I'm a lucky man.
I have a great gal, who supports nearly everything I do, so when we were looking for a house to live in, a few years back, I wanted one with enough room for my sim.
The house we bought has three bedrooms, with ensuites, a spacious open living and dining room, double lock up garage and a breezeway!
The breezeway was the size of a bedroom, only, attached between the house and the garage. Absolutely perfect for the cockpit!
So, only a month after moving in, I had my mates down from the coast, helping me build in the ends and turn this room into my dream.
That was over two years ago.
The Sim Room has a 6 foot slider for entry and a 1 metre by 3.6 metre foyer area.
I have just finished tiling it and it has a nice full wall graphic that I had installed with my Airline and Route Info. I have a laptop hooked up in the corner and it's attached to a 40" monitor. I play the Intro movie when guests come over for a fly, before entering the flight deck.
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So, I'm on the home straight now. I am currently finishing off my overheads. just spent the past few days installing all the power supply, power distribution box, usb, 240 volt outlet in the roof cavity.
Still have a bit of testing to go on the forward overhead, but it should be all wrapped up and installed in the next few weeks.
I got 32 flights set up, for my friends, over the Xmas break, so I can't be late.
It's been a fabulous build and a ball breaking, money pit, but I've loved every minute of it.
Now, I can almost smell the rewards of all my toil!
Frank Cooper
Wow Frank, that is amazing.. Love the idea of your setup. Nicely done..
Quick Question.. Is that you or your mate that is a dead ringer for Hugh Jackman (Wolverine)? LOL
Regardless of our struggles, you know as well as I do, that Working on these simulators is our happy place.
Trev
Thanx Trev.
Wolverine is the installer for the Company that I got the graphic produced from.
Those guys really knew their stuff and I designed the graphic, had it printed and installed for 700 bucks. It's 3.6 metres high and 3 metres wide.
The helper of Wolverine actually owns the Company. Pretty good service, huh?
Frank Cooper
Lol yes that is excellent service. The graphic didn't look that big but that's awesome.
One of these days I need to visit your area and check that out first hand.
Nice hanger though.
Frank - excellent work. We are all envious of how far you are with your project. AND yes - you are so right about having a partner that is supportive, or at least tolerant, of our hangars we build at home.
When I first started mine, she would make me put up a white board of all I spent, with a running total. I resolved that by offering her to take a year long sabbatical from her work and I would pay for whatever she wanted to do. She attended French cooking school for a year. So now I can take down the white board and exercise more with all the good eating. Seems like my mate and I found a win-win situation. :)
That's a great story, mate and so very apt.
We do tend to forget that our partners are the very patient and loving ones that put up with our obsessions day in and day out.
My wife has a genuine interest in my project and was there on many of my first flights.
What is even more remarkable is, she is an accountant, a very methodical and regimented (money wise) person.
So, pulling the wool over her eyes was no easy feat. She pretty much knows now, how much has been sunk into my dream, (we joke about the holiday home in the garage) but has told me on many occasions that it is my passion and keeps me off the streets and at home.
I love flying and have done the odd mile or two over my lifetime, so if it wasn't this, then it would have been the real thing, so she figures flying at home is a whole lot safer.
Hats off to all of our wonderful, patient partners who indulge us in our dreams....
Hey Frank,
Just going back and looking at your post, you have an awesome hangar going there. I think my wife and your wife should meet, as they both do the same thing in life...accountant. It's a blessing because mine keeps me within my means and the black ink, and without her none of my simulation pusuits would be possible.
Kudos too all those special folks in our liives,
John
Frank - your layout is so similar to what I am doing. What projectors are you using?
Thanks,
Jim
Sorry, Jim, missed your question, there, mate.
The projectors are a few years old now. I bought them off Nat. They are the Sisy one's from China, short throw, high def.
