So I’ve been in a sort of odd-job space when I’ve had time to work on the project, and tonight was yet another pivot from recent stuff. The main panel/switch console layouts, complete with labeling, have been established for a while, but I haven’t yet followed through in making the labeling happen. I’ve been intending for a while to just go with custom-printed dry-transfer labels for this, and I’ve decided that finishing up this labeling is a good digestible mini-project to take on.
The one thing I got to think about was potential labeling for the stick grip functions. At one point I’d planned on having a small reference diagram on the panel, but in the end I couldn’t find a good spot for it. It’s possible I could get away without labeling here, but some DARs are known to be sticklers about this…and being realistic, having the labeling is a good fallback in case anyone else flies the aircraft for whatever reason.
With that in mind, I decided to explore putting dry-transfer labels on the stick grips as well. The top of the grip seemed like a good spot for most labels, and to get a true trial I modified and then printed the label document I’d put together some time ago. I made sure everything had printed at the proper scale, cut out the pertinent parts, and just taped them in place to get a preview. I think this should work pretty well (the final labels will be white text, of course, and much more carefully positioned):
The one thing that doesn’t work for the top location is the autopilot disconnect on the side of the stick, but a one-line label fits nicely here as well:
And since I’d printed out the switch label layouts at the same time, I figured I’d trial fit that part as well. The idea is that when I apply these, I’ll cut out the whole strip and apply the entire console at once, which is only possible if the circles (which represent switch holes and won’t actually get applied in the end) line up with the holes. Looks pretty good to me:
My final act of the night was to finish off my label document, get it properly exported, and place the order for the labels. With any luck, those may get here by the end of the week, and maybe painting/finishing the panel and console can be a project for the next week or so.