Air Manager for I-Pad — Making a Six-Pack Panel

I'd got some way with the Cessna 02 instrument panel and was happy with it as it stood, but knew that in order to get really used to working the material, I had to do something repetitive and exacting with the plastic chopping boards.  

So I decided to make a decent looking six-pack panel for the simulator already functioning in the corner of the shop.

I started with a cardboard template. This was very simple and easy to make because cardboard is utterly disposable. Make a mistake then just cut another piece to size (at zero cost) and start over. 

There weren't any mistakes here, though, because I'd anticipated them. I'd laid the cardboard on a bench and pushed the point of the OLFA hole cutter through the cardboard and into solid wood. Otherwise, on rotation it would have just torn out.

This was transferred to a white plastic chopping board and the instrument cut-outs made on the PDB 40 bench drill with a holesaw of the correct size.  Once that was done, the board was cut to fit nicely on the simulator panel and just cover the I-pad below.

Happy with the result, I sprayed it with blue-grey paint and fixed it to the simulator with small hinges at bottom. This was to allow easy access to the full touch-screen.

I'd already made a single instrument bezel from an off-cut. This had been lined internally with a black zip-tie cut to just the right length to create a very tight push fit. It's quite easy to do. You just start over-length and gradually whittle it down at one end till it is just right.

The zip-tie was popped out and the bezel used as a drawing template.

Another board of green plastic was chosen, marked up and taken to the PDB40 bench drill for cutting out and drilling. Then to the bandsaw to be cut into square pieces. And finally to my home brew 'mortice chopper' for accurate trimming to final shape.

You'll see above that I'd create two bezels at the bottom of the board that would retain the original rounded corners of the chopping board, and the reason why is seen below ~

The end result was rather good and quickly done. Six neat little bezels complete with dummy adjustment knobs, all ready to be painted ~

They were sprayed black, left to dry overnight, and in the morning, screwed to the backboard.

However, I wasn't happy with the Air Manager off the shelf six-pack running below and so made another to replace it that I felt was more in keeping with the Cessna 337 that I was currently flying. 

All done and dusted!