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Tips for working under the panel

M5fly

Well Known Member
What has everyone used to make laying on your back working underneath the panel slightly more comfortable? I'm getting ready to start working on a couple panel upgrades and from previous experience know it's just about the most uncomfortable place to work for any length of time. Passenger stick is easily removed but the pilot stick would require a more lengthy disassembly - probably still worth removing though.
 
yep, making yourself comfortable is the key. I found I could reach pretty much everything from the passenger side. Get a good headlamp and make a comfy headrest and put the tools where you can reach them. Then turn on the music and go...
 
Wood platform

I made a wood platform and also filled in the seat pan with another folded blanket. Works well. The wood plank sits ontop the spar and is supported at the rudder pedals by 2x4s the same height as the top of the spar.
 

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I remove the seats (the backs too) and place a doubled up or tripled up packing blanket in the footwell. That allows me to lie flat on my back in the footwell with my legs up over the spar and resting on what are normally the seats. The key is to find a way to prop your head in the right orientation. If you're holding it up using muscles, your neck will get tired very soon.

I also remove my shoes. For whatever reason, that makes it easier to contort in the fuselage by slipping and sliding my feet around, rather than having shoes which tend to grip things better than sock feet.

And I remove the passenger stick and put a towel or two over it so it doesn't hurt too bad when I end up resting on it somehow. The pilot stick has never come out of the airplane.

Take your phone. If you cramp up and can't extricate yourself, you'll need to phone a friend.
 
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Or, just don’t do it.

On all three of my RV projects the panel comes out as an assembly in 15 minutes. I’ve have not been on my back with my head under the panel for a couple of decades.

This is really not that hard to do.

Carl
 
Platform

My panel is designed to be easy to remove but I did build a platform. Blanket and pillow and I can fall asleep.
 
If you wear bifocals get yourself a pair of glasses where the full size lens is just your close-in (reading) prescription. Nothing creates a literal pain in the neck like wearing bifocals when you're on your back.
 
Panel out

My panel comes out too, but I found it easy enough to crawl under with the platform I built that I see no need to pull the panel out. Besides, I find sitting on the spar more uncomfortable then on my back under the panel.
 
I've been under my panel a lot in the last year. I put foam blocking on the floor and used a piece of 1/4" plywood to make a deck to lay my shoulders on.
No padding needed if the deck is flat.
I don't have removeable sticks, But, just lower my 6" 3" body over the rail backwards and then between the sticks. I do not remove the seat cushions or backs, But, use them to lay on.
I'm only 70 so maybe I won't be able to do it in a later day.
Enjoy the journey Art
 
What has everyone used to make laying on your back working underneath the panel slightly more comfortable? I'm getting ready to start working on a couple panel upgrades and from previous experience know it's just about the most uncomfortable place to work for any length of time. Passenger stick is easily removed but the pilot stick would require a more lengthy disassembly - probably still worth removing though.

I bought a dozen foam yoga mats. I place one or two on each wing so I can set tools, etc. up there.

Then I lay on 2-3 yoga mats while under there. I spent 5 months of 2021 upside down during my panel upgrade and these saved my life.
 
An assistant to hand you tools/parts or take them from you.

I found the work itself was usually easier than the getting in and out, which is a *pain*, and I don't want to do it more than absolutely necessary. So a helper is, IMO, a requirement. :)
 
I guess I should also add that I have manual flaps, so keeping myself off the flap handle is an additional challenge.
 
What has everyone used to make laying on your back working underneath the panel slightly more comfortable? I'm getting ready to start working on a couple panel upgrades and from previous experience know it's just about the most uncomfortable place to work for any length of time. Passenger stick is easily removed but the pilot stick would require a more lengthy disassembly - probably still worth removing though.

Your avatar seems to show a tip up canopy. Mine was a TU so that I could work behind the panel from above. Yes, sometimes you do need to work from below but perhaps top down is an option? Just sympathizing.
 
But, but…

Or, just don’t do it.

On all three of my RV projects the panel comes out as an assembly in 15 minutes. I’ve have not been on my back with my head under the panel for a couple of decades.

This is really not that hard to do.

Carl

How do you reach the brakes and rudder pedals? I’ve made much of my panel accessible while sitting in one of the seats, woo that really helped. I’ll be doing more soon, I hope. Getting rid of the vacuum system when adding a G5 removed the Big Pain of reaching gyro filters at each condition inspection. I’ve fantasized about access panels on the fuselage near the brakes like on some of the Pitts from my misspent youth had, but those holes would be awfully heavy by the time they were adequately reinforced on a monocoque fuselage. Oh well.
 
On my slider, tail wheel 9 , I have a piece of thin 3/32 lauan that slides in on pax side with stick and seatback removed. It rest on top of the spar and has supports in the rear just fwd the flap rotating tube. Also has a third support in floorboard. A bit tight in my case with a panel with extra 2 inches on lower edge. But doable if you plan to get all the tools within reach before you " get in" . My primary is however two large removable instr panel overlays which work well. One each side.
 
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Glass Panel

I have found that having the large G3X MFD really makes work behind the panel easy. Just remove four screws and disconnect the d-sub connector and you have a huge hole to work through while sitting in the seat.
 
If you wear bifocals get yourself a pair of glasses where the full size lens is just your close-in (reading) prescription. Nothing creates a literal pain in the neck like wearing bifocals when you're on your back.

Yeah, this is really important. Go to the in drugstore, spend some time trying on reading glasses until you find a pair that allows you to focus consistently at about 1 to 2 feet.

and a good headlamp.
 
My bottom layer of back support under the panel is long skinny planks of stiff pink board insulation on the floor, then one wider plank, up to the bottom of the rudder pedals, then old pillows. Can't built it up too high, or I can't mover may arms.
In the seat pan I have one of those throwable floating boat seat/bolsters and another pillow over the spar.
 
I have found a Plane Power alternator box to be the right size and softness to rest my head on under the panel. :cool:
 
access panel kit

My life was made easier after I installed the Vans access panel kit in the forward top skin, allows access to a lot of stuff and provides light when you are under the panel. Wish I had done it years ago.
Figs
 
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