The Current Situation
We haven't done much up until this point, except for unloading the disassembled chassis all over the floor. We are still only a few people working on this project; everything is going slowly, and now are peak exam times, except that I won't be doing them, which lets me afford to gain a head start and work on the electronics and mechanics and write this article, though alone for the foreseeable future. Some rare few do come by time to time to give me some company, which is always nice to have.
Note: I have no clue about planes and may very well use wrong terminology or miss some important concepts writing this from a mechanic's point of view.
First Curiosity: The Chairs
The two chairs we've received look like Airbus, smell like Airbus, and taste(?) like Airbus, but are in fact not Airbus chairs, as evidenced by the plaque that can be found on the back. These chairs used to fly on a Boeing 737-300 for Continental Airlines. According to Wikipedia, they do not exist as a company in of itself anymore. They merged with United Airlines in 2012, making these chairs perhaps a rarity in some way. There is sadly no identifiable out-of-service date on them. Looking at some reference images, they look to have been heavily modified, perhaps in an attempt to fit an Airbus scheme more closely; a blue instead of a gray paint scheme, missing headrests and attachments for one, and entirely different cushions. However, these modifications look too very official to have been someones attempt at some weird conversion effort for the A380 sim. The plaque lists some mystery conversions. Perhaps these chairs were modified at some point for use on an Airbus.
So much for accuracy, I guess. However, I wouldn't worry about it. Even one of our most detail oriented experts Lucas Winter couldn't tell.
Here's a label I've found behind the chairs with some more information about where and when these got manufactured.
Flight-Sim Main Instrument Panel Electronics Documentation
|
|
From the above images, you can see how much is still a work in progress. The electronics don't seem to be too shabby, and I hope to use as much as possible of it to save on costs, though I would change the TN panels to something nicer, like IPS. The viewing angles are simply horrid.
.JPG)
|
These are the main electronics, all powered by an off-the-shelf PC PSU that sadly gave up its ghost mid-measuring the supply voltages. It smelled like burned dust anyway, so it wasn't a surprise in any way. All of the joysticks and levers are conveniently controlled by two FDS-FC1 controllers. As a hobbyist mechanic, I appreciate this elegant and lasting solution. Only two controllers to worry about if we ever encounter any compatibility issues with operating systems in the future.
.JPG)
Here is how the joystick controllers connect to the throttles located on the aft electronics panel.
Varia
The overhead panel. Every button here is a decoy. In its current state it's a glorified lamp. |
Self tapping screws on a metal chair... How quaint. |
