Cessna 172 Replica Production

[cjellwood]

Hi all,

Some may be interested in the methods and parts used in my Cessna project so over the next few week I will post lots of pictures, videos and info about it here as it happens. The interesting thing about this project is that I am attempting to have most of the parts manufacturable so if anyone see something they like then gimme a shout.

Chris @ Essex UK

[cjellwood]

Starting with the largest most expensive part, the glareshield mould as shown below took a couple of weeks to form by the pro's at my local ABS vacuum forming company. The reason for producing a custom glareshield is due to the current availability being too expensive and low quality. A few modifications were made to the traditional design to add strength and style which has worked in my opinion. It is very rigid and is very nice to look at

This is the tool made from some kind of resin (hand made!)


And here is the first ABS form to arrive from the vacuum forming machine today. Not a very good pic sorry and has a foam panel inserted for perspective.


Chris

[fsaviator]

Nice... is it cost effective?

[cjellwood]

Edit:

This glareshield is now available from www.FlightIllusion.com . There does not seem to be much talk about their products in this forum so I will use this thread to evaluate and report on their gauges etc as they arrive. Half of my cockpit is made up of www.homesim.de products too solots to report on here.

Chris

[cjellwood]

Some more pics now it has been trimmed http://www.leons-world.com/glareshield/

Chris

[cjellwood]

Now onto what is probably the most difficult part of the project whic is the control knobs.

First they are designed in Pro Engineer and the assembly is checked for correct mating etc.





The first port of call is to have each part machined in aluminium then anodised which will be very satisfying but predictably expensive! This will be done over the next couple of weeks so will post at each stage.

There was only pictures to go on when modelling these parts and my modelling skills are not much so fingers crossed.

Chris

[No Longer Active]

Alternatively, you can just buy one of these panels when they come out, My guess is they will sell around the £100 mark:



You also have nine toggles which you can take out of the casing and use somewhere else, Ie. Switch panel!

[cjellwood]

I wondered how long it would be before Saitek brought out something like that for the Cessna, but I hope they re-arrange the mix and prop knob because isn't the red knob supposed to be in the centre?

[No Longer Active]

Yes you are correct, it goes, black, red then blue, mainly larger GA aircraft such as the Cessna 182 would need prop pitch. I must admit, regarding the sequence 'yes' they have got it wrong'...but what's to stop you unscrewing the knobs and swapping them round, maybe this is a feature. They have totally killed the design by adding 9 toggles in such an odd looking grid, but they have certainly got the vernier controls right, although the actual black throttle knob looks a bit odd, the white raised label on the black knob should be inverted as to what it is, but altogether it looks 'very' Cessna and I'm liking the product overall!

[smendlik]

Did Cessna change something? I'm looking at a poster of a 182 interior and it's black, blue, red (left to right). Here's a link to Cessna's web page showing the same sequence