My new Carbon Cub (316) is nearing the end of the production line in Yakima. For several months I have been wrestling with avionics choices for 316. The announcement of touch screen panels for LSA's by both Garmin and Dynon has made the choice very difficult. They are both great products based on reviewing the documentation.

I finally made the choice to go with Skyview Touch in my new Carbon Cub. Since Skyview Touch is a touch panel I considered some of the challenges of using a touch screen in a bouncy cub. With that in mind I decided to alter the form factor for the display to assist in easier touch screen gesturing. The Carbon Cub panel is inclined 18 degrees but rotating the touch screen panel a little more allows much easier gesturing of the touch screen in turbulence with you hand and arm resting on your knee.

I decided to design a panel that is inclined another 15 degrees from the existing panel rake of 18 degrees. As the pilot looks at the display, the panel in angled facing your eyes at total of 33 degrees. With my sitting height (I am 5"10") my gaze is exactly perpendicular to the touch panel perpendicular plane.

My next challenge was how to make the panel with all the complex angles. The solution was to make the panel out of carbon fiber. I know it is an off the wall idea for the Carbon Cub to have a carbon fiber panel, but I decided to proceed with the silly idea.

So here it is. This is "Mistake #3" in my adventure learning to do carbon fiber vacuum bagging. Each "Mistake" I made got a little better. While the current panel (below) is serviceable there are a few small air bubbles in the face. Depending on the timing of the arrival of CC316 I might try to make another panel in my quest to have a perfect part.

Making panels is easy. Creating a model then the mold for vacuum bagging is the challenge. Been quite an adventure.