Here is a little review of my recently aquired Full forward and Aft overhead from Glb flight products. As I'm one of the first to get my hands on this piece of kit i thought i would share my first impressions and thoughts so other builders who might be in the market for a new overhead are aware of this supplier.
On ordering the panels i was told by Geremy Britton that the panels were made to order and i would take delivery in early May, This was absolutely correct and i had no delays whatsoever, With constant contact by email informing me of every stage of the manufacturing process. When ordering i found the options available almost infinate, I could decide on all the electronics, the switch gaurds, the Boeing style knobs, i could have even got the frame made from them, other options included the dzus fasteners and toggle switch caps.
The package arrived about twice the size of a shoe box and everything inside was individually wrapped in sponge and well protected, considering the distance it travelled, no panel had so much as a hair on it.
To my suprise all the top panes were already fixed in place to the rear panels and all the annunciators and dummy gauges were in assembled in the correct places, The package even came with a handy printout of the full overhead just in case your not sure where everything goes. The next suprise was to see the annunciators pre drilled for the led's and the various ones in blue or black... a nice touch.
The rear mounting panels were labelled up and beautifully milled with the correct amount of strength and space for backlighting and fixing of switches etc.
Now onto the actual front panels, I have panels for my mip and pedestal from a number of manufacturers and every supplier has there own style or technique in manufacture, i hadn't seen the style used by GLB before and was a little apprehensive as photos on the GLB website don't really do them justice. The white fuel pump, bus transfer panels etc sit beautifully in between the perfect Boeing grey panels that make up the rest. They are all strong and thick and difference between having the panels in 3d compared to my previous poster print is awesome.
When i placed them all in the correct order on my table, everything lined up perfectly, Its only my poor carpentry skills on the frame that has thrown them out a bit ( maybe i should have ordered the frame too lol ) The holes drilled for the switches are sized just right, Lastly i found the engraving of the letters and graphics top notch and milled at a very even depth and very clear to read.
I haven't backlighted the panels yet as i'm still in the process of wiring the switches and annunciators but just by placing the panel in front of my window filled me with a nice warm feeling :) as everything lit up like a christmas tree. Here's some pics of the panel in its current stage and i apologise for the bad photography... David Bailey i am not :)
http://i204.photobucket.com/albums/b...rhead003-1.jpg
http://i204.photobucket.com/albums/b...verhead001.jpg
http://i204.photobucket.com/albums/b...verhead011.jpg
http://i204.photobucket.com/albums/b...rhead009-1.jpg
http://i204.photobucket.com/albums/b...rhead006-1.jpg
The only fault i could possibly find and its not really a fault is that i would have liked bezels around the gauges but thats just me being greedy for the money it cost me lol.
Regards
Steve