Here's a few vids, taken over the last few days after months of software upgrades.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YNbf7FOR6GU (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YNbf7FOR6GU)
And one from today....still working on my alignment. Not easy with three separate PC's and projectors.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oKbVQ956whA (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oKbVQ956whA)
Frank
I don't feel so bad now, and you shouldn't feel so bad either Frank because you got company, I got bitten also with the Sisy ones from China too, can't even read the remote. Pretty expensive too for a China product.
Sam,
Mine have been pretty good, only had one issue with one projector, but it's running ok at the moment.
My main issues were with software. Getting Fly-Elise and Windows and P3D V3.1 to all play together has been a real chore, but I'm almost there now.
Old mate Nat looked after me when I first bought them, so no complaints there, either.
When they are all set up, as I had them before, I've not seen a better projection from a home set up yet.
Frank
He took care of me too, no complaints there either, I was just shocked to see it was Chinesse units when I open the box for the price.
Cheers,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lZMCL6SditM (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lZMCL6SditM)
Frank
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v_Uham5vfLw (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v_Uham5vfLw)
Thought I'd put a little update in here, as I promised Scott to keep him up to date with his overhead.
I had an overhead, all finished and fully wired. It was a simworld overhead with the wonderful simworld gauges and canbus technology.
My whole sim comprises FDS units, so the overhead was the odd one out.
However, a few months back, I saw Scott was selling his 737 FDS overhead panels and I jumped at them.
I have a good mate in New Zealand, who is also building a great sim, as well, so I offered him my simworld overhead and he bought it off me.
It was all packaged up and sent off to him and he received it from Oz in 2 days! now how's that guys, ever heard of international shipping in 2 days??
Anyway, I have been busy on the FDS panels and I bought another set of simworld gauges, of course, to go in the overhead. Unfortunately our dollar is weak and I paid a lot more for the second set of gauges......hmmm
So, I received the gauges a few weeks back and they are all nicely installed, so I got to and wired up all the FDS annunciators to my new FDS Sys1-XT card...piece of cake with the new connectors.
I also had an FDS overhead mounting kit that I'd bought a few years back, so I put that to good use.
Today, I removed all the panels and test fitted the frame, using the FDS mounting kit, to the shell. It is brilliant.
I now have forward and rear FDS overheads, with the brilliant IBL lighting and the panel can be accessed if anything needs fixing.
So, it's a big thanx to Cockpitbuilders for their for sale forum and another big thanx to Scott for selling me the great panels.
Here's some pics :
Looks nice Frank!
My FDS overhead was from previous generation - without DZUS fasteners and I had to kind of vandalize FDS mounting kit, :idiot: since my AFT overhead had to open the other way.
Yeah, my rear is a mish-mash, but I managed to pick up a set of FDS panels for a pittance, so I was stoked.
There really isn't much in the rear overhead, but I do have a nice Ruscool IRS unit installed, so it will be nice to see that fire up and come to life.
I also bought a full triple intercom system from John at Ruscool, as well. John is a swell guy to deal with, no problem too big.
We certainly have some great people selling us gear, at the moment.
Frank
Looking great Frank and I am so happy they found a home with a fellow CB Member. It was a tough decision to sell these and give them up but my mind was fixed on the -200 and going down the path Rob did so I had to make a choice. Now I will get to enjoy them still through your build and photos. Thank you again for buying and please post some videos when completed.
Best regards,
Scott
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gG0ut_wAees (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gG0ut_wAees)
Both my rear overhead and forward overheads are now all but finished and all I'm waiting for now, is two FDS IBL dimmer slave cards, one for my forward and one for my rear.
I have trial fitted my rear overhead and it's sitting in the sim at the moment, but I'll have to pull it back out to mount the card when it arrives.
I must say that I vastly underestimated the monumental effort needed to fit and solder all the cables and necessary wiring to make these units operational.
I hoped to be real clean and tidy with my forward, but ended up just being happy at finishing it.
I finally hooked up my FDS Sys card a little while ago and tested all my switches and annunciators.
