Aviation From My Rocking Chair: Panel Layout Safety and Aesthetics

Twenty three years ago, I read an article in Kitplanes magazine titled: “Panel Perfect” by Ed Wischmeyer. This excellent article covers Instrument panel layout and design concerns. I selected it for an EAA Chapter 7 piece. Here we are 20 years later, and I reached out to them a 2nd time requesting permission for our newsletter. This information has stood the test of time.

Top 15 rules of good panel design

Standardization is preferable to innovation. Non-standardization helps cause pilot error accidents. 2)

Check your panel design for good flow with your aircraft checklists. Consider non-checklist operations too, such as engine checks during start of takeoff roll.

Don’t forget to check your panel design against engine shutdown and emergency procedures. 4)

Balance the panel visually, and design for good flow. Symmetry may result from balancing a very simple panel, but symmetry should never be sought at the expense of good flow.

You should never have to read a label or count positions to find anything. Corollary:Never put more than 5 identical switches in a row.

Avoid locations that require vertical head motion.

Do not improvise in the use of color.

Never hide fuel gauges on the floor or separate them on the corners of the panel. 9)

Don’t put dangerous knobs and safe knobs such as, Mixture and Carb.Heat next to each other, especially if they are the same shape or color.

10. Don’t put safety knobs and non-safety knobs , such as Carb.Heat and Cabin Heat next to each other. Colors and shapes should be standard.

11. Make switches accessible to non-stick (or non-wheel) hand.

12. Put Airspeed indicator on the Left and Altimeter on the Right.

13. Have enough gyros to let you survive an inadvertent IMC encounter.

14. Remember crash worthiness with your head possibly impacting instrument knobs. 15) Install a windshield defroster/defogger.

Like many of you, I have done all my training and flying with “Steam Gauges”, until last week. That is when Erik Peterson and Richard Howell colluded (behind my back), to take me flying in Erik’s 172. I was really excited about flying the aircraft for the first time in 40 years and it looked great from the outside…until I opened the right door, looked inside, and saw: THE GLASS. Remember the first time you saw a calculus problem? Or felt like the proverbial “Deer in the Headlights”? That was me.

As we took off, I found that flying the Cessna was like putting on an old shoe, and “Gee, what a pretty TV.” I could find nothing on the panel that I recognized. Erik had to show me where the Altimeter (digital readout) and skid/slip ball were. To be honest, I never found the tach, turn needle, airspeed, dg , or any of the engine instruments. While I am very comfortable flying the old “Six Pack”, it would be a disaster to let me pilot a glass panel airplane.

So, let me pose this question. For ‘Six Pack’ pilots, should it require an endorsement to fly ‘Glass’? And for ‘Glass’ pilots, should it require an endorsement to fly ‘Six Packs’? I look forward to your comments. Well, troopers, it’s time for me to wander off once again into my Aviation neighborhood, searching always for usable facts, and trying to stay out of trouble.