"Jim Phoenix" wrote in message
...
Snip-------

Better yet with buttons on the stick and flap handle.

Snip------

Jim

Cool idea - buttons on stick and flap handle. Limited vocabulary voice
commands would work too.

Bill Daniels



"Bill Daniels" wrote in message
...

"Gary Boggs" wrote in message
...
I can't wait until the day when our entire panel will be a screen all
with
the other instruments, and info just superimposed on the moving map
that
will be landstat photos of what we are seeing out the canopy.


Essentially, this could be done now. These 12V computer systems are the
same as the most powerful laptops and come with the same array of I/O
ports
like USB 2.0 and IEEE 1394. They can use hard drives or Flash Memory
virtual drives to make them more rugged. A single 7.5 AH SLA battery
would
power the thing for more than 6 hours.

You would use an "Air Data" sensor that measures pitot/static
pressure,air
temp and TE probe pressure. Add a USB GPS engine and you have all you
need.
From this, compute and display IAS, TAS, Altitude, Vario (TE, Average,
Netto
etc.) - use vertical tape displays if you prefer. Of course, the glide
computer with the moving map would be in the center of the display.
Updating the panel would become a matter of just updating the software.

The display could be a thin, daylight readable LCD that hinges down over
the
existing panel containing the old round instruments. If the newfangled
computer goes belly up, just lift the screen up to reveal the old panel.

Bill Daniels