Days Work

Today all 4 of us managed to get to the sim together and achieved quite a bit...

We made the first of 5 projector screens...

Gary made a frame 8ft x 8ft whilst Mark ironed some white blackout material... he was very good at it!

We then stretched and stapled it to the frame..

When finished we will have a 40ft 180 degree field of view :-) We have one projector rigged up as a test and all is working well.. just need to test a wide angle projector tomorrow then we can order the 5 we need.

Gary managed to somehow make the side lighting work in in the process causing a small spark or 2....

Nigel worked on the FSX configuration.

Mark solved the engine instrument problem by using the offset for Engine Thrust rather than RPM..

FO avionics are now working as well :-)

We are getting there... more pictures will be posted.

More "Testing"

Spent last night looking further into the engine instruments problem... its definately caused by turboprops writing very odd values to the propscalar FSUIPC offsets.

We are going to ask Peter Dowson if he has any ideas....

Mark and I did have a lot of fun following roads and landmarks with the horizon scenery to do a bit of VFR flying last night though.

Sunday

Another day spent in the barn :-)

Today we calibrated the instruments a bit more... still need to sort the ASI out below 100kts.

I spent ages trying to get the engine instruments working but no joy, need to email simkits support.

We calibrated the flight controls and stuck in a projector and somehow we managed to do a circuit or 2 at Jersey!

We also had a play about with a projector.... cant wait for the full 5 screen projector setup to go in!

The one thing is this is much harder to fly on instruments than the 777, much more fun tough to hand fly!

Next stop trim lever!



G

Saturday Building

Firstly I have to say how amazingly easy it is working on a real aircraft rather than having to make up holes and cable runs... its already there!

Today I rigged up the Map Lights, Overhead Dome Lights and Glaresheild lights and associated lighting dimmers and switches... just need to do the side wall lights and work out a plan for the mini lights all over the main panel. oh and also i need to move the simkits dimmer controller to the overhead.

For the wiring im using CAT5 cable which is strong enough to be moved about and easy enough to wire up.

I also wired up the throttles and HPC levers to a USB joystick (7.99 bargain!) again just coming off the real microswitches and using the pots that Dean put in.

I then stuck a microswitch in for the gear lever which comes up behind the jumpseat... again pretty straight forward.

Nigel spent a lot of time sorting out the FSX machine and planning the visuals..

Nigel has some pictures we need to upload later.

Thats all for now.

Gary

Shopping

Tonight we went shopping and bought the following:-

1 x INS Panel from a real a/c
2 x Audio panels from an MD80 which are the same as an F27

1 x Open cockpits output card
1 x Open cockpits input breakout board
1 x Open cockpits master board
4 x Open cockpits gauge kits
1 x Open cockpits servo board

The projects definately underway!

Day 1 of the build

Today we :-

-Fixed the sim in its final position
-Got most of the Captain and Engine Instruments working
-Wired in some of the cockpit lighting
-Stripped out loads of rubbish from the cockpit
-Started tidying up some of the panels
-Got the flight controls working
-Setup the desk for the PC's
-Planned what to do next

The Big Move Part 3

Finally on the Move!!!

So we head off for the 240 mile journey... at 50mph!

My favourite points of the journey were:-

-Causing a crash on the opposite carrage way when someone turned round to look at a cockpit going down the road and forgot to continue driving her car!

-Pulling up at the motoway services amongst some caravans, a small crowd seemed to form

-Trying to fill up the 4x4 with petrol and almost taking out a fuel pump with the cockpit

-Overtaking a lorry driver who gave us a round of applause

-All the people taking pictures and the VERY odd looks we got

Here are some pictures of the Fokker on the move:-






































































We eventually landed at midnight dumping the cockpit in the barn and heading off to bed.