For all those who would like to fly the simulator:

1 hour ............................... 180.00 SFr. (1 or 2 persons)
Minimum rental time is 2 hours.

The "Sim Hangar" is located near Zürich (Switzerland). Evenings and weekends are preferred times. Please make appointments by email or the comments function of this blog. I will get in contact with you if you leave you address. (languages: German and English)

One third of the income goes to the SCFA (Super Constellation Flyers Assoc.) to support their wonderful project. The only Super Connie in the world allowed to fly with passengers.....! (members only, it is a "club" airplane) For more information see www.superconstellation.org

Ready for takeoff....

Start engine...
Set lever to "D"...
Taxi to the Highway...
Accelerate to 80km/h...

And enjoy the faces of the people who have never seen something like this on the road. :-)))
This was the very first mission outsite the workshop. We had a meeting of the Event Coordinators of the SCFA (Super Constellation Flyers Assoc.) and they wanted to see the cockpit in real life. For me it was a test how everything works because it is planned to have the simulator on various events and airshows.
The test succeeded very well and I think there are no problems to start the new season. Now we don't have "only" a Super Constellation, we also have a simulator for all those who want to try flying themselves.

I made an emergency exit door....

Yeah really, believe me :-) I had almost no idea how to make that, but I thought that two sheets of thin plywood and some wooden sticks could possibly do the job. And they really did it....
Wood glue is an amazing thing. If you do it right, it is more stable than the wood itself.

I made a fixture from an old board and two slats to bend the first sheet. Then I glued the sticks on that sheet. One hour later I glued the second sheet on top of the construction and used a lot of clamps to press it together. And another hour later the door was almost finished.

Painted and with all the necessary stickers, it looks almost like the original.... just a bit smaller.

(The handle is an original from Connie SN4202)

The fuel dump and shutoff panel is finished and already installed. I had to make the levers because they were missing. Or more correctly... it was too difficult to remove the original levers from the airplane.

However, I think it came out quite good.

Although the screen is relatively small, if looked at the right angle the view is just great. The additional software "Switzerland Pro" is wonderful. Sometimes I just fly around to see all the details. And it's a great tool to improve my geography skills. ;-)

The problem is that it is keeping me away from installing the last parts. There are still a couple of things to do....

This part solves a problem...

...I hope so.... I always had the problem that the elevator was a bit jumpy. I had to move the stick quite a bit until something happened and then it happened too quick and too much. It felt like the elevator was sticking somehow.
After a bit of thinking, I found the problem; the potentiometer travel was too short. The interface I use makes 128 steps at full travel of a 10kOhm potentiometer. But I only use about 20 degree of a 300 degree pot and this is after the calibration eight to ten steps. No wonder that my elevator reacts jumpy.

I solved the problem like in the old days. A piece of silk runs around a wheel on the pot axis and if the wheel has the right diameter, the travel of 8cm makes 300 degrees of turn. I will see if it works when it is installed.

Today I noticed that it becomes difficult to work on the simulator since all the parts are installed. I have to crawl under the floor, bend myself around the seats... I think this is the way real aircraft technicians have to work. Not always an easy job.

Before and after....

One of the last missing parts in the cockpit, the overhead fuel dump and engine shutoff levers. This part comes from a different Connie, N-105CF which was the first Connie the SCFA wanted to restore and operate in Switzerland. Unfortunately it turned out that there was too much corrosion for an airworthy restoration.
The cover here is everything I got, the levers are missing and have to be made new.

Redlight district...

The panel illumination works now and almost all the panels I have are installed and I like the way it looks. I'm always fascinated of things that give light like LEDs or christmas tree lights and this is my most beautiful christmas tree ever. :-)

The outside of the cockpit has also changed a bit. I painted the front and rear wall in gray and I installed a nice looking rubber edge around it. That edge is primarily to cover the zone where sheetmetal and wood come together. I took this L-shaped rubber band and glued it to the edge and it looks very professional now.

Another cleaning job...

Yesterday I finished cleaning the VHF COM frequency selector and because I have two similar units (the other is VHF NAV) I thought this would be a good before-after picture. The unit was only cleaned, not painted or something.

These two units have an interesting story to tell. They come from a ex-KLM DC-7 which was used at the Geneva airport for firefighter training. It stood there many years, birds were nesting in the cockpit, people removed parts..... until 2006 when they got a "new" training airplane, a B-737.
Just before the DC-7 was scrapped, a team of airplane enthusiasts whose members I know, removed all the usable parts and the VHF boxes here were part of it. Since I needed some stuff to fill my Connie overhead panel, I got these DC-7 parts.
Besides the "KLM-7-...." marking on the cleaned panel there is no difference between these and the Connie panels. These airplanes were made at the same time and many parts are identical. Good for me.... :-)