2 Attachment(s)
My Flight Simulator Update, Yes - Pics are included too
Hi all. Seen i haven't given an update for months on my sim i thought now would be a good time.
The last 4 months has been very hectic - mainly due to face we've been moving house. Though the upshot is that i'm now in a 'Sim room' and not in the corner of the office at my previous location!
[Picture 1]
So. At the moment as you can see everything is a bit chaotic but this has made me see what i realy do have, not all hidden and wired up etc. So with everything laid out i can see what i do and do not need (So i may be garage saling some stuff in the near future - just a few odds and ends i've got that i no longer need and you'll benefit from. Maybe at not as good deal as the recent selling :o)
Anyway, At the moment i'm just planning on where everything is going to go and fit into the pedestal. I strongly recommend making paper representations that you can move around. There are many reasons for this. 1) they are light, and easy to slide around. 2) the lay flat because the real panels have switches and a backdrop on so they would stand off the panel by 150mm or so which is no good. 3) You don't damage the panels with scratcing by fitting them in etc and pulling them back out again.
[Picture 2]
I'm just finalising the positioning at the moment. Because my pedestal isn't technically the standard NG one. I have a couple of additions, which aren't normall there these include the Dexon checklist panel and this display controller here. (does anyone know what this does or which aircraft it is from) I only bought it from ebay last week because it was 99p (with £8 postage) but i couldn't pass up a bargain like that so i got it. I've cleaned it up much better than when it arrived. I've had wet wipes on it and tissue to dab the moisture off. Them i cleaned the dzus fasteners with a srat object in the screw driver hole. Then i took out the screw and put them in warm water with a dash of bleach to bring out the rust, dust, and whatever else has been on there.
If anyone could tell me more details about the panel i would be interested :)
[picture 3]
Finally in the last 2 weeks i've also aquired some old type CPFlight radios. These are almost identical to the real thing apart from two thing.
> there is a slight blueness to the colour, not quite the true boeing grey but i'm not too worried about that.
> secondly is the fact for some very very strange reason CPFlight have made these radios different to the standard radio width of the 737. These panels are 160mm in width when my panel width in the 737 is only 145 (146 maximum) So that poses a problem. Although the facure is like a pcb plastic material because they backlight i dare not cut it because i don't know if the paint would flake off from this type of material.
I'm not sure what to do yet - i'll certainly come up with a bright idea at some point i usually do. But at the moment i'm wondering. Does anyone else own these panels. I'm pretty sure 'Ekezz' does because i've seen them on his flight sim site. Though these panels don't seem to be too popular for some reason amoungst builders i know.
Also on the subject of the CPFLight panels. They require a "BLK BOX" to function which i was aware of before purchasing (Though may not agree with) However just a quick question if anyone had one lying around i'd be more than willing to take it off your hands for a small sum. Someone who may have recently received the CPFlight MCP which them they can connect through the MCP. As i don't own he CPFlight MCP and don't intend to (Goflight) then i will need the BLK box. So just thought if i asked around before i went and bought one it would help me save more money and help someone out who has the spare piece of kit doing nothing.
On and ending note, despite the last few months of work i've still been keeping a firm eye on the sim building. And as some of you may have seen i hope to be starting on my overhead soon. And eventually get the MIP which i expect i'll be able to build myself easilly enough with all the reasouces Mycockpit has to offer. I'm not too bad with a bit of MDF so should be able to knock something together half decent. ;)
Staying flying as they say has kept me in the loop. I've also bought some add ons recently from simmarket which i must recommend. FSDreamteam have some great products. Although a tad pricey and for only one airport per software they are well worth it and the airport is totally different to the standard ones. Better than what i've seen on FSX to be honest. (see FSDT webstie for screenshots) Also RealATIS is a must. I can now tune to the ATIS from far away (real distances) to hear the weather etc. for incoming to an airport. The software is great. Just that issue of muting the standard ATIS which i sstill haven't solved.
When i get some time off in the summer, i'll be working on the sim. Everything is here, panels wood, projector. It's just a matter of implementing it. Buying is the easy part, restoring and installing is the time consuming part. Not to say i don't enjoy it though!! :)
Keep flying everyone, and comments/questions are more than welcome.
Take Care
p.s If anyone could embed my attached pictures into the relavent places in the thread indicated with the brackets and pic number that would be grand! I don't know how to do it myself :roll: hehe
And on a final note: I will apologise for my poor photography in advance. Is there any wonder i only post pics unless i have to :)
