Keeping it Simple

To All:

One of the Groups I created is called chuggers. All lower case.
Simple stuff. Then I went out and caught a dose of cancer. Along
with the cancer came something called Hypercalcimia, which caused me
to suffer a series of what the medics called 'mini-strokes.' Survived
that but found I'd forgotten stuff. Kinda scary when you can't
remember what day it is, or why you're in the hospital. But over time
my memory bank created new connections ( or something ) and my memory
healed itself... pretty much.

One thing that failed to heal was my screen-name and password for the
Groups I'd created. Not only had I locked myself out, I suspect there
are Groups to which I was a subscriber that I can't remember
subscribing to.

Today I found a memory chip containing some drawings intended for the
chuggers Group. It showed an instrument panel and a couple of steel
fittings. Nothing major. But looking at it, I realized it was a lot
more complicated than it needed to be. For example, the chugger was
meant to be a basic flying machine; a single-place, VW powered parasol
meant to take advantage of a lot of LOW COST fabrication techniques.
Which makes me wonder why I made the instrument panel so
complicated :-)

If you're talking Basic Airplane you might as well put the oil
pressure on the cowling. That keeps the plumbing-runs nice and
short. Ditto for your ammeter/voltmeter/whatever. And your ASI may
just as well be something mounted on a wing-strut. You're not doing
precision approaches, nor timed turns or cross-country navigation
where you need to know your precise speed.

Best of all, that brand of instrumentation doesn't cost very much.
Indeed, you can make your own ASI... or you can as soon as I get the
drawings uploaded somewhere :-) Now we've got an instrument panel
that's mostly blank space. As if the guy forgot to install any
instruments :-)

-R.S.Hoover