How much damage does spinning and
occasional aerobatics do to the non-cagable gyros and how much extra
weight is involved in the high panel and three gyros (plus possibly one
more radio)?



Gyro instuments are subject to damage under the stress of aerobatics.
There are some expensive gyro's out there that are built to withstand
aerobatics but typical units will suffer a short life. Some aircraft
are fitted with removeable gyro packages for this reason. If you are
not looking to file IFR and just want something for a little extra
security during VFR flight, take a look at some of the totally solid
state packages that provide a poor man's glass cockpit on an IPaq or
equivalent hand held computer. The sensor package is set up to be
velcro mounted in the cockpit so it can be removed when not needed. I
haven't looked at prices lately but they were about $1500 a year ago
at Sun n Fun.


Dave Swartz
Fort Lauderdale, Florida
http://www.FlightFantastic.US