Howdy!

[BradMick]

Howdy all! First post here, figured i'd introduce myself. My name is Brad McKinstry, i'm an avid sim enthusiast. When i'm not flying for my day job, i'm usually found parked in front of my computer flying. I've been looking over this site like crazy the last couple of days as i'm gearing up to starting building a cockpit with my old man. With that, I still have a crap ton(tm) of questions to go with it...I figured i'd throw up a quick (and very, very rough) image of what it is i'm looking to do and get a little feed back. I'm primarily an IL2 1946, FSX, and FC3 pilot. I've decided though, that the airplane I enjoy flying most is the AccuSim Spitfire, so I decided that'd be the first pit to build. I don't see this as being a short term project by any means. I have a lot to learn with making gauges and the like. At a minimum at this point i'm shooting for creating my simbox, which will have a nice display inside to project the environment on. My biggest question and I probably just haven't dug enough into that side of the forum yet, but is how many and what type of projectors will I need to make this screen work?

The dimensions are as follows! (and bear in mind ALL of this is subject to change!)

　

The 'Big' simbox:

Height = 7' 6"

Depth = 6' 3"

Width = 8' 6"

　

The 'Big' screen:

View = 200 degrees

Radius = 4'

Height = 4' 4"

　

As you can tell the cockpit is going to be pretty small, which is about all i can do in my house. The cockpit has to share space with a desk that measures about 5' across...i'm actually already thinking I need to shrink the box size down to about the same size...Which, those dimensions work out to:

　

The 'Small' simbox:

Height = 7' 6"

Depth = 5'

Width = 6'

　

The 'Small' screen:

View = 200 degrees

Radius = 2' 10"

Height = 4' 5"
I think for the bigger screen based on cursory reading, 2 projectors are needed, and with the small screen 2 but maybe 1? I originally toyed with making a collimated screen, but opted for a simpler and more practical construction project for my skills and my old mans sanity!


Anyway, sorry for the new post bomb...just eager I suppose (actually, more obsessed actually). Look forward to working with you all as well on this! And it's awesome to meet a bunch of fellow enthusiasts like myself!

　

V/R


Brad McKinstry