Levil BOM

[Badland-F5 Pilot]

One of the things that is somewhat limited on ultralights are flight instruments. With the weight of electronics these days you'd think this wouldn't be a problem, finding a vendor that makes light weight and inexpensive instruments. One of the reasons these are difficult to impossible to be found is because most instruments much pass FAA regulations concerning reliability. This drives cost, weight, and size. All three of these are detrimental to UL's. With the growth of Experimental class over the last 10 years, compact and lower cost electronic instrument packages have made it to the market, but many still are too heavy. This issue is slowly changing. A company named Levil has built The BOM. I saw this almost a year ago and thought it was pretty cool, but didn't check into it much, thinking the weight most likely would still be an issue. Well I finally looked it up - the weight is NOT an issue. The BOM weighs in at a nice 1Lb! The drawback...it doesn't come cheap. The BOM runs close to $2000.00. However, it offers a lot of functions in one very compact package. Here's the link to the user manual (scroll down the page to the pdf's, and to the company website itself. Check it out.

https://www.aircraftspruce.com/catalog/ ... ide,-(PDF)

https://levilaviation.com/bom/

I'd like to see one of these in operation. Maybe I'll get lucky and be able to do so at an airshow.

[LA F2 Flyer]

Connects via WiFi to a tablet. Very cool. And considering the cost or instruments, and if you kept the panel to maybe three flight instruments, the price seems a bit less intrusive.

[Badland-F5 Pilot]

True on the price and all, but as you pointed out once -- having some good ole' mechanical's isn't a bad thing! I'm going to have to weigh the costs once I get that far. Looks pretty interesting. Maybe I'll see one at some airshow and be able to further evaluate it.

[Allen Sutphin]

Glass panels are nice and compact plus weight and space saving. They due have some less than perfect features. If a part of it goes dark, you generally have to remove the whole unit to be serviced(very rare, though). So you are down for that period. As for steam gages, you can replace the individual unit and carry on. I have found that the glass stuff updates quickly so the constant changing numbers are distracting. With steam gages, a quick scan is all that is required for a go/no go call. There is so much information on a glass panel that it takes a little practice to know what section to look for certain info. For us older guys with glasses, the glass panel can be a negative. We used to have our instruments in our helo's all pointed in the same direction when in the green, so if one was off, it stuck out like a sore thumb. Not really necessary with just a very few gages to look at. But hey, some love the glass stuff.

[Badland-F5 Pilot]

I do like the glass panels as you point out because of their compactness and weight savings. I've also been torn a bit because the features that I don't use in many of the applications are difficult if not impossible to get out of the way. Who needs water temp in an air cooled engine? Or oil pressure in a two stroke? I saw what I think I'm going to do on Trent Palmer's KitFox. He placed a few essential steam gauges in the panel like normal, but then built his mount for his glass panel to pop in and cover the steam gauges. If the glass panel goes south during a flight, it's an easy pull out and he's got what he needs to continue on his way.

I also agree and fully understand the quick updates being a nuisance and distracting. I replaced the radio/CD player in my truck with an Android Auto computer. The software I run to display engine/trans information and monitoring in the past changed so quickly I found myself looking at it much more than needed. The maker of the software must have listened to the customer complaints. The last few versions can be tailored to change at smoother rates unless something really goes bonkers, then the gauge will change dramatically. The the change is dynamic based on the severity of the change. The thing I also like is that the readout or needle will not only change but the if outside of customer set specifications, the gauge turns red or yellow, or whatever color chosen. I have mine green for normal operation and then yellow when attention is needed.

I'm with you on the older guys with glasses thing. Sometimes I wonder if I can see at all. I have three 36" monitors for my office work (work from home) and I'm constantly putting on the readers and taking them off based on what I need to see. I'm going to have to take a very close look at what I want on the glass panel and hopefully find software that allows me to customize the display like the Android Auto unit in my truck. That software really is great in allowing me to choose from six or seven different types of readouts, any colors I want are available (almost too configurable in that area), and I can place the gauge anywhere on the screen in any order I wish. I like the idea of adjusting the gauges to all be pointing in the same direction. Similar to the Android Auto, I can set the low and high on each gauge so the needle if it's a needle display can be made to stay fairly centered when running normal.

I think it's going to be one of those love hate things. I love the compact size and weight, but with my eye sight I may end up hating it for gauges. Moving map is another story. I use that in my flight sim, and love it. Of course being in a plane in flight, that might be a different story - and of course it's essential to always have backup and paper charts on board for flights into unfamiliar areas.

[Allen Sutphin]

Just checked the price of 4130 tubing. OUCH, its almost doubled from what it was a couple years ago. And ultralight prices are getting high.

[Badland-F5 Pilot]

Yes, and the F5 is Titanium. Guess which country exports and is considered the leading technology for Titanium? Yeah, Putten isn't just screwing up Ukraine, he's messing with my retirement plans!

[Allen Sutphin]

I would say Chris gets it in bulk. So maybe, maybe not.

[Badland-F5 Pilot]

No I don't think he gets it in bulk. There has only been one order, and I think I'm the second order he's gotten. Steel, yes I think he may have that in inventory. Titanium I don't think so. Hopefully whoever is his supplier will have it available. Kurt, here on our forum put in his order for his plane a month before I did. His order isn't an F5, so it'll have the standard steel tubing frame. He's expecting his kit here sometime this spring. I'm hoping that Chris can start my kit build by summer. Once the frame is out of the way, the rest hopefully won't be an issue to produce. Chris has said that it takes 3 times longer to build than the standard F1~F4. Titanium appears to be pretty finicky to weld. That 26Lbs frame though is going to give me a lot more freedom to put other items into the plane. It's really amazing that Titanium is that light and yet strong. It also has the benefit that it doesn't rust like steel. The corrosion Titanium experiences actually seals it, preventing any further corrosion to the metal, and even better, it's absolutely clear and the metal remains shiny. Powder coating or painting isn't required or needed. Of course the one drawback is that 7 times the cost of steel. I'm going to retire in a year, I have an excellent retirement stowed away, and I can't take it with me, so why not.