Switches were 100%, but I have several annunciators not lighting up, so I'll be chasing those tomorrow and fixing them prior to installation.
I'm really exhausted after all the wiring and fitting. I feel like I need a little rest, but I have some new GTX 1080's coming for my three IG's tomorrow, so I'll need to perk up and get those babies in and check them out!
Frank
This one is dedicated to you, Scott!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IxmlsigW9cE (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IxmlsigW9cE)
Frank Cooper
Oh, and I forgot to say before, thanx to you guys here at Cockpit Builders, whom I have been watching at Worldflight for the last few years, I'm trying to Contact Matt Sheils and enter the sim in Worldflight Australia this year.
I'm already preparing the sim, with all the necessary scenery software, thanx to you guys releasing the routes last week.
My great friend Richard Jellyman and his son Brody will be flying (really, not simulation) to my place for the week and they will share piloting duties, alongside a very long list of my best friends, who are all excited about being involved and raising money for Charity.
We hope to have live streaming for the event and look forward to being part of this great event that you guys have been involving people in for many years.
So, see you all in the skies in November!!
Frank
quote author=tennyson link=topic=5291.msg42108#msg42108 date=1468676641]
Oh, and I forgot to say before, thanx to you guys here at Cockpit Builders, whom I have been watching at Worldflight for the last few years, I'm trying to Contact Matt Sheils and enter the sim in Worldflight Australia this year.
I'm already preparing the sim, with all the necessary scenery software, thanx to you guys releasing the routes last week.
My great friend Richard Jellyman and his son Brody will be flying (really, not simulation) to my place for the week and they will share piloting duties, alongside a very long list of my best friends, who are all excited about being involved and raising money for Charity.
We hope to have live streaming for the event and look forward to being part of this great event that you guys have been involving people in for many years.
So, see you all in the skies in November!!
Frank
[/quote]
Frank PM me.... I will put you in contact with Scanno, he is the one you need to talk to.
Finally got my roof panels all in today, after struggling to get some time on the sim for a while.
I had a great, productive day. I had taken my pedal set out to replace the pots with bodnar 1,000,000 cycle pots and finally re-installed them today.
While I was around the front of the sim, I tidied up my wiring and cable-tied everything again.
Then I extended the wiring for my eyebrow lighting to the distribution box I have in my roof. After that, I was able to re-fit the panels in the roof.
It looks like a real aircraft flight deck now, without wires hanging out everywhere.....hahaha
I'm currently upgrading all the SSD's on my three visual PC's for Worldflight in November. I have FS Global 2010, FTX Global, FTX Vector and the Open LC USA and Europe software loaded. As well, I have a bunch of Airports that we'll be visiting along the way, so my generous FO's will feel like they are getting their Donation's worth...
Can't wait till November now...
Frank
I see the copilot seat is equipped with an ejection handle - that's cool :)
Sorry for the humor - your sim looks really great!
Oh yeah, thanx Jim.....now, where did I put my photoshop?
Frank
Hey Guys and Gals.
I thought you might be interested in my latest project.
I've delved into the realms of 360 video. I bought 6 GoPro hero 4 Blacks (bit ticked off, as the Hero 5 has just been released) and Mick Cliffe, who is a regular contributor an all round great guy, helped me out by manufacturing the 360 spherical array from drawings downloaded from thingiverse.
I've taken a few vids and it's been a learning exercise, but took a small vid last week that I've been working on ever since and just cracked the secret of uploading today.
The software is awesome but the learning curve is vertical, so It takes some time and patience to get the old noggin around it all. Besides that, this stuff isn't cheap with 6 grand investment in the hardware and another 1200 bucks in the software.
I'll be using it for general purpose stuff, but my main aim is to do full 360 flight sim video's in my cockpit.
And speaking of the cockpit, I've updated my projectors for some GT 1080's and I also purchased a new Gold version CFY throttle, which will supersede my RSP throttle, so no more playing around with SIOC.
