be addressed.

It’s not an idle concern. In 2006, a Tremendous Cub pilot carried out a go-around and found he lacked adequate nose-down authority to stop a stall. Combating all of it the way in which down, he mushed into the timber in a semi-controlled descent. The perpetrator? A digital digicam had fallen in entrance of the aft management stick and jammed the elevator management. The pilot and his passenger have been lucky to stroll away. 

One other time, a Cessna 120 pilot uncared for to correctly stow a small hand crank. It dropped onto the ground, slid ahead, and have become lodged within the rudder pedals. This brought on the pilot to land “nearly sideways,” and resulted in a fortunately non-fatal floor loop. Had that merchandise been secured, the airplane would have been saved.

Ominous Pile of Goodies

As I examined my pile of goodies that every make flying extra pleasing in their very own approach, they started to look more and more ominous. From a small pen to a bottle of water, I started to examine how every may function the primary hyperlink in a sequence of very dangerous occasions. As is so usually the case, I turned to my sort membership’s on-line discussion board for suggestions and options.
Because it seems, my 170 isn’t the one one which lacks pockets on the cabin partitions alongside the entrance seats and earlier than lengthy, I discovered some nice strategies. One proprietor bought a useful organizer from Sporty’s Pilot Store referred to as the “Pilot Pouch.” It makes use of two self-adhesive Velcro strips to lock to the facet partitions subsequent to the knees of every front-seat occupant, and for $20, it appeared like low cost insurance coverage.

I ordered a few them that night time and put in them later that week. As promised, they supply a handy spot to stash pens, notebooks, an iPad, and many others. They even have particular pockets for stowing Bose headset controllers. It was one of many quickest and best modifications I’ve made to the airplane, and I admire these pockets each time I fly.

Telephone and iPad Mounts

The following problem was to discover a place to mount my telephone and iPad. Whereas just one can be wanted at any given time to deal with navigation duties, the old-school paper chart pilot in me feels a heck of loads higher with a backup. I made a decision, due to this fact, to seek out a great way to mount every of them on the panel concurrently.

I started to plan for this again earlier than my current annual inspection. Anticipating I’d need to energy a number of gadgets, I ordered a Garmin twin USB-C charging port. It wasn’t low cost at $400, however I appreciated the quicker-charging type-C retailers for high-drain gadgets, and I felt assured in Garmin’s construct high quality. Having as soon as skilled smoke within the cockpit after the failure of {an electrical} part, I’ve no tolerance for reasonable electronics within the air.

Mounting the telephone and iPad took some creativity. I initially tried a kneeboard. I picked up a very nice one at AirVenture 2021 from an organization referred to as MOA Gear. Designed like tactical gear, it was totally customizable and I liked it. Sadly, my yokes don’t present a lot thigh clearance…or maybe extra precisely, my thighs don’t present a lot yoke clearance. When turning the yoke to the best, I discovered that any kneeboard would intervene and create a distraction. Again to the drafting board I went.

Having had nice luck with Ram mounts throughout my days of long-distance motorbike adventuring, I as soon as once more turned to them for an answer. The Ram system makes use of 1-inch, rubber-coated steel balls that mount to dashboards and gadgets, and corresponding arms of varied lengths to attach them. To regulate the place of a tool, one merely loosens a big wing nut barely, repositions issues, after which re-tightens the nut.

I mounted a Ram ball down within the left nook of the panel, beneath an altimeter, and connected it to a Ram X-Grip telephone holder I had beforehand used on my BMW R1150GS Journey. Inside a couple of minutes, I had my telephone nestled deep into the nook the place the panel meets the facet wall. It labored superbly, making the telephone seen and accessible with out impeding the yoke’s vary of movement and with out blocking a single instrument.

When it got here to mounting the iPad, I had a unique plan. The higher middle portion of my panel is dominated by two objects—a giant clean spot utilized by nothing, and the second altimeter. No one is aware of why the airplane has two, however regardless, altimeter redundancy isn’t one thing I care a lot about. The extraneous altimeter may, due to this fact, be totally obstructed with no downside.

Harnessing the pitiful fabrication expertise I had developed many years in the past in highschool expertise class, I grabbed a hacksaw and modified one other Ram ball mount so it may very well be connected to some present bolts within the panel. With some experimentation, I used to be capable of place my iPad in such a approach that it was entrance and middle with out visually obstructing something of significance. After utilizing my telephone as the first navigation system for a couple of flights, the comparatively large iPad Mini felt like immersive artificial imaginative and prescient.

Dealing With Warmth

Taking one other lesson from my motorbike days, I recalled that iPhones and iPads each do poorly in warmth and direct daylight. An excessive amount of of both will trigger them to first dim their screens—a horrible problem in shiny situations—and in the end, shut down totally. This problem was an annoyance on the motorbike, however it might be fully unacceptable within the air.

To unravel the issue proactively, I turned to X-naut and ordered one among their cooling circumstances. The case makes use of a collection of small followers to direct air over the rear floor of the iPad, eliminating any overheating points. One good characteristic is the choice to run the followers on AA batteries or through the facility outlet. This lets you hold an outlet obtainable for different gadgets and use the batteries if/when the iPad begins to overheat. 

I opted to stay with battery energy for the cooling case and devoted the second USB outlet to the Stratus ADS-B field I’m borrowing from a good friend. This manner, I’ll have devoted energy for ADS-B site visitors in addition to for my iPad. I’ll hold a really brief twine zip-tied to the telephone mount in order that, ought to the iPad fail, I’ll be capable of rapidly and simply plug my telephone into the charging port as a backup.

General, I’m very pleased with my newly-organized cockpit. Nearly all the things has its place, and the issues that don’t, sit in a small flight bag I hold strapped into place on the entrance passenger seat. I’ll now not must juggle random objects whereas I fly, and there’s far much less probability that something will fall to the ground and trigger issues.

Better of all, info is entrance and middle, and distractions are minimized. So whether or not I’m contending with gentle crosswinds, offended zombie hordes, or something in between, I really feel safer and extra ready for a comparatively small funding of money and time. I chalk that up as a win.