The Cardboard Instruments

My panel is crowded. It is really stuffed and I know my airplane is going to be heavy so either I just live with this knowledge or go for a 2 foot wing stretch. But that is another post's topic.

The panel I want must be sufficient for night VFR. I know this can be an issue because this is a very small airplane powered by a VW engine, typically lit by only one magneto. Losing an engine at night would be, well, challenging. I love simple airplanes, I really do. I drool when I see a Tiger Moth or a Weedhopper. The thing is, I want to fly at night!

I am not talking about 3 hour trips over the desert or up into the mountains. I am thinking more along the lines of a full moon flight, or an escape from the heat ride that may last an hour or so. That means lighting, and it means having a gyro. I don't why I keep thinking gyro other than those rare occasions when the horizon disappears. It is a psychic crutch, I know, I don't have an instrument rating and I didn't use the artificial horizon when I flew, at least not often. There was never much of a reason to because it's more important to be able to "see and avoid."

But I felt better knowing that it was there. So it's running around my head and I know it is no trivial task to put one in this plane. They are heavy, long instruments and there is no room in a Teenie's panel to speak of. Nevertheless, I made some cut out cardboard instruments in three sizes:

1 @ 3 1/8 inches : the artificial horizon
4 @ 2 1/4 inches: airspeed, altimeter, vertical speed, and compass (directional gyro?)
5 @ 1 1/2 inches: cylinder head temp, oil temp, oil pressure, voltmeter, hourmeter
1 @ 2 to 3 inches: ball slip/skid indicator

A big, fat panel! Here is the radio call:

"Phoenix Approach, Experimental 6 Tango Tango, Heavy, twenty south at 2000 inbound to land..."

And then:

"Speedbird 555, you're number two for landing runway 26, caution wake turbulence, Teenie Two on short final."

Or something like that. Heavy, really heavy.