IFR Varieze - In the market and seeking ideas

[TheOldPilot]

Hi all,

I've decided a canard is the way to go for my first aircraft and I'm looking at Variezes/Long EZs. I know Longs are more popular, especially for IFR machines, but since this will be mostly a ship for myself, I can afford the extra weight of the equipment, and would like to capitalize in the lower cost of entry/higher efficiency of the Varieze.

In my research, I came across various articles from the 80s and early 90s with folks who had made their Variezes IFR-equipped. I wanted to reach out and see if folks have any examples of their panels they could share.

On a side-note: Plenty have told me that this isn't a plane to take into icing over the Rockies - as if that were the only reason one would have their instrument ticket. Rest assured, that isn't my intention. People seem to forget that you can fly IFR in VFR conditions, or might just want to break through a layer.

My thought is, if I cant find one mostly equipped, find their best airframe/engine I can and re-do the panel. But with limited space, obviously that can take some planning, so looking for some inspiration from you folks if it ends up that way.

Appreciate it!

[Kent Ashton]

Lots of panels here   https://www.steinair.com/documents-and-support/photo-library/#1463781891907-cd08369a-4010  There are so many choices available these days . . ..    I have been thinking of a Garmin G5 or a couple of Uavionics AV-30s to replace my round-dial vacuum attitude and heading instruments.  The small sizes would be good for a Vari.

https://buy.garmin.com/en-US/US/p/570665

https://uavionix.com/products/av-30/

[TheOldPilot]

I'm a huge fan of the G5s. We upgraded our whole fleet in the club I flew with previously and, for the price, they add a lot of value. Of course, part of capturing all of that is having a whole garmin set-up to get the full functionality - which is kind of how they get you - but altogether it is a pretty nice system. 

[Karmutzen]

I put a G5 in my other planes, thinking about it for the VEZE. Use it to punch through a cloud deck or driving through one of the scattered clouds in your way - never thought of that as IFR, nobody else around here either. If I did I’d dump the IAS ALT, T&B, and VSI at the same time, and use the -232 output for altitude encoding. Wouldn’t bother with the GMA-11, I don’t care which way it is pointed as long as I have ground track. Bugging all the V speeds on the IAS is real handy too.