777 Project Update

[hexpope]

Wow, fantastic update, I love the  way you cut out the section for the lower EICAS too. Great work  !!

[rprather]

Thanks hexpope!

I cut an approximately 1/2 inch notch out of the back wall of the CDU stand in order to allow the CDU screen to fit. Until I made the notch deep enough, the screen bezel prevented the throttle quadrant from sliding into place. Now the screen fits great and the back of the frame has been sanded smooth.







Shown: FDS Pro-MX CDU and Pro MFD 777 Collection Synoptic Displays

[matta757]

That looks fricken sweet! Is that an FDS CDU? Seriously awesome setup. I love me the 757, but I'm a tad jealous looking at your T7! :-)

[XOrionFE]

Looks incredible Robert!   Keep the pics coming.

Scott

[Kennair]

Love your work Robert, looking really sweet.  How do you find that MFD screen side on?  Is it impaired viewing from the FO side?

Cheers,

Ken.

[rprather]

Thanks for the feedback guys! The CDU is indeed from FDS. It fits really well in the original DZUS space. I'll double check the viewing angle of the Lower EICAS LCD now that it is mounted. From the captain's side, the screen was quite legible. If my preliminary experiment is consistent, the screen should be quite easy to read from the FO side as well.

[MLeavy737]

Looks great Robert! Cant wait to check it out in person!

Mike L

[rprather]

Hey Mike, I'm looking forward to it! I look forward to FINALLY flying in 2012... lol

Hi Mary, The bezels were a chance acquisition a few years ago when I had relationships with some aviation suppliers. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to find more. I haven't even been able to find all the locking pins for the ones I have :-(

Robert

[rprather]

Rendering the 777 flight deck has taken a LOT longer than expected, but has proven necessary to solve various challenges with the MIP design such as glareshield mounting, LCD spacing, lower EICAS monitor clearance and mating with the CDU stand. I rendered the sim room to allow proper planning of the curved screen. That has REALLY helped with calculations such as eyepoint distance, chord line and radius calculations.

My center pedestal is from a 767, so the printer area is not there. Still a LOT of work left to do, but definitely making progress.









Edit: Added exploded view.

[kondrat]

Very nice!

[MLeavy737]

Looks great Robert!! Good idea to design that way and get the bugs worked out! Well until the next stage of the project when more bugs creep in looks like your on top of it though!

Mike L

[rprather]

Thanks Denis and Mike! You're right Mike; Amazing how many glitches pop up in the design phase. I just spotted a few more small spacing issues I need to fix :-)

[rprather]

After a year of design work, my instrument panel is finally ready for production! I tip my hat to all the hardware designers for the amount of engineering that goes into making such structures. Getting every screw, gap, mounting bracket, switch and module to line up accurately without interfering with each other has been very challenging.

I also made significant progress on the glareshield rendering. You can see the holes, under the glareshield, that I'm expecting to use for mounting the MCP and EFIS.

[rprather]

My MIP components have finally been cut and test mounted. I also made metal backplates for a number of my center pedestal components and finished the rendering for the CCD, which I designed to fit the ADI area on the 767 quad.

[fsaviator]

Robert, very nice product there.
Really looking forward to this coming together.

[rprather]

Thank you Warren! Below are my latest updates. Still a lot of detail work to do on the MIP, but it's coming along. Thanks to a lot of guidance from Phil Lambert, Matt Wietlispach and David Allen for tips with cutting/painting. The 767 CDU stand has a lot of small bits that have to be cut off before things fit properly. I'll probably repaint the CDU stand with the new batch of paint (Phil, you were right about using the same paint bucket!).






Finally completed and installed my Engine fire panel!

More photos
http://www.flickr.com/photos/24409839@N07/

[dc8flightdeck]

Robert! Its good to see you are still in action! I enjoy seeing people wtill around that I consider a founder of the home simulator hobby. On a bad day I can say, at least my cockpit didnt just through a flood! 

Your new project looks great!

Justin

[rprather]

Justin, thank you for your complements! This time I'm building upstairs... lol

It amazes me what is available these days that we could only dream about 10+ years ago! Lots of really impressive looking projects out there now, so I have to step it up :-)

[rprather]

Tested the avionics, clocks and the lightplates. Still lots of alignment to do as well as changing the standby attitude indicator to the right one :-)


Landing gear panel lighting looks completely uniform in person.

[rprather]

It's hard to believe that in 15 years, I've never simultaneously had a full set of working flight controls, avionics and visuals. So I guess this is officially the "first flight"!! It felt amazing to taxi to the runway, power up and rotate without a keyboard. Especially with the awesome sounds of the new PMDG 777. Obviously, there's still a lot of work to be done, but I'm excited about this milestone.

I had one problem with the 10.4" Pyle screen that I used for the upper and lower EICAS. The three flight instrument screens are connected via TripleHead2Go. The EICAS is mounted vertically and it supports a maximum screen resolution of 800x600. For some reason, any resolution that creates a correct aspect ratio for the pilot and F/O displays, causes the aspect ratio of the EICAS to be too wide (and therefore not take up the whole screen), and vice versa. Instead, I will connect the upper and lower EICAS together (DualHead2Go), then add the CDU to the TripleHead2Go.









Custom made glareshield using a mixture of carbon steel, aluminum and wood


Auto-throttle module from Edoardo's team. Excellent piece of engineering!


More photos on Flickr page. See link in signature.

[sagrada737]

Fantastic job!

It has been interesting to see the progression of this project.  I like the use of Solid Modeling as part of your concept planning.  It's always interesting to see concepts develop into actual hardware, and then functional assemblies.  Nice work!

Mike

[Kennair]

Beautiful work Robert as always.  Must feel nice to get to a flying state.  I'm looking forward to spending quite a few hours in our 777 during Worldflight next week.

I assume your using the PMDG 777 with undocked panels?  Your earlier photos showed you testing the avionics, was this a separate package or PMDG?

Ken.

[rprather]

Thanks much Mike! When I see videos like yours it makes me feel the need to build faster!! :-)

@Ken, thx for the compliments! It definitely surreal to transition to flying after building for so long.

I'll be watching WF closely and sharing the link with a bunch of people here to watch it live. Trying to get a few teachers to pull up the video feed during class.

I am definitely experimenting with the undocked PMDG route. The non-normal checklist alone was enough to convince me. Will likely mean the death of Pro MFD (well, what was left of it) and the start of something new :-)

[dodiano]

Amazing man!! Simply amazing... 15 years already??? Damn!! Happy Flying Robert! Hope to see you soon!

Regards

Roberto

[rprather]

@Roberto! Thanks much man! Time really flies... Can't believe how long it's been.

Below are a few more recent pics of the sim. Landing at KIAH with REX weather.





More photos on Flickr page. See link in signature.