For the pilots: here is a pretty rare attitude indicator, shown in the panel of a Cessna 195. The unusual instrument is an old Coffing CL-70.

Wow, that is really cool! I can't say that I have ever seen one like that before.

Is that like a mood ring?

DK he had a bad attitude earlier at the eye doctors office. Maybe his mood has improved now.

You know how it is. Your Cool Attitude Indicator shows you at "Howie Mandel", when really you should be registering at least a "Bruno Kirby" and ideally at "Steve McQueen" level, and then you find out the damn thing lost its calibration. Hey, it happens, am I right?

which side is the chip on the shoulder?

Can it be used at a non-tower field?

Most pilots now (including my son) wouldnt know how to use the one next to it, or below it. "Accellerate North, Decelerate South" draws a stare. He certainly wouldnt have ill feelings if shown a suction soap holder either.

Im sure Burt Henne, my original multi instructor thought the same of me when he described shooting an approach using a radio range. I looked at him like he had a fossil growing out of his forehead.

not a pilot but that's pretty cool.

Hate to admit it but I have used the old radio range system, not the easiest thing to do.

I have been flying over 48 years with 22,000 hours++ and can honestly say I have never seen one of those attitude indicators. Thanks for posting.

Never seen one like that.

I've never seen one of those before - really neat

dah dit

dit dah

A first for me too. Pretty cool.

An autopilot pull switch above and left? I didn't know the C-195 ever had one of those either.

I've seen one before ~25 years ago in a Spartan Executive that was based on a private grass strip on Shelter Island NY. I didn't know what it was, and thought it was some kind of one-off invention by the Spartan's owner/restorer. Obviously I was wrong.

I'll batch my replies:

For those of you asking about a "mood indicator," well sort of. I'm usually in a much better mood if the attitude indicator tells me that my student / trainee is keeping us right side up when we're in the clouds. My mood can get pretty foul if s/he does something really stupid.

My avatar shows a more modern attitude indicator. In my avatar, the attitude is a slight (maybe five degrees or just a bit more) left bank attitude, and a very slight nose down pitch attitude.

Entropy: At first I didn't understand your question, but then I looked closely and I see a control tower depicted in the AI. As for the ANDS, yeah, I flew for a bunch of years with drum-type Heading Indicators (they were called Gyro Compasses in the old days) before I encountered the luxury of a card type. With the drum type, I always had to think and remind myself that the drum was actually fixed in orientation; the airplane rotated around it.

Entropy and BushPilot: Four-legged radio ranges were being phased out when i started to fly in 1964 but there were still a few around. I flew to Pennsylvania just to experience one, way back. At the time I was based at the tiny airport at Colt's Neck NJ. You're undoubtedly familiar with the COL VORTAC, a feeder fix for JFK airport. The Colt's Neck airport was sacrificed to a real estate developer but the VORTAC is still a waypoint on V-1.

my attitude meter is permanently pegged at "SASSY"

That is really cool! Maybe i'll find one of these one day for my collection of decommissioned avionics on the shelf in my hangar.

yeah , they went digital because Paul came on the scene


the mechanical version couldn't read that cool

A Cessna 195 is pretty cool too. Did you ever fly one?

quote:

Originally posted by Pipe Smoker:
A Cessna 195 is pretty cool too. Did you ever fly one?

Nope, closest I got was a 185.

I never had the opportunity to fly anything with a radial engine. One of my big regrets. Too many cool airplanes. Stearman, Beech 17, Beech 18 (I flew in the Navy version, but not as a pilot).

I have always wanted a type rating in a DC-3. I know where to go for it, I just don't know where to go for the $$ to do it.