Status on UAL722; Short hop in the Legend

[sagrada737]

Hi Everyone,

I thought I would share a brief status on my 737-800 Sim build; in addition to sharing a blast from the past in a short video of my wife Carol flying me from Santa Paula Airport to Camarillo Airport in our newly completed Turbine Legend (prior to final paint).

As most of you know, I designed and built a 6dof full motion platform for my FDS based 737 Sim Project.  The Motion Platform to-date is performing very nicely and has been very reliable.  I have made some minor "tweaks" to the Motion Cues, which has helped to improve the "sense of flight" as induced into the flight experience.

I recently added the AFT part of the Flight Deck structure, which now fully encloses the cockpit, giving a higher degree of Sim immersion.  I am still finishing out some of the inner panels; aft interior overhead panels; and other cockpit detail -- taking my time to try for some degree of realism.  Now, when I close the cockpit door, it truly takes on a totally different feeling. 

I have completed the mechanical structure to include "live support" for two Observers, allowing up to 4 crew members in the cockpit. The Isle JumpSeat is out of a real 737, as well as the CA and FO Circuit Breaker Panels (thanks for your help Scott).  I still need to fabricate some thin panels to enclose the outer part of the Aft Section to give the Sim a more finished look.

I have added Stairs to the Sim Entry.  The photo shows the stairs in the Motion Platform's "Park" position.  These stairs ride with the Sim as the Motion Platform rises to its active Drive position.  When the flight is over, and the Motion Platform is Parked, I just open the cockpit door and simply walk down the stairs.  Much better than the ladder I was using before...

I added four (4) web cams to the Sim, for use with OBS Studio in Record mode, in order to take flight video.  I'm still in the process of adjusting camera position.

I also added the 737 Window Open Handles (3D Printed).

Eventually, I want to install aluminum floor panels to the cockpit with fake rivets to add to the 737 cockpit look.

I am now in the process of building up a new Sim Computer.  It will use a 13th Gen i9 13900KS 6GHz, with a RTX-4090 24GB RAM GPU.  This CPU runs "hot" so it will be water cooled and the Case will have high air flow. Other fast goodies as well...  Should be a screamer...   This setup will still talk with my Win7 Sim-Avionics computer, which is running the 737 flight model.  I will continue running Prepar3D ver 4.5.3x; and testing version 5.2x  I'll report back on how well all this performs.

On another note...  I ran across a short video that I thought I would share with you.   It's a "blast from the past" about 15 years ago, when we built our experimental Turbine Legend.  This video shows my wife Carol flying me on a short hop back to our home airport.  Ya gotta trust your wife guys... Carol was quite proficient in this high-performance aircraft, including being able to skillfully handle some aerobatics.  Hope you enjoy the video...  This photo is of Carol in our Turbine Legend -- painted for an upcoming Air Show.



That's it for now.  I'll post an update down the road.

Mike

[Ed]

Hi Mike,

I thoroughly enjoyed your post. It had so much to offer. The flight video of the Legend was great. Congrats to your wife.

The sim is looking great. A sim to make one envious.

I think the specs for your upcoming PC upgrades were very interesting as well. We are finally breaking through to the 6GHz CPU's..amazing stuff.

In summary, thanks for sharing, was very enjoyable read and watch.

[sagrada737]

Hello Ed,

Thanks for the post, and I'm glad you enjoyed info and video.

I have since upgraded the Sim software to P3d v5.3x.  This new version fixes a lot of issues that were in v4.5.  It is fully compatible with Sim-Avionics and my current FlightIlusion gauges.   The stock scenery is a major improvement, and it works well with all my current v5 scenery.  My ORBX scenery was reinstalled for v5 as well.   I also installed a global MESH software that does a really nice job of scenery relief.  Also upgraded was FFTF, which improves performance based on altitude.   All the VATSIM and PilotEdge stuff works correctly as well.

As a side note...   I installed a couple of airports for Taiwan -- RCSS and RCKH.  Flying around Taiwan is very interesting...  Beautiful country!  Hong Kong to Taiwan is a fun flight.

Mike

[KyleH]

Nice to see your progress Mike.

...This setup will still talk with my Win7 Sim-Avionics computer, which is running the 737 flight model...

How is this working? Are you building the new machine to be visuals only with Wideview and the SimA machine still runs P3D? Or are you just referring to the 737 avionics?

[sagrada737]

Hi Kyle,

Thanks for the comments...

Basically, I am using two computers.  One for the P3D Sim Computer (high-end Win10)running P3d v5.3, also handling the three (3) laser projectors, Scenery, ActiveSky, FSUIPC6, Shaker and Motion software, and 737 TQ SIOC software.

The other low-end computer (Win7) runs only the Sim-Avionics FlightModel and FlightIllusion guages.
 

They talk with each other with Wideview over a common IP Adress.  I have Sim-Avionics also loaded on the Sim computers to handle the FDS Radios via their SysController software.

This is the current way I have it setup -- using only two computers.  I do not use any extensive AI software to keep the overhead down on the current 3.5GHz Sim Computer CPU.  That said...   I may experiment with adding some AI functions to the faster 6GHz Sim Computer -- soon to be installed, to see how it handles the load.

I may change this configuration in the future, and replace the Win7 computer with a Win10 computer IF the Win7 machine begins to fail.  Right now, this configuration is working fine.

Best Regards,
Mike

[FredK]

They talk with each other with Wideview over a common IP Adress.  I have Sim-Avionics also loaded on the Sim computers to handle the FDS Radios via their SysController software.

Just to avoid confusion relative to Kyle's question on this...

Based on what I know about Mike's terrific sim I believe he meant FSUIPC "WideServer".  WideView is for multichannel visuals.

Fred K

[sagrada737]

Thanks Fred...  That is indeed what I meant.

Mike

[KyleH]

Ok so it's a standard setup like Sam's. I was confused by your use of the term 'flight model.' This refers to the files containing the flight characteristics/physics that flight simulator software(P3D, MSFS, X-plane) uses to simulate the aircraft's physical behavior. This by nature must be installed into the simulator software.
Sim-A, ProSim, PM are all avionics packages, some of which come with a flight model that must be installed on the flight sim machine. 

I wasn't sure if you were using a setup like Fred where he has a 'server' running P3D with no visuals attached to it, and using Wideview on other machines to display the outside view.

Kyle

[sagrada737]

Hello Kyle,

Sorry for the confusion...   I used the term Flight Model because that is what I heard someone use when I first started my Sim Project.  Thanks for the correction -- Avionics Package it is.

My goal from the beginning was to use only two computers to accomplish Sim operations.  My new 6GHz i9 computer will handle P3D v5.3; and my current Win7 computer will continue to handle the Avionics Package.

I'm not sure what Sam was using, or is using now.  I miss Sam...  Great guy to share this hobby with.

Mike