Before/After

[CWFlightsim]

The panel is now in the car, these are two photos of before with the car in original condition and now as a home cockpit

[vybhav]

Very new and innovative indeed. How and where do you project the images? I assume a projector in the car garage?

[Wendy]

That's what I call being creative. Very nice.


regards, Wendy

[JWS]

Boy, I'd like to see the face of the police officer when he pulls you to the side of the road.

Very nice indeed. Must have been a **** of a job.

Grtz

JWS

[CWFlightsim]

Yea was a ***** of a job, panel weighs more than I thought , spent 5 months on the bench getting built, un bolted it off the bench and fitted it today.
bit of a major to fit but its in and 90% working. Major problem is the bourbon and coke glass doesnt fit in the can holder!

[JWS]

Major problem is the bourbon and coke glass doesnt fit in the can holder!

Life sucks, doesn't it ;).

JWS

[AK Mongo]

A++ for originality!

Reid

[notgotaclue]

I am sure we have a part of the brain missing which seperates us from the population. ;)
You have a plane in a car (I actually thought of doing that) and I have a real cockpit in my garage waiting to be born. We are all frickin' mental.
How do our wives put up with us. ;)
Allan.

[Geremy Britton]

i think this is fantastic. 10 out of 10 for engineering and innovation!

Best Regards

[CWFlightsim]

Gidday, not only does my partner put up with me and my home cockpit building, it was her idea to use a car body in the first place, would have preferred a plane cockpit which would be the ultimate, however, us Kiwis are such good pilots no-one crashes any for spare parts (Ha)
Cheers!

[Shawn]

Wow, that looks fantastic. I have to ask what you used for the gauge/bezel inserts? (the tubes that go through the panel and around the gauges)

[Westozy]

That is awesome and a very neat build too, very innovative. Is that Harry Potter's Ford Anglia???

I once looked at an old VW splitscreen combi and thought it would make a good sim shell!

Cheers Gwyn

[Kennair]

There should be a prize for the most innovative sim build cos this'd get it. Perfect and much cheaper option for a full enclosure I think. I remember being drawn to home cockpit building by someone who did a similar thing but in a Ford Falcon however yours is more detailed and pure inspiration. Would love to see it in full action with outside views etc.

Cheers,

Ken.

[Nick1150]

That's a great one !!!!!!!!

Would like to see a video too, that's e x c e l e n t work :)

[CWFlightsim]

I have to ask what you used for the gauge/bezel inserts? (the tubes that go through the panel and around the gauges)
It took a long time to work the bezel idea out, but in the end they are the top of pot plant holders that you get with baby plants in, fitted absolutely perfect and the right shape.

[CWFlightsim]

Perfect and much cheaper option for a full enclosure I think.
Cheers,

Ken.
Gidday, the car cost $200 and I sold the engine for $150 and a bottle of bourbon..... makes the cockpit worth about $8.00!

[CWFlightsim]

That's a great one !!!!!!!!

Would like to see a video too, that's e x c e l e n t work :)

Will do a video when im up and running in about two weeks, however there is a few on you tube under "CW flightsim" just of the panel and my earlier motion sims.

[Imtryin]

Thats the best thing ive seen for ages!!

Excellent

Bravo, bravo!!!!!

[Roland]

Hi Craig,

Well done, looks as if it just came out of the showroom! It looks very comfortable, you even added a heater for those long wintertime flights!

Any plans for adding motion to this combination? The whole rig must weigh a fair bit, but you have the advantage of a strong frame construction.

Great job! But of course it is never finished......

[CWFlightsim]

Gidday Roland,
Yes once the rest of it is sorted I am going to put the whole lot on a platform, a sim IMO needs motion.
I was going to get adventurous and do 4 DOF but the weight I think will stop me doing heave, but early days yet and I cant multi task (being a man and all) so I havent even thought of the mechanics or electronics yet, possibly X-Sim but I dont know if their RTC washout for roll is good. I have an early version of BFF that I have modified with AHK to do yaw instead of heave so that may be another option, it is way less resourse hungry than x-sim and I know the roll washout works. any opinions would be appreciated.

[Roland]

Hi Craig,

Interesting that you modified the AHK BFF driver for yaw. According Jim, yaw does seem to add nice cues. And depending on the rotation point, fast yaw could possibly provide some lateral cues as well, nice for side slip.
I still use BFF version 1.5: it is flexible, does what I need, and has little impact on framerates. I do add some extra cues via 2nd PC, like touch down jolt, runway bump, and egine shudder.

I did not try X-sim, so can't comment on that.

Heave for sure will be tricky, though it is merely a matter of upscaling mechanics. A balanced system should keep average power low, just the accelerations will be less if you have power restrictions. A beefy tactile transducer would be the next alternative.

[CWFlightsim]

Gidday Roland.
Yea, upscaling the mechanics and IMO balancing all the negative forces out will help, and i intend to do that in all DOF. Have you not tried X-Sim? I did when I changed from the stuff me and Jim were doing way back then, however the roll inputs from FSUIPC werent right and I couldnt get the desired effect, but it looks a bit better now, I can PM you the BFF files with my mods if you want.
Need to work on the tactictile transducers anyway. Looking at the same machanisms that lifts examination beds in your local doctor surgery for heave.
Cheers, nice to hear from you.

[Roland]

Hi Craig,

Note that heave motion needs to be fast to be felt well. The inclinable bed actuators (see below pic) are too slow to be useful.
5520

Yes, I'd appreciate if you could send me a copy of the modified BFF files, please use the email address on my simprojects website. Thanks!