A window into the soul... of a plane

Well, not really!  But, it is a windshield into the cockpit of my sim!  Installing the new windshield was the single biggest work effort in the fuselage restoration since the time I cut the fuselage down to size.  I had a great weekend to get it done since the my wife and daughters were away.  Other than a few hours for sleeping, eating, and church I started Friday night and worked through Sunday late afternoon.  Of course the prerequisite to installing the windshield was to install the new dashboard upholstery.  Everything worked out well and if i ever do such a project again I can say for sure that I've learned some valuable lessons that will make it far easier.   Of the almost 100 rivets that hold the windshield in place I have a couple left to reinstall but ran out.  I had enough, I thought, but didn't realize that a few of them had to pass through a thicker piece of material so I need to buy some longer rivets this week.

After re cleaning the metal surface and cutting the simulated leather upholstery fabric (I know, simulated leather for a simulated plane LOL ) to size, I made the cut outs for the defrost vent and the avionics stack cooling vent.  I then had to mask off all the surfaces around the dash so I would not cause any problems with over spray when applying the adhesive.  With that done I applied an aerosol adhesive to both the metal surface and the back of the upholstery fabric.  When it got tacky enough I positioned the material over the vents and then smoothed it out, and pressed it down.  It set up in a very short time and I was able to do some final trimming on around the vents and edges.  With that done I reinstalled the trim rings around the vents and removed all the masking I had previously done.  After that started the prep for the windshield install. The end result came out rather well.

Even after reading the installers notes, installing the windshield was a far more involved and time consuming process than I thought it would be.  While the windshield was made to order to fit the make, model, and year of aircraft it was by design still not an exact fit.  The manufacturer explained to me that the sides and bottom edges are intentionally cut slightly oversize to allow for minor variations caused by normal stresses on the airframe.  Because of this it is necessary to do a pre install test fit.  It's dome without the felt gasket or caulking.  With it in place the edges are marked allowing enough additional clearance for the felt gasketing, something I didn't allow enough for on one edge...  Then the windshield is removed again and trimmed to size.  I used a Dermal with a cutoff wheel to make the cuts.

Have you ever seen those "Blend-Tech" YouTube commercials where the guy puts everything from bic lighters to billiard balls into their blender, and grinds them to dust.  It's an amazing blender, but I digress.  At the end of each one of the videos he says "Bic lighter smoke, Don't breath that!" or Billiard Ball Smoke, Don't Breath That!", etc..  Now after cutting that windshield my strongest advice to anyone who cuts plexi' is "Plexiglas smoke, DON'T BREATH THAT!" I wore a respirator mask which helped keep the dust (and there was a lot of it) out of my lungs.  But, it didn't help the huge amount that collected on my clothing and in my hair.

It worked very well and all these steps took about two hours.  After that I adhered the felt gasketing to all the edges and attempted to do the final install.  That's where it got real difficult.  Despite every blocking and jig arrangement I attempted I could not get the windshield into the upper mounting flange on the fuselage.  I had to give in and decide it was a two person job.  Thanks to a family member who was able to come over and work with me we were able to come up with a solution.  Not an easy one, but the only one that worked.  I am again amazed at the difficulty and complexity of the work that Airframe & Power Plant Mechanics do.  After that I reinstalled the outside mounting trim and started the tedious but satisfying process of reinstalling the nearly 100 rivets.

And so ended my weekend, or at least the sim pit building portion.  The rest of the family got home late Sunday afternoon and we spent time catching up on each others adventures.  Mine you know about, there's was a great Girl Scout camping trip.

That's all for now.  I'm off to do some more e-bay hunting to find the interior trim parts that mount against the newly installed window and to design the wing root end caps that will follow the forward contour of the windshield and cover where the wings used to mount.  More to come when I make more progress....

Yokes and Control Wiring

I made a little more progress over the weekend.  The pair of yokes I purchased both had Mic key buttons built in, however the pilots button was not working.  I managed to find an exact match to the very tiny micro switch at a local supplier and purchased one.  I wired the new switch into the pilot's yoke, which was a bit of a pain.  And, decided before installing the yokes to test them one last time.  Somehow, after sitting on a shelf for a year the copilots button decided it no longer wanted to work, and worse, there's no service slack in the wire leads.  So I decided to install the yoke anyway and will make that repair at a later time., but without that slack it requires that I cut into the back side of the molded rubber grip to extend the leads.  And I thought the pilots side was a pain...

Well beyond that I got the engine control, aileron, and rudder axis position sensors connected to the controller and tested through to FSX on my laptop (my test machine).  While it did work, I'm not happy with the rudder position sensor so I am looking at other options for it.  However, all else went in and tested good.  Next up, the elevator control position sensor. I had a design and after buying a few basic parts and test fitting everything I am not so sure about it so that to is back on the drawing board for the moment.

I also found a design flaw with my aileron linkage. While the chain has sufficient tension to move the sprockets without any drag the minimal contact with the chain due to the angle causes the top sprocket to jump teeth anytime the tension gets to high.  To overcome this for now I've added some temporary chain tensioners in the form of a pair of mini bungee cords.  You can see the pilot side bungee (red) in the this pic.  This will all be replaced later by a more mechanically sound spring loaded idler sprocket.

I'll post more as it happens, but that's all for now.

Back at it after a brief hiatus...

Just a quick post to let everyone know that I am back in the virtual left seat after a summer hiatus.  I had not intended on being away from the build for so long, but real life must take priority over virtual life, at least my wife keeps telling me that ;-) so other things required my attention for a few months.  At this point I'm just spooling up again, reviewing my project plan, and mapping out the next few months of build time.

I just purchased the replacement windshield and should have it in hand in about two weeks.  After that is installed it clears several obstacles for other build elements such as wing root end caps and forward air vents. With those done and the primary sub woofer mounted I can then build the rear external cover.

Other items that are on the short list are mounting the rudder pedal position sensor, finishing the design of the elevator linkage and installing it, installing the yoke shafts, yokes, and yoke mounted mic key switches.  Then doing a full test of all the installed I/O.  Unfortunately that includes repairing the magneto key switch which has failed after only light use.  I also need to do the last of the cosmetic work on the lower instrument panel and get the last couple switches installed and wired.

I really need to get a safe heat source installed in my work area so that I can continue work this winter.  I am thinking that repair and restoration of some of the interior trim panels is on the agenda for the winter months. After I figure out how far I can get with that I will then have a better idea of what interior trim I need to source elsewhere.

And, of course, I change my mind about the best way to handle the initial Instrument Panel build at least 4 times a week.  So, I am waiting on that as long as possible to allow for more research and make sure I don't start investing in one of the more expensive parts of the build only to change my mind several dollars later.

That's all for now.  Hopefully it won't be a long time before my next update.
Tom

PS: remember those pesky little connectors I could not find earlier this year.  Well, now that I have decided not to use that circuit card for the sim, of course, I found a source for them.  So, I decided to order enough for that one board and I'll be adding a few switches to my Desktop Sim Pit just to allow for more complex aircraft simulation.  Why let a good encoder card go t waist.