SkyView Autopilot Panel & Knob Panel Arrives

After completing instillation of the canopy latch micro switch, the original plan was to start setting some rivets in the fuselage’s side skins. However, that plan was quickly sidetracked by the arrival of the Dynon SkyView autopilot panel and knob panel kit. New toys to play with can be far too easy of a distraction.

The AP panel and knobs panel kit box was opened and inventoried. The kit comes with the two modules seen in the photo below, a wiring harness, eight nut plates, some rivets, instillation instructions and a template for drilling and cutting openings in the instrument panel.

The Dynon SkyView autopilot panel and knobs panel in boxes waiting for instillation.

Because the DOG Aviation RV-12 is slated to receive a couple of backup steam gauge instruments, thought this would be a good time to find out just how much free space will be left over in the instrument panel after mounting the AP & Knob  panels. To learn this, the instrument panel sections were rounded up and placed onto the F-1240 upper forward fuselage skin so a line could be traced around the flange on the F-1240 skin that the three instrument panel sections will mount onto.

The three instrument panel sections placed loosely onto the F-1240 upper forward fuselage skin so a line can be drawn which will help in determining available free space for cutting holes for the AP & Knob panel plus the backup instruments.

Now that the upper limits of free area in the panel have been established, the two panel sections that will need to receive the instruments where were loosely installed onto the F-1202B instrument panel base and F-00026 instrument stack angles. Once attached, the flange on the instrument panel base was traced onto the back of the two instrument panel pieces along with the outline of the F-00026 instrument stack angles.

Tracing the position of the flange on the F-1202B instrument panel base onto the two instrument panel sections to help determine the amount of free area available to mount the backup instruments.


The original plan was to mount the backup instruments above the slot in the center panel for the Garmin GTR200 radio … however, that plan quickly changed when Dynon announced the autopilot panel and Van’s made up a kit and wiring harness for the RV-12. Because the Dynon AP Panel has a built in relay deck with programmable speed control for operating the vertical trim, decided this option would make wiring the trim switches in the Tosten CS-8 stick grips a piece of cake. So the decision was made to include this option in the DOG Aviation RV-12. Unfortunately, AP & Knobs panels should be mounted in the area where the steam gauges were slated to reside. So the main reason for marking the three instrument panel sections is to see if there is enough space to slide the AP & Knobs panels left of center and still have room for one of the backup steam gauges or perhaps a compass. The jury is still out, but a favorable outcome is likely based on initial thoughts.