MIP stand arrived in Holland with KL1694 from Portugal : )

Hi Guys,

The first part of my MIP stand arrived and i am very very happy with it! : ) Not shown is the starboard side. These parts are built by Vitor Amaral in Portugal and he is quite a craftsman. The next package will contain all the panels, glare shield, knobs and gear lever. Because of the flashlight it looks like the RAL 7011, but in fact it is the darker version 7043. In real life boeing and the airliners really don't care and mingle the colors and repair with whatever shade of grey is fashionable, so i've heard from a reasonably reliable source : )

more later,

dion :)


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Nice Dion. Looks like I can stand on that..... :) :) :)

Matt Olieman

Hi Matt,

It is all aluminium and can still be carried away in all sorts of manners :D
I'm really looking forward to the assembly of the complete MIP and glareshield!

thanks,

dion

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Hi,

a brief update. I finally am really building.
Still waiting for some parts for the MIP, frame and glare shield from Vitor Amaral from Portugal. In december he told me delivery time was three weeks, i told him not to hurry and march/april would be fine..
Ofcourse chances are te rest of the parts will never come. I am a bit disappointed, on the other hand the stuff he already send me is worth the money, but incomplete.
Got some steering columns and wheels from Nick Louis which will need a little work at the shipyard and also getting the simworld overhead ready for adventure & romance : )

dion

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Yesterday i got a chance to visit the SIM Industries assembly facility here in Holland, where they are building full flight Level D certified simulators for A330 and 737NG (among others) and WOW! They're building the Sims around real cockpit structures with real instrumentation and the only thing not real about it is they are too clean : ) It gave me a lot of inspiration : )
In the photo is what it starts to look like at my home. I am working on the glare shield, i use 12V LED strips for lighting i will connect it directly to a dimmer on the MIP. I made the glareshield out of two layers of 4 mm MDF and put some fake leather on it (an old pair of trousers : ) To make the angle i made V-cuts in the MDF.
I just received some parts to start building the crossbar assembly for the steering columns. Also i am working on a socket for the throttletek TQ and trying to figure out a chain and sprocket kind of a thing for the trimwheels, heck i'lll maybe even motrorize it. Another thing I am tuning is the mirrored projection of the scenery through a optoma HD20 1980x1080 HD.
Next week I will receive a long awaited package from Simworld with the MIP panels and DU and EICAS bezels.
I'll hope to find some rest soon to post some more pictures but first i have to convert them, for which i am a bit lazy...

Dion, thanks for the update. Very interesting. :)

Matt Olieman

Thanks Matt : )

There's some more pictures. The landing light 'switches' i made myself with some plastic, kiddy-jewels and glue and paint.
For interfacing i'll be using the FDS sys1x boards, every 8 I/O uses 1 common ground and i found 36 pole microribbon connectors so i can connect 4 groups per connector. I am still experimenting with this, also i use 1.27 RM microribbon, either as normal microribbon or with shielded cable which has 9 pole microribbon inside of it.
The other pictures just show the wonderful UK 2000 sceneries at Gatwick 08R and Liverpool O9 : )

kind regards,
dion

Its looking good Dion, you have accomplished a lot in a very short time, and I admire your patience! Your progress is more than others and I look forward your further updates! I can see a builder of the month in the pipe line!

Alex

Hi Alex,

Thanks for the compliment : ) I get just as much fun out of building as flying, so this is where my patience comes from. Also I enjoy the challenge, when i started this hobby i knew just about nothing, for the most part i am still at that level, but it is so much fun to get the sim together. Buy a piece here, built a piece there. Fitting it together, interfacing it, what cable etc. Every detail is sort of interesting to look into and finding the affordable (best) solutions is very satisfying. Also I am working together on a lot of the technical intricacies with my dad who works on the 737 for KLM (with a screwdriver and a hammer as he says himself),and since we're the same kind of idiots that is a lot of fun also : )

Some more pictures, i am working on the steering wheels assembly, it will be something like the one NAX has built (thanks again for the drawings NAX), i use Amatec gassprings of 200N. I hope to have something flyable at the end of this winter : )

thanks and kind regards,

dion

dion

Hi Dion,

It starts to look real!!
I see you have the throttletek TQ, i am considering of buying it because it looks not bad at all:) Can you say if it would be easy to build a Parkingbrake handle in it?

Ga zo door;)

Groeten Corné

Hi corne, parking brake has to be built on the structure you build around it. I,ll get some more photos to show you how i,ll do it... Throttletek is ok, but iwould buy fsc tq next time, with taxes and transport it was more than 900 euros. Please pm if you like more of this story... Oh man typing on an ipad is not the way to go ....

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hello : )

a small update... i finally have the MIP up, and it's wired to the FDS SYS board. Next step will be setting it up in Prosim.

Meanwhile my dad and i are getting the yokes ready. We started with 4x 200N gas springs, which gives a nice feel, but the yokes are still to heavy to make them self-center. Right now my dad is working on the 2nd pototype pot using Gwyn's Aerosim Solutions gears which have a 1:5 transmission.

Next up will be the throttle, at the moment i have a Throttletek p&p, and it plugs, but does not play. It is new and out of the box but i cannot get it to work properly. Ofcourse i looked inside, and the quality of the electronics is quite poor...The throttles never have the same response despite endless calibration... Fuel cutoff sometimes reponds, sometimes not... Expensive lesson... I am thinking about changing the sliding pots for rotating ones and putting in some gears so who knows...
The good news is FDS announced an affordable alternative to FSC's TQ. I am pretty sure i will get me one of the FDS TQ's as soon as it is out though : )

Hopefully more news soon : )

dion

Looking very good dion.
Keep us posted