So, it's all happening at my place....here's the video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8iRzgxSHi3U (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8iRzgxSHi3U)
Frank
Looks awesome Frank, well done!
Hey Frank,
This thing of doing 360 degree camera views is amazingly crazy! With your link, I opened YouTube and it was showing the down looking view of the PED. So, at first, I didn't know you just use your finger on the YouTube player window to move around in the 360 sphere. Once I did that I saw your entire setup...
Then, while watching on my iPad, I just moved my iPad around and that changed the views as well...now that is cool! The iPad movement is the or works like a toggle/joystick controller to look around in the 360 sphere of the video!!!
Keep the videos coming,
John
Hello Everyone,
Just checking in to let everyone know I am still here, just a little distant due to unforeseen circumstances... Please thank Trevor for all the things he does that most don't know about. In short, he is more than just a guy who hosts Cockpit Builders website...he is a great friend that cares about others.
Thank you Trevor!
John
Ps I plan to post some updated pics of the sim hangar, let's just say that it is a complete mess...in other words, I haven't went far since the last postings...lol!
Ps I plan to post some updated pics of the sim hangar, let's just say that it is a complete mess...in other words, I haven't went far since the last postings...lol!
Do not worry too much, I have a Gazebo to rebuild, a kitchen to repaint, a switch from FS9 to P/D, a girlfriend Swap to handle,
Never a dull moment
Conclusion: enjoy life right now!
:D
Damn Jack... I thought I had it rough.
:D
Yes, I agree you do have it rough Jack, but I am just curious about "a girlfriend swap"? Did you mean FS9 to P3D as the girlfriend(s)...?
John
...and I had to shovel snow also, as we got a good foot of it real early this year. >:(
Not complaining, not complaining....its a great life and winter is a very good excuse for spending hours with the sim and other toys.... ::)
I'm 11 legs into a USA tour.
Even though the title says Leg 16, it's actually 11...I'm a crappy counter
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ITVPIBXgwBg (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ITVPIBXgwBg)
Nice one Frank !
Looking good, Frank!
Thanx Guys.
I'm now about 15 or 16 legs into the US tour and finding more and more problems with add-on software.
It's so annoying when add-on software you are paying 40-50 dollars a scenery for, crap themselves on start-up or don't want to operate properly with the rest.
I guess it's hard to get so many complicated add-ons to work together, but surely they should do their homework and try their products with other well known brands on the market.
I have been very fussy about the sceneries I've bought, only high end manufacturers, but that has been no guarantee of their co-operation with each other.
So, far on this tour, of the 14 legs, I've probably bought at least 10 airports at 40 dollars each, so it hasn't been cheap.
The next problem that has arisen is the diminishing space on my drives.
I bought new 500GB Samsung SSD's a few months ago, as I was running out of room on the Samsung 250GB ssd's I had installed.
So, looks like 1tb ssd's are on the very imminent horizon, on all three IG's.
There's another 1500 bucks as well.
At this rate, it may have been cheaper to actually fly to the states and enjoy the reality of being there....hahaha!
Anyway, my latest leg had to be abandoned today when I couldn't get my main IG Pc to play the game.
It was from KELP El Paso to KDEN Denver Colorado.
I'm videoing most of my flights, so I'll put a few more up here as time goes by.
After the States tour, I'm doing some maintenance and upgrades (Intercoms x3 and seat modifications and audio upgrade), then I'm planning a European tour.
Frank
Today's flight.
I keep getting the number of legs mixed up, but this one is definitely Leg 15.
My next leg is from Sky Harbour Phoenix to the new ORBX San Diego, so looking forward to that in the next few days.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=16At6IKZzyw&t=17s (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=16At6IKZzyw&t=17s)
Frank
Leg 16 of my US Tour.
It's Part 1, number two is uploading, will put it up when it finishes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_DTk4CARQw (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_DTk4CARQw)
Frank
Part 2
https://youtu.be/j4acoliRz5Q
Frank
With the advent of the release of P3D V4, I am now looking to upgrade my visual PC's.
