Intensive work

That's how it looked before...










And that's 2 1/2 months later.











The masterpiece is finished! I think I can say that without exaggeration. In no other part of the cockpit I invested so much time and work and I hope that will not be necessary anymore.
Sometimes I had some doubts if I really will finish that work. It's quite a mental thing and you need a lot of patience.
I painted many parts twice and triple because something went wrong. Acrylic paint on synthetic resin for example makes some funny things. Doesn't look good but it looks amazing when all the paint shrinks like the skin of an old apple.
You never stop learning....





Sometimes I wondered about the constructions of Lockheed. Many nuts are riveted to the metal and easy to drive a screw into, but others, especially on the most difficult places not. I don't know how they assembled that unit fifty years ago... I suspect that they must have had some very little workers, maybe four inches high, with at least five elbow joints on each arm.

A new part is ready to be connected - the wing flaps lever. First I feared to have not enough space to install the four reed switches (magnetic switches) but during the disassembly I had the idea to simply glue them to the cover next to the lever. Then glueing a small magnet to the lever itself and finished is the job.

Well, it worked not that fast. I broke some of the tiny and fragile glass switches and had to repeat the process.
Today I installed the cover on the console again and it works very fine. The switches switch exactly at the moment when the lever locks into it's positions.

I still have to wire the gear switch andt the whole trottle pedestal is finished. Maybe also the auto pilot... maybe not, we will see. I think it makes not much sense to let the computer fly alone. But future will show it. I can add that feature later if I want.

A new part again - The Spock-unit for the throttles is built and wired. It's waiting to be mounted into the pedestal.

Spock-unit? I called it so because "potentiometer-unit" sounds so boring... :-)

I almost forgot it... I finished something important today. The elevator trimmer is working, is electrified and ready to be hooked to the interface. I did it in 1950 style with rolls and cables and springs - fly by wire in the old fashion.

Rats in the cockpit... Snakes on a plane? No, no, not a Hollywood phantasy product, just a landing gear knob with some teeth marks. I first thought that this may have come from some careless pilots scratching it with his shoes. But after a closer look I saw that it must have been a little animal like a rat or a Guinea Pig. Do they live in the Dominican Republic? Maybe... Or tiny little midget leopards.

That explains why the landing gear lever smelled penetrantly like shit when I sanded it. I first thought it was some strange sort of paint but....

What a shitty blog entry today.

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.

Beautiful but without a function... the trimmers. I will not convert them to work with the simulator. They are looking good and that's fine.
One can turn the handle and the pointer in the display moves, just like in the old times. The glasses of the displays are made from CD cases... I needed something transparent but not too thick.
You gotta have good ideas....

Well... this whole project is a difficult task but this thing here will be the most complicated part of them all.

I don't know how the people from Lockheed put this thing together but some parts are not made to disassemble again. Not a single piece can be removed without removing two or three other parts before. And you need a around-the-corner screwdriver and a 3/8" rubber-wrench... :-)

... or 20 atomic powered micro chinese to get to the screws from inside...

I wonder how they managed it to install or change the steel cables. I'm really glad I don't have to do that!

On the last picture you can see the first finished lever (wing flaps). The housing is already cleaned... that was a sticky job. Today I already painted two throttle levers.

I still don't know how I will install the computer-interface-potentiometers but for nostalgic reasons it will be something with cords and wires.

Heute hab ich den Glare Shield wieder im Cockpit eingebaut... hab ganz vergessen, dass noch nicht alle Fensterschrauben montiert waren, so hat sich das um eine Stunde verzögert. Die musste ich schliesslich zuerst anbringen, nachher kommt man nicht mehr ran. So ist das eben wenn man "mal schnell" was machen will.
Zur Entspannung habe ich dann zuhause das rechte Pedal verdrahtet (dabei kann man schön Musik hören) und den kleinen Magnetkompass gereinigt und die Beleuchtung repariert. Nettes Teil, so einen muss ich mal für's Auto organisieren...

Kleiner Nachtrag... ich habs geschafft, dass jetzt jeder seinen Kommentar abgeben kann.

