I flew my RV12 on a late night cross country last night. And the glass panel reflects right on the canopy almost like a Heads up display, only distorted and a mirror image. I found it to be very distracting, and bright. And difficult to see the very dark terrain/ horizon and or ground lights. Has anyone else noticed this phenomenon at night?
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Night Flying
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Amadeus
Well Known Member
Reducing the screen brightness (brightness that is necessary for daytime flying) takes care of this.
Adjusting backlight intensity:
1) Press the MENU Key twice.
2)Touch Setup > Display.
3)Touch the 'Backlight Control' Field.
4)Touch Manual.
5)Touch the 'Backlight Intensity' Field.
6)Touch and drag the slider to the desired percentage.
Adjusting backlight intensity:
1) Press the MENU Key twice.
2)Touch Setup > Display.
3)Touch the 'Backlight Control' Field.
4)Touch Manual.
5)Touch the 'Backlight Intensity' Field.
6)Touch and drag the slider to the desired percentage.
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Mine is a Classic and has the D180. I’ll look in the manual and see if the brightness is adjustable for it. Thanks for the suggestion.
Canadian_JOY
Well Known Member
The D180 is referred to as a "legacy" device. It IS dimmable. It is a series of button pushes which is so familiar to me that I do it from muscle memory, thus my recollection of the keystrokes is likely incorrect, but it will point you in the general direction.
Press button second from right... menu will appear across the bottom of the screen.
Press button under "DIM" menu item
Press "DRKR" button multiple times, each button press dims the screen by one increment.
NOTE: if power is cycled the screen comes back on at full brightness - this prevents boneheads like me from thinking "OMG my EFIS is dead" the day after a night flight. Some EFIS devices power up at their last brightness setting. If your last flight was at night and you had dimmed the screen and then you hop in the cockpit in bright daylight, you won't be able to see the dim screen. Dynon did a good thing by having the box power up at full brightness.
Press button second from right... menu will appear across the bottom of the screen.
Press button under "DIM" menu item
Press "DRKR" button multiple times, each button press dims the screen by one increment.
NOTE: if power is cycled the screen comes back on at full brightness - this prevents boneheads like me from thinking "OMG my EFIS is dead" the day after a night flight. Some EFIS devices power up at their last brightness setting. If your last flight was at night and you had dimmed the screen and then you hop in the cockpit in bright daylight, you won't be able to see the dim screen. Dynon did a good thing by having the box power up at full brightness.
rcarsey
Well Known Member
I do a decent amount of night flying of (40 of 255 hours so far in the -12).
The reflections are a real pain, especially when trying to take photos. I have the instrument glare shield, which I think cuts down on it a bit (it looks cool too). For the cost of that part, I'd recommend you give it a try. I had covered mine with black felt (which I talked about in a post from last year).
The best you can really do though is to minimize the amount of light in the cockpit by dimming things until they are barely readable (and to preserve your night vision).
But.. the canopy is the canopy.. and it will keep doing what it does best.. reflecting light in weird ways, seemingly always toward your eyeballs, keep you out of the wind, and keep the cockpit at EZ-Bake Oven temperatures all summer long.
The reflections are a real pain, especially when trying to take photos. I have the instrument glare shield, which I think cuts down on it a bit (it looks cool too). For the cost of that part, I'd recommend you give it a try. I had covered mine with black felt (which I talked about in a post from last year).
The best you can really do though is to minimize the amount of light in the cockpit by dimming things until they are barely readable (and to preserve your night vision).
But.. the canopy is the canopy.. and it will keep doing what it does best.. reflecting light in weird ways, seemingly always toward your eyeballs, keep you out of the wind, and keep the cockpit at EZ-Bake Oven temperatures all summer long.
