This month’s panel for planning comes from loyal reader Jonathan Oliver, who has no shortage of work building an experimental kitplane and upgrading the panel on his 1966 Beech Musketeer Super III. As Oliver put it, “The Musketeer came to me with a sorely needed panel refurbishment and at one time, I had nine INOP stickers plastered in various places on the panel.”
Within 20 hours’ time in service, the vacuum pump failed (which of course took down the AI and DG), the King KX155 navcomm failed and the Mode C altitude reporting acted up. While it didn’t fail, the aircraft’s OAT gauge was inoperative because a new windshield wasn’t drilled for the temp probe, and Oliver didn’t want to drill the hole. At the same time, engine monitoring that’s better than the original single-cylinder CHT and EGT unit was the plan.