I'm looking at the i9 series of processors on the 2066 board (probably Asus ROG) and 64Gb of fast ram.
I've got some nice GTX1080's running already, so they will slot nicely in there, too.
As well, I've bought 3 x 2Tb Samsung SSD's to replace my 500Gb Samsung SSD's.
I'm only running 7700K's with GTX 1080's, 32Gb fast RAM and 2Tb Samsung SSD's in my outside two PC's, as they are just slaves and only do a portion of the work anyway.
V4 opens up a whole new cockpit sim world and I want to future-proof the sim now, when things are all fresh and new.
Frank
Frank
Thanks for all the nicely done videos of your various flight segments. Well done. It's always nice to see other Sims take to the air.
Mike
Hi Guys,
Just back to do an update as it's been quite a few months since I posted here.
I finished my US/Canada/Alaska tour a few months back and have been busy with house reno's and medical issues and all that boring life shit that gets in the way of good simming......
Anyway, the three IG PC's have all been upgraded with 2Tb Samsung SSD's and they are wonderful. I've spent a small fortune on updating all of my software to run with P3D V4 now.
I am still finishing off several hardware fixes in the cockpit and today, I installed my Ruscool Pilot, Co-Pilot and observer intercoms.
My audio system has had an upgrade and I'm now running a Behringer mixer in the audio system for intercom and general audio mixing.
I have also been spending a ton of time setting out and planning my next big tour. It's and Asia/Europe Extravaganza with a total of 46 legs.
Every Airport I am flying from has high quality payware airport and surrounds, which I have hand picked and tested to run flawlessly with the ORBX world.
I have spent 1900 bucks on payware software, I could almost have really flown for that sort of money, so there's a sizeable investment in this Tour.
I'm hoping to have all of my hardware updates and fixes done in the next few weeks as I'd like to kick off on the 1st October. I have so many people lining up to come and fly legs with me on this tour.
On my Us tour I had Nick from Elephant Air come up for a fly while he was her in Brisbane. I also had several friends come from overseas for flights as well.
I'm hoping that P3D V4 will be a whole lot less challenging, visually. As I said, I've flown a lot of the legs already testing all of the new software, on my test rig in the house. It looks great.
So, when I start getting closer, I'll put up some of the video's and info on the progress.
Catch you all soon,
Regards,
Frank
Hi Frank
Post often on V4...
Wide interest :D
Looking forward to this Frank. Cant wait to see your results and experience some of your flights!
Best regards,
Scott
Thank You, Guys, appreciate the feedback.
Plans are going so well, I've bought forward the tour to kick off on the 1st October, provided all of the maintenance is finished.
I am on the home leg of fitting the Ruscool triple intercom system. There was a lot of wiring to get all three configured and operating properly.
I am finished all of the planning stage for the tour. It has ended up being 46 legs and encompasses approx. 24,000 nautical miles in total.
I am still testing each and every scenery and airport in my test rig in the house to make sure it's all good to go.
I've had two issues already. I want to fly from Australia to Singapore, but the Imaginesim WSSS for V4 is still in production, so I took a punt and bought the V3 one and got it to work successfully in V4.
I also had VHHX (Kai Tak) from Fly Tampa and it was built into the tour, but being that it's shut down now, the CDU with it's current Navigraph cycle doesn't show it or any SID's or Stars for VHHX. Next problem is that VHHH from Taxi2Gate is only V3 as well, so even tho I got it to work in V4, it's very basic and a real let down, scenery wise. Unfortunately, it's an important stop, so I just have to live with it.
I am hoping that all of the other scenery and airports I've bought (over 1900 dollars in total) for the tour is up to scratch.
I have previewed a few airports in V4 in the cockpit with new REX Soft Clouds and Enhanced Weather pack...it's simply stunning.
So, fingers crossed that all the prep keeps heading in the right direction and I'll keep posting here and making my video's.
Frank