There is some friction.... The throttle feeling is already perfect because I mounted the friction rollers. Aluminum discs and leather, pressed together by a spring. Why leather? Because the first cars had brake pads made of leather and I had nothing better in my workshop. And it works wonderfully. The potentiometers are still missing and178 other parts until the throttle console is finished.
Yesterday I put a new gear wheel into the elevator trim indicator (the disc with the numbers) and now this works too. Ba chance I had a suitable gear in my collection. The only problem was to turn the round hole in the middle into a hexagonal one. But with some time and a file even that is possible.

Master and slave.... The one is a dual core Pentium 4 with 3 GHz. The other a Pentium 3 with 700 MHz. I admit these are quite unequal twins but each one fits to its purpose. The faster runs the Microsoft flight simulator, the slower some additional software for the instruments.

Thanks to WideFS both can communicate with eachother. Today I installed the Instructor Station demo from Project Magenta to test the link between the two. I think I will buy the full version because the software is great! You can play God with it... engine failure? Here it is... just click a button.

And there is always one who is crazier than yourself...!

To restore a cockpit is already a rather crazy idea and sometimes people are looking strange if you tell them about your hobby. But while surfing the internet you find even stranger people from time to time.

The picture shows the cockpit collection of Roy Jerman, a member of the "International Cockpit Club", located in England. Most members have a single cockpit or only a instrument panel... but not Roy.

"Do it right or do it not!"

A couple of weeks passed and I didn't write something new. But that doesn't mean I did nothing!
As one can see on the pictures, many things happened. (Compare the pics on the post before)

The throttle console is one of these things where I had some doubts if it will come out good. But now, with some fresh paint on it, I am quite confident. Sometimes I ask myself how I made that. I had to make the sheet metal around the left front corner new because it was missing. I had to attach some sheets around the lower edge because the "colleagues" in the Dominican Rep. have not been very careful with the cutter. The rear part had to be re-attached because it was cut away during the disassembly of the cockpit.

Sounds simple in these few sentences... but it isn't! I'm not a tinsmith, I'm a computer hardware techie... but with a bit oil and metal in my blood.

Well, the mechanical part of the work is almost done. Some more parts have to be cleaned and painted and that's it... half the work is finished.
Half the work? Ah yes, the electronic part comes after that and it will be a bit complicated. potentiometers... breaking the throttle levers mechanically.... switches...levers...auto pilot...reverse lock... gear lock solenoid... etc. etc.