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    On my first ES, I mounted the panel just where the manual called for
it -- there are distance measurements in the relevant chapter -- and mounted
it vertical.  I made some angle forms by laying up 4 or 6 BID over a
release-taped steel angle, then cut two sections about 6" long and mounted
them at each side of the cockpit.  There were two screws on each side, then
two aluminum angle struts coming up to the center section, and two more
shorter ones between the firewall and the top of the panel.  This gave a
pretty rigid panel.

    If you mount the panel closer to the firewall, Murphy's law says that at
least one component of your avionics will be too long to fit.

    The real problem was with the seat location.  I ended up mounting my
seat rails about 4" aft of where the manual calls for them.  If I hadn't
done that, no one over about 4'10" could have sat comfortably in front.  In
order to relocate the seats, I had to construct a set of cantilevered
supports on both bulkheads, supporting the rear ones with angle braces.  It
would definitely be a good idea to flip the forward bulkhead flange over, so
that it extends aft of the bulkhead.  It would also have been much easier to
have known about the seat location in advance, instead of having to rip into
those thousand-BID seat flanges!  So far as I can tell, the manual hasn't
been changed in 4 years, in spite of this problem having been known for a
good while.  Sigh.

    The real problem with the panel is that once that one-piece monster is
in there, nothing is really accessible unless you're a human pretzel.  It's
also a tough job to get it in and out, especially if you have to pull the
whole panel after it's partly stuffed.  On my current ES, I plan to weld up
a light-weight aluminum frame, mount it permanently in place, then make my
panel out of three or four drawers mounted on rollers.  Several
manufacturers of rack-mount electrical hardware make nice ball-bearing
roller sets in various lengths, heights, and thicknesses, with load capacity
up to a couple of hundred pounds.  The drawers will be held in place by
captive screws, so all I'll need to do to get at something is to loosen a
couple of the screws and pull out the drawer.

Jim Cameron,  ES#2 in the works.


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Please send your photos and drawings to marvkaye@olsusa.com.
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