737-700 MIP AutoCad Drawings

[orwell84]

Thanks for your reply. The measurements in the library work, but the MIP ends up being quite low to the floor. If you raise the MIP, then of course, you have to raise the glareshield and I have no idea how that would affect building the rest of the cockpit. Many people seem to put the MIP higher. Looking at Juan Cordon's simulator, he seems to have put the MIP higher.

I have also found these two drawings (see attached). This seems more like what the MIP height should be, but if the MIP were this height, the bottom of the MCP front would have to be higher than 100 cm (and glareshield etc.).

I'm not sure what measurements to use at this point and I am a little stuck. Maybe I have the wrong approach by obsessing about measurement and just wing it (pardon the pun)

If anyone could provide what measurements they used that would be great. I am looking for: cockpit floor to bottom of pfd frame, floor to bottom front of MCP and floor to height where MCP overhang joins the MIP.

Or you could simply say; just use x measurements.

Thanks for the help. If I could get unstuck at this point, I think I could make good progress.

[choffmann]

I could give you some pics of my cockpitsonic MIP and MCP with hand-held centimeter scale, but this is still not the REAL Boeing dimensions. I don´t know the precision of cockpitsonic equipment related to the original Boeing stuff. My Pics can be done and posted next week, if you want, giving exactly the distances you required.
Chris

[ivar hestnes]

I made some drawings after mip was done.

You can also use these for comparing to other drawings.

But cant guarantee the accuracy. I also used several resources to make my mip.

[Michael Carter]

Sorry to revive this thread. I have posted this question elsewhere, but this looked like a good place.

My question is about the flightdeck drawings that are posted in the library. Many people seem to use these. Are they accurate? I have seen a number of other measurements that show different dimensions.

I am particularly stuck with the hieght of the lower MIP from the floor. The autocad and pdf versions specify this at 58cm, but I have ssen drawings where it between two and three cm higher. I'm not sure which is the correct measurement. I am referring to the height of the bottom of the pfd frame from the cockpit floor.

Is 58cm the correct measurement?

Thanks for the help.

I build my sim back-asswards from nearly everyone else here.

I started with the overhead and found the mounting angle and the absolute floor height to the lower front edge of the framework.

Then I bought a real Boeing 727 instrument panel and fire rack. After finding the distance from the lower edge of the overhead to the top of the glareshield everything else fell into place.

This told me:

1. How high to build the MIP stand

2. How tall the RT rack was at the MIP, and after finding the down angle for it:

3. How tall the throttle sat, and

4. How tall the center control stand was.

This in turn told me:

5. How tall my seat should be for the proper eye position (since it's not adjustable)

6. How tall the control yoke was supposed to be.

The entire simulator is built around the overhead instead of the main instrument panel. It was built from the top down instead of the bottom up. There are other ways to do it.

Just some food for thought.

[orwell84]

Ivar, thanks so much for sharing your drawings. I have looked at pictures of your sim before, it's amazing. Your drawings seem to correspond pretty much with the drawings in the library as far as I can tell so far.

Chris, thanks for offering to post pictures. If it is not too much trouble it sure would be appreciated.

Michael, I think I am also going to follow your suggestion and frame out the foward overhead, glareshield and front/center window angle and get everything in proportion. I'm building my sim in an unfinished basement so it will be easy enough to suspend stuff from the ceiling joists while I build.

I am realizing 100% accuracey is not really feasible or necessary. The different components have to fit together relative to each other, but there is some wiggle room. Someone mentioned this, but I am just starting to get it.

Thanks again all, I really do appreciate the help. This is a real nice community. I should go over to the the introduction forum and introduce myself, as I am spending a lot of time here and will continue.

[orwell84]

The difference in the designs I've seen seems to be related to the length of the glareshield overhang. When the flareshield overhang is shorter 25-26cm, The MIP panel can sit higher up from the cockpit floor. When the overhang is longer 31 cm, the Mip must sit lower if the MCP is supposed to be 100 cm above the floor (all designs seem to agree on this.

Looking at Ivar's drawings and some others I have seen on the net, they have used a shorter glareshield overhang and so there MIPS are taller. Also, the MIP I am using is a little taller (34.5 cm)

Anyway, I have tried to respect especially the measurements that affect view and viewing angle. I wonder if there variations in the 737 glareshield overhang over the years.

I know it seems obsessive, but I would rather figure out as much as possible on paper first.

Thanks again

[choffmann]

Hi Orwell 84: As promised earlier, here are the pics I took for your convenience of MIP building. Sorry, I´m a bit late, had lots to build myself
The scale is in cm!

Cheers Chris

[orwell84]

Sorry I haven't replied earlier.

I really appreciate your measurements. More than anything, it makes me realize that there is a lot of slight variation in the measurements people use, but the end result is usually quite good. From the pictures you posted, your own simulator looks very good. After sampling a number of measurements, I realize that I am in the ballpark. I have started building and it's going well. I am taking my time and ccomparing to both pictures and measurements to make sure it looks ok. I have some pictures of my son sitting on a 737 flight deck and my impressions at the time were; it's pretty tight in there and; you can't see all that much out of the windscreen. So some of m y build will be based on pictures, some on measurements, some on extrapolation.

Anyway, thanks again to all. If anyone is interested in seeing pictures, I would be gald to post. I just finished the glareshield frame.