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Cockpit Delivery - Hell on Earth
by Gene BuckleProgress To Date
Progress so far has been slow to get going, but I expect to speed things up considerably soon. We've been able to remove the "extra" section of structure that was hanging from the left side of the cockpit. It used up four Sawzall blades and most of the curse words that Robbi knows. All of the lightly damaged areas have been prepared to be fixed this coming week.
[Update: 09/15/00]
The initial applications of body filler have been done on the worst areas. The first layers have been applied and some finish sanding has been completed. I'll have pics of these areas available once they're ready to be painted.
The two rusted panels have been stripped clean and repainted with primer to prevent the rust from coming back while we're working on other things.
Tomorrow [09/16/00], we're going to drag the cockpit out into the sunshine for a much needed pressure washing. Since it's been out in the elements for years, there's an amazing amount of accumulated debris and moss all over the airframe and it's badly in need of a good hose down.
Monday the 11th, I began the great adventure with the nosegear door. I spent the better part of 2 hours flat on my back on a cold cement floor pulling bolts out of the upper hinge. That door _mocked_ me. No amount of hammering, cursing, cajoling or tantrum throwing would budge it. So there it sits, nary a bolt holding it to the fuselage, refusing to budge. It thinks it won. Ha! It knows not that I have the Dreaded 5 Pound Sledge of Imminent Door Extraction(tm) at my disposal! I'll teach that lousy 20lbs of aluminum attitude to mock me! Indeed! [Insert Mad Scientist Laugh Track Here]
I also managed to cajole the cover plates off the instrument panel. Now at least it *looks* like an instrument panel.
I've also managed to locate and free up the flight control bellcranks and pushrods (those that are left anyway). Because of the way they're designed, it's going to be very simple to connect up new pushrods to mate up with 100K pots for joystick inputs. The only real engineering trick is going to be the neutralizing force required for the flight stick. I'm thinking about using pnumatic springs in a compress/slide configuration. We'll see. I'm also considering picking up a MS Force Feedback stick to sacrifice upon the altar of spiffy experimentation. I think that with the clever use of some opto-isolators and some amplifiying transistors, I can connect up the FF joystick logic board to some custom gear. The idea is to duplicate but scale up in size the force feedback mechanism already inside the joystick by using much larger motors and custom cut gear sets. We'll see how it goes and I'll let you know.
Also, Robbi did a bad thing today. He placed my A7 HUD in the tray where the '15 hud goes. It doesn't look _right_, but by god it sure does look *cool*. *laughs*
For those of you that have an interest, here's my short list of wants: [eg. The List of Bits I Can't Easily Manufacture Myself(tm)]
Landing Gear handle assembly
JFS Start handle
Throttle Quadrant - can be missing grips, but must have finger lifts
Flight stick (not including grip - must include upper wiring box)
If you know where I might obtain some of these things (other than Davis-Monthan and AMARC - they mocked me more than the nosegear door did), please let me know at [email protected].
I can also be reached on the official Simpits IRC server - irc.deltasoft.com. The channel name is #simpits. If you have any interest in building your own cockpit, please join the Simpits International mailing list on http://www.simpits.org
You can see the list of exterior repairs that are needed, as well as their current status HERE.
Until next time!
Gene Buckle September 15th, 2000
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