Cockpit gauges

[Travis]

I posted this in the panel design forum, but I was told I might have more luck here.

I want to know what gauges are used in provate jets.  I specifically want to know what the most important gauges are for IFR flight and long-range flying.

[OTTOL]

That's a broad question EB. First of all, you have to break "private jets" down into two groups: steam  gauges or glass.
There are a couple of schools of thought RE: IFR scan and instruments, but it's commonly accepted that the attitude indicator is the foundation for the instrument scan. The idea is that 90% of the time, when you fly VFR, you look at the "real" horizon, so it should make sense that you concentrate on the "artificial" one when in IMC. Regardless of which instrument you focus on, the "six pack" concept that applies to small planes also holds true with the jets. The big difference is that the turn & bank ind. is generally replaced by an RMI. The reason for this is the Yaw Dampner(the dampner maintains coordinated flight). Many jets still have a turn coordinator, BUT it's not located with the key IFR instruments anymore. So to answer the first part, standard layout: from top left clockwise: airspeed/attitude/altimeter/VSI/heading(HSI)/RMI. The idea is the same with a CRT, the only difference is that the indications are located on one instrument. This is the BASIS for IFR flight.
On long distance flights, I reference my favorite book or magazine, because the Autopilot is engaged at altitude. REALISTICALLY, I check the six pack and basic engine and environmental systems, Radar and fuel state, and spend the remainder of my time fighting insomnia. For fuel planning, I check my totalizer, fuel counter, fuel flow meters(in PPH)and compare ALL of these to my GPS grounspeed and ETA at my destination. Again, newer A/C with glass generally have an FMS that will alleviate the need for most of the previously mentioned mental gymnastics.  
This may make it appear as though our jobs are a little on the overrated side(re:pay vs effort), but one thing to remember, is that machines are only as good as the humans that make them. I'll give you an excellent example of what I mean. I flew from Kingston, JA to Miami tonight. About halfway between Kingston and Nuevas, Cuba, just after passing through a series of thunderstorms, we leveled off at 350 and engaged heading and altitude. Almost immediately we started to feel what felt like moderate turbulence. I looked down at my ADI, and it was going into convulsions. The autopilot is slaved to the ADI and was attempting to maintain level flight with this instrument as it's reference. The airplane, in turn was doing the SAME thing!    The moral is: These modern conveniences are really nice, but the aforementioned is why humans still exist in today's cockpit, and why we never let our guard down.

[Travis]

Wow!  A very thorough explanation, about a third of which I understood!  Thanks, though!  Answered much of my questions.

I'm not much of a long distance, fly-by-computer type.  I tend to make my landings by hand, and very dirty.  So what I would like to know is just where you might expect to find certain gauges, how they might be positioned and other such stuff.  I'm pretty sure I want this to be an all glass cockpit, as its supposed to be a hitech aircraft.

Here's the screenshot of what it looks like right now.  The red areas are where there will be gauges.  The one in the upper right is sort of a HUD, allowing for great visiblity in VC mode.

[OTTOL]

I'm afraid that, while my abilities flying a jet are on the professional level, my skill with a computer borders on "slug  level". I'm assuming you would like an example of instrument placement,  using your "base" screen?  :-[  (maybe you guys  can teach me something about cut and paste graphics).
The Boeing 777 panel would probably be the ideal panel to model after.  The center panel would hold the standard IFR "gear" previously mentioned. That would be: A Center located Attitude indicator(ADI), a heading indicator(usually on top), and altitude and airpspeed "tapes" (right and left sides respectively). With the panel that you have setup, ideally an MFD would be preffered, so that you cycle through different modes. This would mean that your HUD(center top panel) would most likely be used for basic IFR nav: ADI and if possible EFIS.  I would use the lower left pork chop panel for engine parameters. This is one of biggest gripes on the 777 panel. If you want to maintain all of the systems, the recycle rate is much to slow for a normal takeoff. You don't want to flip an MFD swith and wait three to five seconds for the new screen to boot up while traveling down the runway at 150 plus knots!  :o Ergo I would have the engine instruments where they can be easily scanned. Finally, on the center top panel or HUD. I don't know if there's any way you can do this, but on the 737 and GV it's actually located in front of you. Try to locate a picture online. The screen is projection type(like on an F16), and flips up when not being used.

[Travis]

Thanks, Ottol!  You just answered my question perfectly.  At least, I think . . .

As for the HUD, the windscreen at that point is too low to allow for a popup display like the one you mentioned.  I tried making one at one point, but it never worked, so I just switched to the center-mounted screen, which I think is more asthetically pleasing, but less accessible.  It does, however, allow for a much larger view.