Hello to all! Hoping to start a partial Lightning cockpit soon

[Piggles]

Hi to all on the forum,

I am very glad to have found this forum.


I've dabbled around with sims for a long time and currently use FSX, but with not currently being able to get in the air for real, it's becoming quite an obsession.


I'm a huge fan of the EE Lightning, I grew up not far from Wattisham and they formed part of my childhood and fueled an already keen interest in aviation.



Can't think of much more to say about me really, I like older aeroplanes and instruments (pre-technology revolution) and I'm pretty nuts about aviation. I have some engineering background.


So the plan, bring back to life the following Lightning instruments:

Roller-blind Attitude Indicator
Nav/ILS/TACAN Display unit
Altimeter and RCDI unit
Speed Display


The first instrument in my list is sitting in a box a few feet away from me, I've been told though I'm not allowed to look at it until Christmas day by my ever understanding husband.

I can pretty much say I haven't a clue where I'll begin, I'm spending some time coding the instruments as pop-up gauges in XML for FSX as this seems useful in some way in terms of understanding how they function and the variables that might be useful in the sim, before attempting to interface the real units. The scope is certainly to work with just the main instruments rather than attempt an entire cockpit, though I guess the project could grow over time!

I'll probably need a few other bits and bobs such as the offset Tacan computer and ILS selector to add to my haul of Lightning instruments too. I came across the forum searching for a 115V AC three phase power supply - and soon realized I had struck gold, so hello to all!


All the best,

Gemma

[remcosol]

Hi Gemma!

It sounds like a great project and its a great airplain!!!

Good luck!

Best regards Remco

[Piggles]

Hi Remco,

Thanks for the welcome!

My list of instruments is growing I now have secured:

Roller-blind Attitude Indicator
Barometric Altitude/RCDI unit
Offset-Tacan Computer
Standby Airspeed Indicator

On the hunt for the Nav/ILS/Tacan display unit and the strip IAS/Mach number indicator. (Already the list of desirable instruments/cockpit controls is expanding!)


It's all early days but I am hoping at this stage as the instruments were all electrically driven with data being fed from the MRG and an air data computer, interface with the simulator using the standard instrument components ought to be feasible.

If anyone on the forum knows where I might find some technical data for the instruments I would be interested. I have some leads to some documents but at this stage any information or suggestions will help.