My Pa-28 181 Arher II simulator project

[Simbuilder]

I'm Esko from Sweden. I've been an aviation enhusiast my whole life.
Ex model flyer for about 10 years

1:3rd scale L-4 Cub made of stainless steel tubing. Full scale drawings came from Wag-Aero.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/38815422/13%20third%20scale%20Piper%20Cub%20L4/DSCF7276.JPG
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/38815422/13%20third%20scale%20Piper%20Cub%20L4/DSCF7276.JPG

Homemade brakedrums with working mechanical brake, and hubcap pressed out of thin sheet metal using a homemade presstool with the Cub logo.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/38815422/13%20third%20scale%20Piper%20Cub%20L4/DSCF7277.JPG
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/38815422/13%20third%20scale%20Piper%20Cub%20L4/DSCF7277.JPG

But I recovered from modellflying and started to fly flight simulators on computors.

First Commodore 128, then Amiga 1000 back in 1986. And then microsoft flightsimulator on a Pentium 3 back in 1998...

But then around 2003 I saw on the internet that people had built their own flight simulator cockpits at home.
And from that moment I was hooked.

I got a scrapped Rallye fuselage from our local aviation club, and begun building a Rallye 235 simulator.

http://www.simkits.com/builderpage.php?url=eskohaanpaa

Västerås aviation museum had a small group of volunteer people working on the flight simulators for the museum, who contacted me in 2004. So I joined the simulator group at the museum, and have been involved in the simulators there up until 2011 when I had the chanse to buy my own Pa-28 fuselage.

the DC10 sim at the museum.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=2U46IFaTvzc

Panorama display of the Draken sim, You can move around and zoom in the picture

http://www.4pisr.se/index.php?option=com_panodisplay&id=321


Panorama display of the Convair Metropolitan sim

http://www.4pisr.se/index.php?option=com_panodisplay&id=319

And then the old Link trainer...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=AZwljpYkAxU

I have ended my volunteer work at the museum and are spending all my spare time on my Pa-28.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/38815422/SE-KOA/SE-Koa%202.jpg
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/38815422/SE-KOA/SE-Koa%202.jpg

Thankfully I do have a very understanding and supportive family.

The Piper Archer II is my latest project that I'm working on.

The project started in september 2011 when I bought SE-KOA in hultsfred, some 4 hours drive from where I live.
I borrowed our company truck and cut the fuselage in two by drilling out all the rivets aft of the back seats. It took me about 6 hours.
After my arrival back at home, I dissassembled all un nessessary items from the cockpit, like oilfilters and relays for radios and things like that.
I also cleaned out all insulation and old floormats that had a bad smell.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/38815422/SE-KOA/Finished%20cleanup.JPG
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/38815422/SE-KOA/Finished%20cleanup.JPG

I then painted all windowframes with special plastic primer and paint in white almond colour. and put in new floorcarpet.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/38815422/SE-KOA/New%20floorcarpet.JPG
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/38815422/SE-KOA/New%20floorcarpet.JPG

Domelights and ventilation is to be fully functional, as I know the simulator can be a very warm place to sit in, with all the electronics, computors and projectors heating up the thing. Specially during summer. that's why i will have a airconditioner hooked up to the ventilation system.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/38815422/SE-KOA/DSCF7165.JPG
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/38815422/SE-KOA/DSCF7165.JPG

I also refurbished the seats with new foam and fabric that suits the colour scheme in the cockpit. The seats are not original seats...

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/38815422/SE-KOA/DSCF7160.JPG
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/38815422/SE-KOA/DSCF7160.JPG

The brakes and parking brake have shockabsorbers from a RC-car.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/38815422/SE-KOA/Rudder%20pedals%20%26%20brakes%20.wmv

I had to rebuild the starter key internally to be able to connect it to a input card.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/38815422/SE-KOA/SE-KOA%202011.12.18/Starterkeyswitch%20remade%20for%20simulator.JPG
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/38815422/SE-KOA/SE-KOA%202011.12.18/Starterkeyswitch%20remade%20for%20simulator.JPG

Even the primer pump has a microswitch so it can be used in the simulation.
It might be nessessary to prime the engine when its cold...

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/38815422/SE-KOA/SE-KOA%202011.12.18/Primer%20with%20microswitch.JPG

Fuel selector has microswitches so one can select the fueltanks or switch fuel to OFF.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/38815422/SE-KOA/SE-KOA%202011.12.18/Fuel%20select%20valve%20with%203%20microswitches.JPG
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/38815422/SE-KOA/SE-KOA%202011.12.18/Fuel%20select%20valve%20with%203%20microswitches.JPG

I was hoping to be able to fit in a Flight Link radio stack.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/38815422/SE-KOA/SE-KOA%20Radios/DSCF7213.JPG
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/38815422/SE-KOA/SE-KOA%20Radios/DSCF7213.JPG

But it's too tall. So I think i'll buy Emuteq radios.

http://www.emuteq.com/


Instruments are going to be Simkits instruments that I have left over from my Rallye simulato project.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/38815422/SE-KOA/DSCF0002c%20%2817%29.JPG
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/38815422/SE-KOA/DSCF0002c%20%2817%29.JPG

More pictures to follow as the project progresses.....

Esko

[Norwegian737project]

I kind of had an idea that people would not offer any calories of writing you a comment to your thread.....

I love your Piper Cub.. I have been into building model airplanes for years before I started flightsimming. I cant really say I miss it very much though.. What is worse in cold weather than covering you hands in nitro fuel xD Of course the new gasoline driven engines are a big leap towards dry hands and a model that is not soaked in nitro exhaust:)

Anyways, have you done any progress with your flightsimulator?

Update the thread every now and then with pictures. Dont mind other people that are too good to care..

[AK Mongo]

Esko,

Just saw this post. Your work is beautiful. Thanks for sharing!

Reid

[Simbuilder]

I've been working on my PA28 181 sim project and done a ventilation system from an old kitchen fan.
And I also made a wingroot section for steping into the sim from, and to hide the ventilation tubre to the lower cabin vent.
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/38815422/SE-KOA/20120603_161116.jpg

[firstinflight]

Hello.
Where did you get the panel measurements? I have been looking for the panel measurements for my PA28-161 build. I didnt want toi cut out panel and drill out the holes for the gauges before i got the measurements.

Will appreciate it if you can help me with the dimensions.

Best regards,
CPJ

[Simbuilder]

Lately I've been installing a Piper Autocontrol IIIb, basically a wingleveler, and home made omni Coupler....

Home made Piper Radio Coupler...

https://www.dropbox.com/s/97qhg4vmg3b4zi5/20120825_122723.jpg

https://www.dropbox.com/s/cn671qyp666gezn/20120825_151941.jpg

https://www.dropbox.com/s/azyjopbun7lhg4h/Aircraft%20Engravers%20faceplate.jpg

Testfited the Autopilot and Radio Coupler ...

https://www.dropbox.com/s/2ov91t0lgglqpdm/20120902_122920.jpg