Aerosim Solutions B737 simulator rebuild

[Aerosim Solutions]

The lower sections of my MIP are installed and I'm waiting for vents to arrive for the two outer blank panels. I've bought some swivel ball vents and these will be hooked up to the air conditioning unit. I made 24 replica Dzus fasteners which was quite tedious but the result is worth it, I will have to make loads of these soon. The folding hinges on three of the main display bezels open to reveal the monitor controls which should be handy. Rudder adjustment cranks are next on the list, these will actually be switches as the rudder sets are motorized...
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Cheers Gwyn

[fsaviator]

Gwyn,

I know I've said this before, but WOW!  The attention to detail is phenomenal.  I was just looking at the two pics of your lower MIP and noticed the foot guards, the recessed and painted screws on the side of the CDU bay, your hinged DU frames.  Very nice.  Great work.

[Aerosim Solutions]

Thanks Warren, your comments are much appreciated! I think I have improved my attention to detail since starting Aerosim Solutions. Customers always want maximum bang for their buck as we all do and this has lead to the creation of more accuracy in all things I make. It doesn't really add to the time spent on making a part really, I probably spend a little more time in the planning phase. Other builders works can be inspirational and I think we all try to do our best no matter what level of skills we have. For me the chase for accuracy meant discarding all of my earlier efforts. In fact my sim is not being rebuilt at all, it is a totally new sim and the only thing that I have recycled is a small section of the steel base and this has been heavily modified. I could have left the old sim together and sold it as a going concern!! The best thing I find is to focus on a task and try not to get side tracked on something else - do it right, do it once! (Then do it again and again for customers lol, but the planning only has to be done once!) When my 737 is 'airworthy' I look forward to opening the doors again and working towards fulltime with Aerosim Solutions. Cheers Gwyn

[Aerosim Solutions]

Hi all,
More progress with air conditioning vents installed to the lower MIP panels. This is a slight variation on the replica look here but as the sim will have air conditioning I wanted it to have usable vents and ducting. These eyeball vents came from a retired old 1987 Ford Fairmont Ghia, I bought the centre console piece for $30, they swivel nicely and the butterfly valves are in good condition. I also prepared the 12 volt drill motors for driving the rudder sets fwd and aft. Does taking two brand new Ozito cordless drills out of the box and sawing the handles off void the warranty? Haha but it's a great way of getting a powerful geared drive motor for only $35 each! They would make good trim wheel drive motors as well I think.
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Cheers Gwyn

[sagrada737]

Hello Gwyn,

Your attention to detail is absolutely amazing!  It seems that everything you do with your Sim Project is top quality throughout the entire design and process.  Great progress and nice work!

Keep the status and photos coming as it affords a quality benchmark for everyone to shoot for.  Thanks again for sharing.

Mike

[Aerosim Solutions]

Thanks Mike, your comments are much appreciated! Here are some more pics from the weekend...

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Motorized rudders in my 737 simulator

Not strictly 737 but I wanted to have electric rudders like the 777.

Cheers Gwyn

[Aerosim Solutions]

Hi all,
I've had another really busy weekend in the workshop finishing the backlighting on the lower MIP panels and then making an aluminium glareshield structure. It supports the CPFlight EL MCP & EFIS units along with the fantastic glare wings from Flightdeck Solutions. Filling in the gaps between the glare wings and the MIP will be fun, those pieces will be a challenge! I have some textured vinyl upholstery to go on top of the glareshield and also the map pocket from FDS. I'll be onto the sidewalls as soon as the glare is finished and that will be the bottom half done!
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Cheers Gwyn

[Aerosim Solutions]

Testing the backlighting...
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Cheer Gwyn

[Kennair]

Bloody beautiful as usual Gwyn, PC will be after you for stealing his IBL patent 

Are you using that LED strip lighting or individual LED's?

Ken.

[Aerosim Solutions]

Hi Ken,
Haha I didn't do it - I promise officer! You have seen my IBL in the Flightcity sim and it is not that hard to do really but I chose to use the simple $25 Chinese 12VDC white strip lighting mounted in a box. I've done the whole of my MIP with one roll of the LED strip lights and there is still about a metre left on it. For the lower MIP sections I made plastic boxes from 3mm PVC which are about 25mm deep. The inside of the box is lined with a chrome foil tape courtesy of Thomas and the pieces of strip lighting is stuck to the inside of the box with it's own sticky backing in alignment with the text. I don't trust the sticky backing because it does let go after a while so there are some hot glue bridges to firmly secure it in place. The same foil tape secures the box to the panel, it prevents light bleed and covers the back of the potentiometer circuit boards, switches and wiring. The light spread is excellent as you have seen from the pics, I think the light spreads a lot more even than IBL and the dimmers work a treat!
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Cheers Gwyn

[Kennair]

Your innovation continues to amaze. 

Ken.

[Aerosim Solutions]

Hi all,
The latest pics of my sim. I've finished the glareshield and panel lighting. The main panel, background and AFDS flood dimmers are hooked up and working. My 3 new PCs will be ready in a week, can't wait!

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Cheers Gwyn

[Flying_Fox]

Looks great, Gwyn, please keep us posted!

Nick

[dc8flightdeck]

Rudder adjustment cranks are next on the list, these will actually be switches as the rudder sets are motorized...

Cheers Gwyn

Interesting! Do the newer 737 have motorized rudder pedal adjustment? 

On our 737-200 I was surpised by how fast and easy the pedals adjust with the hand cranks compared to other aircraft Ive had my hands on. The F-4 Phantom takes a lot of effort to crank the pedals foward or back.

Justin

[jackpilot]

The F-4 Phantom takes a lot of effort to crank the pedals foward or back.

Justin

Different guys ! lol 

[Aerosim Solutions]

Rudder adjustment cranks are next on the list, these will actually be switches as the rudder sets are motorized...

Cheers Gwyn

Interesting! Do the newer 737 have motorized rudder pedal adjustment? 

On our 737-200 I was surpised by how fast and easy the pedals adjust with the hand cranks compared to other aircraft Ive had my hands on. The F-4 Phantom takes a lot of effort to crank the pedals foward or back.

Justin

Hi Justin, I don't think any of the 737s have electrically adjustable rudders, this was a bit of customizing for my sim after being inspired by flying the FDS 777 sim at Jandakot (YPJT). Maybe my 737 is the first to have them...737NG Deluxe version!!

[Aerosim Solutions]

Hi all,
This weekend I made the oxygen mask box doors for the sidewalls. I was originally going to make some flat one piece replica face plates but I ended up getting a bit carried away making hinges and the masks themselves. There is a test button under the black lever and I hope to hook this up to a sound file to imitate the test sound, it should be a nice gimmick during the checklist procedure! The masks were new filter type respirators, I modified them to hook up to stainless braided hoses which are plumbing fittings. The mask still have their valves intact and would actually work if they were connected to an air source I guess...  smoke in the cockpit simulation?? I don't think so...it's just bling lol!

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Cheers Gwyn