Today, some of my "steam gauges" came from Van's.  I am going with conventional gauges on my instrument panel and I am trying to pay for these as I go.  I always like it when UPS or Fedex leaves me a package in the garage...  Just like Christmas for the last 5 months.

Each instrument was individually packaged, wrapped in bubble wrap and in a sealed bag with desiccant.  While I was ordering gauges, I also bought some nut rings for mounting the instruments to the panel.

Here is my instrument line-up for instruments received today.  Add a turn coordinator (received earlier) and I am starting to have an instrument panel.  These instruments are very nice for the money.  I hope that they work as good as they look.

For my airspeed indicator, I went with a True Airspeed Indicator.  Let me show you how ignorant I am on this instrument.  I went with a true airspeed indicator so that the white scale on the lower left of the instrument will show you a corrected airspeed based on your altitude and the outside temperature.  OKAY>>>  Turn the dial>>>  The "P. ALT" (pressure altitude) changes and the white scale below changes.  Well, the dang thing says that you have to enter your temperature too.  HUH?   If I understand this correctly, you turn the dial to put your "P. ALT" to the temperature (that is in centigrade>>  Who uses that???).  So looking at the gauge picture below, say I am at 6000 feet indicated (when altimeter is set to 29.92 inches of mercury) and the temperature is 86 degrees Fahrenheit outside the aircraft (which corresponds to +30 degrees centigrade), my true airspeed would be as indicated on the white scale at the bottom.  You can see that there is about a 20 knot error in the indicated airspeed.  The Cessna 150 I am learning in does not have anything this fancy....  Where's my GPS????

All gauges received from Van's on this order are Falcon Gauges.  They came with certificates of calibration.  According to all of my calibration sheets, all of these calibrated to exacting tolerances.  SWEET!!!!  Be advised, after I received these gauges, I saw some bad press on other builders web site's for Van's gauges.  I look at it this way...  I spent around $500 for these three instruments.  When I went to Chief Aircraft, they wanted that much money just for the altimeter.  Don't get me wrong, these are important instruments, but I don't plan on an IFR cert and I figure if they give me problems, I can always replace them with higher quality instruments when my pocket book recovers.

Your "run of the mill" vertical speed indicator.

And finally for today's toys, your run of the mill altimeter calibrated in inches of Mercury (inHg).

Today, I had success with my first e-bay bid. I have never bought anything on e-bay before.  I HATE e-bay!!!.  It is a cyclic process of frustration.  I would follow something I was bidding on for 7 days only to be outbid in the last 15 seconds of the auction.  People sometimes buy things for more money than the item costs to purchase new in a retail store...  WHAT IS WITH THAT???

I was bidding on Brady ID Pro Plus wire labeler's for labeling wires, connectors, etc. on the airplane.   I lost several of these labelers by being outbid by less than a $1.50.  I ended up with this one for $207.50 and it is brand new.  It is on the high side of labelers selling on e-bay, but few of them have been brand new.  The lowest price I could find from a retailer on this item was $385.00, so I guess I am still money ahead.

I am also bidding on a Semco Sealant Gun (pistol grip) for working with tank sealant.  Since I haven't done any work with tank sealant yet, I should be able to get some good use out one.  I have another several days to see if I am the successful bidder on that.  Dan Checkoway raves about the sealant gun he was given for helping out another RV builder sealing his tanks.  His information on his web site has yet to steer me wrong.