Bisher war das nur anderen Bloggern möglich aber ich hab jetzt die Einstellungen geändert. (Es war so langweilig ohne die dummen Sprüche... :-))

So.... endlich ist das erste Pedal fertig. Das Potentiometer montiert und die Kabel sind angeschlossen.
Es hat sich mal wieder bewiesen, dass die kleinen "nur noch schnell" Arbeiten immer länger dauern als man zuerst denkt. Alleine die weisse Rolle mit dem Aluwinkel hat etwa 2 Stunden Arbeit gekostet. Ich hab natürlich die Luxusausführung gewählt, Rolle handgedreht, Achse aus Messing ebenfalls... nur die Schrauben sind gekauft.
Dafür hatte ich es mit der silbernen Rolle weiter hinten einfach, sie stammt aus dem Computerschrott. Ich musste sie nur mit einer Holzschraube befestigen, alles andere war bereits dran.
Die Feder auf der anderen Seite des Potis stammt aus der Schublade mit Ersatzteilen für alte Rechenmaschinen aus dem Geschäft. Gut habe ich die bei einer Firmenübername vor dem Schrottcontainer gerettet. Ich wusste doch, dass man immer wieder mal ein Federchen braucht.

Matt sei dank! Matt...? Wer ist denn Matt? Tja, das ist wohl der verrückteste Simulatorbastler der Welt. Dank seiner Homepage www.mattssimulator.com bin ich auf die Idee gekommen wie ich die originalen Instrumente für den Sim benützen kann. Schaut euch seine Seite mal an aber haltet euch fest... alleine die "Basement Tour" könnte euch vom Hocker hauen. Leider hat er keinen Mail-Link, ich hätte mich gerne bei ihm bedankt.

Viele Instrumente im Cockpit laufen mit sogenannten Synchros. Wenn man zwei solche Synchros richtig miteinander verbindet, dann kann man den einen drehen und der andere läuft synchron mit. Verbindet man nun einen Synchro mit einem Frensteuer-Servo von Simkits (www.simkits.com), dann kann man ihn per Computer steuern und somit auch das Instrument das dran hängt.
Das einzige Problem ist, dass man eine Spannungsuelle braucht, die 26 Volt bei 400 Hertz liefert, denn mit dieser Spannung laufen fast alle mechanischen Anzeigen in Flugzeugen. Ich habe das Problem mit einem Verstärker (schwarze Kiste im Bild) und einem Tongenerator gelöst. Für den Simulator muss ich mir noch einen Oszillator basteln... den Verstärker übernehme ich so wie er ist, der liefert 400 Watt, das sollte genügen.

Los Pedalos sind so gut wie fertig... nur das Potentiometer muss noch richtig befestigt werden. Das ist übrigens das teuerste Poti, das ich je gekauft habe, es hat 60 Franken gekostet aber es läuft dafür supersmooth. Es soll ja auch eine Weile funktionieren, da darf es schon etwas kosten.
Die Pedalanlage ist mal wieder ein gutes Beispiel für aktives Recycling. Die Gasdruckfedern stammen von grossen Druckern, die Rollen aus einer HP Optical Disk Jukebox und die Gleitschienen sind aus einem 19-Zoll Rack und haben einst grosse Disks von Fujitsu getragen. Nur das Drahtseil ist neu und stammt aus dem Veloladen.... und das Brett... von Migros.
Die Schalter für die Bremsen sind induktive Näherungssensoren die reagieren, sobald das Pedal gedrückt wird. Sie stammen aus der Greifhand eines Tape-Roboters.

The Wing Fighter from Star Wars part 17? Assault of the Zylons? Nooo, totally wrong, this is the so called glare-shield which is installed above the pilots instruments. Integrated in it are red and white illumination lights. Underneath the bumps left and right are the light regulators, the rheostats.
It was not easy to get red lightbulbs of this size but with some pieces of color film for stage lights did the job too.

The first computer is ready. Let's see what the dual core pentium is able to do. The front cover is painted in "Connie Avionics" black. The computers will be installed in the radio rack and take the place of the radios which were installed there in the early days.



Oh... Doctor, what is it...? Congratulations! It's a pedal.... Quadruplets to be precise. Of course all the mechanics for steering and braking is still missing but it will come soon.

Today it was time for the small parts... I removed the nuts from the windshield frames and polished each one... 280 pieces! Now the inside of the cockpit can be painted and it will certainly look great with all the shiny nuts.
I know, there are some machines that polish such parts in no time but I don't have one. This way I had some work for another 2 hours... I don't want to run out of work ;-)

An important part has been added... the platform for the pilots seats. This time I welded it myself and I think it came out very well, even if I'm still a beginner in welding.
As one can see, I removed the glareshield, the cover above the instrument panels. It will be cleaned, sanded and painted.... black on the top and Lockheed-green on th underside. The illumination regulators will be rewired and the bulbs replaced.