Re: New member from the UK
hello neil.....
i just read your thread and it was just like being home :o
building a cockpit, good for you chap. come and see me sometime :o
welcome to MC.org .... regards from wales .... ian
Re: New member from the UK
Hi Neil, well theres been many from the UK joining us in recent weeks, and you don't need to worry about being alone - many of the members here are UK based including myself!
I'm afraid i am both of those criteria, under 35 and yep you got it.. what's aviator? LOL
As you mention it, i wonder if Matt (CEO) will add us in a forum for the old flight sim's back in the day. Might prove to be interesting to see all the different aspects and setups people had right from the early days of flight simulation let alone cockpit building. :) hmm..
Also is it the Airbus A320 you're building? The blog seems to suggest so.
I'll look forward to seeing you around, feel free to transfer any pics you upload to your blog to mycockpit in the gallery or into a post by using the 'add image' button in the post.
All the best,
Re: New member from the UK
Hi Neil,
Nice to have you on board.!/Welcome to the madhouse.. Enjoyed your yoke extending blog.
Our place not too far away and you're always welcome to visit if you're in the area.
cheers
Steve
Re: New member from the UK
Thanks for the kind words, all.
Ian - great to see you posting here. Your sim is the canonical ultimate 737 pit! I'm thorougly jealous. I spent weeks reading through your stuff before I got started on mine. Great stuff there, and proof of just what can be achieved by the determined builder. I'll be using a fair few of your electronics tips soon as I get towards the panel-building phase of the project.
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I'm afraid i am both of those criteria, under 35 and yep you got it.. what's aviator? LOL
Geremy - Aviator was an early flight sim game for the BBC B, an 80's microcomputer that was used in many schools in the UK before PCs became standard (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/bbc_micro). Graphically it was not much to write home about but it the flight model was supposedly very realistic for the time - it was a Spitfire, IIRC - and critically, you got to use the BBC analog (pot-driven) joysticks; most micro joysticks in those days were like the Atari console sticks - moving the stick closed a simple switch, no sense of pressure or amount of input applied. It was very responsive and fun to play.
Quote:
Also is it the Airbus A320 you're building? The blog seems to suggest so
No, I'm building something entirely bespoke with elements of different aircraft and types. A kind of light-jet / airliner hybrid - smaller, multi-screen glass console and MIP, touch screens, Airbus-inspired TQ and pedestal (but rather thinner and more lightweight). It's the answer to the question 'what would a hypothetical 4-small-engined business jet of the near future possibly look and feel like?'. Apart from the glareshield, with which I am rather unhappy and increasingly inclined to start again.
I was inspired a lot by the Diamond D-Jet (don't have an image I have rights to upload, but you can see it here: http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2671/...5d7b85_o_d.jpg) and the Boeing 787 and Airbus 380 in different ways (though I prefer the look of the A320-style throttle quadrant with the latched-gate reverser to the dual-lever style).
There will be fewer knobs and switches (though there will still be many) and more 'soft' interfaces. For instance, in Phase 1 I won't have an overhead as there will be no enclosure, so I will write a 'soft' panel that will run on a touch-screen, as if that was how the hypothetical aircraft I'm thinking of was designed to be used. I am a software developer by day so the coding is not a major problem once I get used to working against FSUIPC.
In reality I will use it to fly everything from GA to heavy jets. I'm planning on adding a degree of configurability and modularity to some parts - the TQ in particular - so it can be reconfigured for different uses. I'm not sure how much of my ambition will be practical in reality, of course :-)
Steve - thanks. I vacillated for ages between trying to extend the CH yoke or build from scratch using the CH electronics. The solution I have suits for now but we'll see how it holds up in real use. The good thing is that there'll be room to swap out for something else easily enough if I need to. But physically extending it is one thing - the wiring is going to be a whole other nightmare. The soldering iron's coming out at the weekend...
I need to go away and learn the quoting and replying etiquette on this board. Be back afterwards :-)
NH