mostly 737's or 172's I see being built

[miloguy]

wow thanks for the responses guys , much appreciated..
and the first video is very similar to what I have in my head

I found a website that I could buy the guages for the caravan, ie for the
fuel flow,and 2 fuel guages and the other ones but still finding it hard to find the right
HSI like in fsx, or what guagues do they use for simpit building

wish i even knew how to get the shape of the panel itself...

milo

[No Longer Active]

To get going with an MIP you will need to scour the web for pictures of your desired aircraft, and then either by software or by hand, draw the basic shape that you see. The shape of the MIP of the cockpit is very simple, so this should be easy to judge. Remember you will not get it dead right, you will be +/- on a lot of things....but...you need to give the impression and overall feel of the layout and you can get this quite close indeed with a lot of thought.

You know that a large gauge is 79mm and a small gauge is 56mm, so with this in mind you can measure up the mip using photos by knowing the size of at least 2 of the gauges.

Go on, give it a shot and lets see what you come up with!

Good Luck.

Alex

[John_B]

Excellent advice Alex

I would add that now days there are sheets of a 5mm pvc foam sheet that is sturdy enough to make a basis of a MIP front panel .
Easily cut!! (we like easy!)

But one word to the wise try not to use the hot wire tools to cut it. PVC gives off really horrible stuff (Chlorine gas is one)..shame cos I would love to be able to use it in my laser.

Keep us updated with progress seeing others build spur us all on when it gets tough...


John

[miloguy]

I will keep every one updated, might take awhile !
also what width and length and height are the panel normally?

also for a normal cockpit of a 208, from the panel to the cargo entry inside ..

if you know what I mean, just to get an idea..

I see the http://www.simsamurai.com/?page_id=26
can be used for a caravan... would this look ok ?

then there is thisfrom simkits , but not not again sure if it would work but it is expensive or if you can use a caravan panel ?

http://www.simkits.com/product.php?prodid=1826

[No Longer Active]

The caravan panel is wider....the C172 is about 105cm wide....I think the caravan panel is around 130-140cm wide.

I briefly drew up a panel using a draw program by just using photos on the web but I have only included a single radio stack and not a double width stack. This panel is around 130cm. About 150mm short of the real deal.....I think?

Above is just an improvisation, and just looks similar in layout.

[miloguy]

what do you do for the gps and the radar and also the warning light etc ?

[No Longer Active]

what do you do for the gps and the radar and also the warning light etc ?

.......You edit the drawing/ extend width

.......You double the width of the radio stack and add the warning lights where you want them!

.......Its a no brainer!


Remember I drew the MIP up in about 10 minutes using photos from google images, and there was no real accuracy other than the gauges were the correct size, the layout was improvised and gave a 'caravan feel' to the MIP. When I designed my MIP for my Cessna 152 I spent about 60 hours drawing it, and re-drew it time and time again until I was happy. But I also had to modify the layout for sim use, and I knew that it could not simply be a 1:1 true scale replica, but blimmin close though.

Story is, its your sim, you need to plan it and draw it and make the panel to how you want it, there are no plans on the web for this, so its entirely down to you!

Tip: search google for as many pics as you can and find out what is common in them all and if they can be interfced in FS. Once you know this you will need to know how you are going to interface them, and what resources you have to build or buy them and how its going to fit into your sim! What the plan for your sim?

Im done here now, so let us all know how your MIP turns out and upload photos!

Cheers.

Alex

[birdyguy]

Gonna jump in here too

I think the reason there are so many 737's (apart from the fact they are nice to fly ...especially as they act like a dart when trying to slow up on a descent !) Is the fact there is just so much kit available (albeit way, way overpriced).

Looking around I see there are very few airbus panels or GA ..

I bought myself a laser cutter and engraver to make my own panels (oh my poor credit card!...still paying it off argh!)

I can make practically any GA or aircraft specific panels, If anyone is interested, they seem to work out about £5 a panel they can be sprayed to any (RAL) colour choice (you pay for the paint)and engraved ready for back lighting,

I am not in this as an industry, or money making scheme, but simply to make any panels , at a sensible price and therefore putting sim building within the reach of everyone (not just those with ££££££)....I started making panels because I wanted a sim and am broke...pure and simple!

My only limitation is size I can only go to a maximum of A4

I know this sounds like an advert but its not really......I have started making gauges too and they work !!!! !
If anyone want to see pics etc just let me know..

Building stuff yourself saves a fortune...my 737 throttle quadrant cost less than £100...oh and about 300 hours of sweat and blood! that's about £3000 less than a similar commercial one all it really takes is ingenuity and a scavenger instinct.

John

Hi John,

I'd like to see your pics. Would you send them to my email please.

burtoned@gmail.com

[kermit]

Hi, Why not looking for a mip on ebay , I found real one for my C 172
greetz KermitDSC04022.jpg

[miloguy]

wow, never thought of ebay,

just had a look aus and world wide, nothing that I could see..
unless I'm searching wrong

I wonder what length I'd need for a cockpit..so I can figure out what room to build it in..