BOEING 707 circa 1970 - Centre Panel

707 Engine Gauges

The Main Engine Instruments

  • Later-model 707-320Bs and -320Cs has 16 main engine dials for their JT3D engines, arranged in columns for each of the four engines. From top to bottom they are Engine Pressure Ratio (EPR), N1 RPM, Exhaust Gas Temperature and Fuel Flow.
  • EPR is the main indication of thrust, and these gauges have numeric readouts in addition to the needles.
  • The 707-700 has CFM56 turbofan engines, which use N1 as the major thrust indication. From top to bottom the gauges are N1 RPM, Exhaust Gas Temperature, N2 RPM and Fuel Flow. The N1, N2 and EGT gauges are all fitted with electronic digital readouts.
  • Above the dials, there are thrust reverser indicator lights. The left 'REV OPT' light indicates comes on while the reverser is extending or retracting, while the right blue light comes on when the engine is established in reversed mode.
  • The readouts on the Fuel Flow dials indicate the total fuel used by each engine. These readouts may be reset to zero by clicking on them.
  • Fuel flow rates are given in pounds or kilograms per hour, depending on your International preferences.

Main Panel Night Lighting

This Boeing 707 panel includes a full set of night lighting switches as found in the real plane. Most of theses switches are found on the overhead panel, but the most important switches, listed as follows, are on the main panel.

Below are some sample images of the night lighting available in this panel:

Unlit panel
Captain's panel, all lighting off
Backlit-only panel
First officer's panel, backlights only
Floodlit panel
Captain's panel, captain and centre flood lighting
Combination lighting
First Officer's panel, first officer floodlight + back light + overhead light

Left Side Instruments

True Airspeed Indicator- this indicates knots TAS, and is useful for navigation purposes.

Backup Attitude Indicator - unlike the ADI, this can run from battery power alone, and is used when AC electrical power is unavailable (for example, failure of all engines).

Flight Control Positions

The Flight Control Positions Indicator

This instrument indicates the position of the flight controls. When the control column or autopilot are commanding a roll to the left, the aileron position indicator rolls right - this symbolizes the movement of the ailerons up on the left hand side of the aircraft, and down on the right hand side.

Right Side Instruments

Configuration Warning - this light flashes (and an audible warning sounds) if the aircraft is put into a dangerous or illogical configuration

  1. Throttle above 60%, on ground, with flaps not at take-off setting (14 or 25 degrees)
  2. Throttle above 20% with spoilers extended
  3. Gear down above 270 KIAS
  4. Flaps down above 223 KIAS
  5. Flaps less than 40 in a descent at less than 160 KIAS
  6. Flaps 40 or greater with gear up
  7. Speed below 135 KIAS with gear up

Flap Indicators - these indicate the position of the flaps.

Leading Edge Flap Lights- the leading edge flaps deploy automatically when the trailing edge flaps are set to 14 degrees or greater.

Flight Director Switches

Flight Director Switches

On this instrument panel, the flight director is completely independent of the autopilot. The Captain and First Officer flight directors are also controlled separately:

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