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%...4/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%...4/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...&v=2U46IFaTvzc

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

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


Panorama display of the Convair Metropolitan sim

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

And then the old Link trainer...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...&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


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-...%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-...loorcarpet.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


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


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

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/38815422/SE-...0brakes%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-...0simulator.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-...icroswitch.JPG

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

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


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

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/38815422/SE-...s/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-...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...603_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/97qhg4vmg3...825_122723.jpg

https://www.dropbox.com/s/cn671qyp66...825_151941.jpg

https://www.dropbox.com/s/azyjopbun7...0faceplate.jpg

Testfited the Autopilot and Radio Coupler ...

https://www.dropbox.com/s/2ov91t0lgg...902_122920.jpg