I've had some good progress at last guys.
1. I picked up a "gold" three position toggle which will be my "Landing Light switch".
2. Got the "Cabin Heat" label cut.
3. Installed a helical pot as the trim wheel input..which now gives a true 4 turn total response on the elevator trim and cures all the programming problems with trim sensitivity.
4. Added a removable "navigation" panel with ADF and radio and another with a second engine rpm gauge and a dual Carb heat/ Cylinder Head Temp gauge (for flying some other aircraft)
5. Ditched the 3 screen setup in favour of a single 42" TV monitor.
6. Data plate, new Oil Press and Warning Horn switch housing all ordered from Tony as well.
7. (and most importantly) I have managed to convert the Whiskey Compass to a full working replica of the P8. Which is great...because now I can blame the damned compass for bad navigation..... What I have found now with the P8 is that unless the heading desired is North or South it is a nightmare finding a course, (and I have an eight point "spider" in the replica). The replica is the same size, position and function as the real compass, one of which I have. I have also used one in the Tigermoth, wherein it is positioned much more conveniently and sensibly. The replica does not, however, have the spider dipping and bobbing up and down I did however "lean" my spider a fixed 10 or so degrees (down right) to create some extra "fun".
The really striking thing is that I now know WHY Taylor said he could only fly within 5 degrees with the damned thing (and even THAT sort of accuracy must have taken real skill, believe me).
The answer is parallax error. Whilst setting the desired course is easy with the lubber line, lining the north pointer up with "North" is nigh on impossible on some headings, with parallax error of anything up to 8-10 degrees and no reliable way to allow for it, as it changes wildly depending on heading. The spider was also designed to allow for 16 degrees of tilt to allow for the variance in magnetic field and for some shock absorbsion but which ALSO creates a much more complex parallax problem! Nor can you easily move your head to come over the compass and line up..the gunsight, your straps and the canopy all conspire against you on this point. Sometimes you need to lean way over to the right, sometimes left, sometimes over the top. All are equally impractical. Sometimes you need to try to line up one of the alternate "arms" (legs??) of the spider on a straight line through a 180 degrees "pairing" AND guess which "pair" of degrees is the right one to make the North needle center on the north scale line, as the parallax error can make it look like, say, 198/18, 200/20, 202/22 or 204/24 ALL make the two arms line up perfectly!! So after doing this you then need to check that the north south arm (leg??
) looks straight(ish) on the twin quidelines, allowing for the "dipping" of the whole spider which can easily make 2-4 degrees of difference depending on heading vs "dip" angle. Now all this is performed whilst leaning and looking a good way down to your left, which is, in itself, a VERY unwise thing to do whilst flying an aircraft, as it quickly leads to spacial disorientation unless you are very careful. Someone I know once got severely reamed by an instructor for trying to pick up a pencil "they" had dropped whilst on climbout! (I can't remember who that was after all this time
)
It is easy to see why the early "two guideline" unit was replaced with the "T-bar" guidelines and which made things a little easier but not a lot (there was this later model in the Tigermoth I had my hours in).
Anyhow, photos this weekend.
And now 50,000+ views..THANKS GUYS!!!!!!