N512AS 737-800 continuation

[Flyboyandre]

Evening fellow simmers,

My first thread seemed to become somewhat convoluted so I decided to start a new one. While the shell awaits the MIP installation I am feverishly gathering other components in order to continue the build.

As you may be able to see below (pretty dark picture) i have aquired the 2 10" screens that will make up the upper and lower eicas screens. Decided to go with the Flight Illusion standby gauges and I will also order the flap gauge.






Right now I am thinking to use 19" screens to display the pfd/nd's on both sides. Anyone have different recommendations there?
I'm also looking at landing gear levers right now, kinda doing a coin toss between the different vendors. I'm sure that some of you may have some insight to this item as well?

To wrap up this post I also have seats coming from Nick at APHS. I had to make a decision of whether I should get the Ipeco seats or the more economic Weber style and I chose the latter option just to keep the financial resources available for the remaining electronics.
As you can see I need to dispose of the old minivan seat i had in my old simpit


That's it for now. I also look forward to being able to start the visual setup.

[jackpilot]

Depending on the MIP itself, 18½" might be better than 19" for the PFD/ND.
Real estate behind the MIP is tight and sometimes a few mm can make a difference.

Gear, I have the FDS one, rock solid and and super nice look.
Flaps gauge new concept:
http://www.flightdecksolutions.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=4642

Congrats for the FI cluster, very nice product.
Jack

[Flyboyandre]

Depending on the MIP itself, 18½" might be better than 19" for the PFD/ND.
Real estate behind the MIP is tight and sometimes a few mm can make a difference.

Gear, I have the FDS one, rock solid and and super nice look.
Flaps gauge new concept:
http://www.flightdecksolutions.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=4642

Congrats for the FI cluster, very nice product.
Jack

Thanks for the screen feedback. I was actually looking at 18.5's when I posted last night.
I guess FDS is getting an order sooner than anticipated i assume you have the FDS CDU's as well or are people leaning towards the Flyengravity units?

[Sean]

I've had both CDU's, my second (nee third), will be FDS.

[Flyboyandre]

I've had both CDU's, my second (nee third), will be FDS.

Thanks Sean, I appreciate it

[XOrionFE]

Both of my CDUs are from FDS (current version) and work perfectly and from personal experience I can tell you they work great with Prosim as well.   You would not be disappointed going with them.
I also have a full compliment of Flight Illusion gauges and you made a great choice with them.

As for landing gear handle, mine is from Open Cockpits and is excellent though I believe slightly bigger than the ones FDS has as I was barely able to make it work with the FDS MIP.  I had bought it before I bought my MIP.   In hindsight I should have got the FDS one and if mine ever breaks I will get one from FDS.

Scott

[Flyboyandre]

As it stands right now I will most likely get my CDU's and landing gear lever from FDS.
Today I also started working onnthe MIP stand so after a period with very little time spent in the garage, I am now back at it again.

[Flyboyandre]

I am finally back on my project again after a couple of weeks on the road.
Although it hasn't been too hot around here it is still a bit uncomfortable for an out of shape Norwegian like me. The progress may not be noticeable but I'm moving along.
The 19" screens have been ordered and I removed all the casing from the 10's yesterday so they can drop into their eicas slots when I get that far. Now I have 3 20.5" screens available for dirt cheap if anyone need almost brand new LCD's.
Today I started working on the MIP console and called it quits after cutting a mock-up MIP template. Not a ton of room to work with but it fits like a glove

[Flyboyandre]

Last night i worked my way through the task of cutting the openings for the hardware and backlighting to my Simworld mip. I used pictures of their aluminim frame as reference to cut locations. I would be willing to create a scale cad file for this if anyone should be interested.

[Flyboyandre]

Today felt like Christmas eve for me. Got a call from my wife today asking "what the heck did you order now?" as she was standing in our driveway with a pallet in front of her faced with a guy who wanted money for delivering it.

ME: "Honey, I told you I ordered seats"
WIFE: "Oh.....but get your rear end (PG-13 version) back home with some money because he isn't leaving until you get here".

These are Weber style seats as I didn't want to take a huge budget hit by getting the Ipeco seats. They are very clean and all I had to do was make some adjustments to the fabric (done after taking the picture).

It didn't take long before my (now 10 year old) daughter hopped into the captain's seat, only to strike a confused look on her face when she saw the seat belt. "Daddy, there must be a knot or something on these as an airplane seat belt should go across your lap".

These moments are priceless!

[vidarf]

Priceless? Did not sound like it to me?

Congratulations!

[Flyboyandre]

Hehe Vidar! Maybe not the physical item as much as the moment itself

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk 2

[Flyboyandre]

Progress has been slow as of late. A quick family vacation threw me a bit off kelter. The motivator of getting the MIP put together came from being tired of looking at a ton of individual pieces strung everywhere.
It has been unusually hot up here in the PNW corner so I locked myself in the master bedroom and started putting the puzzle together, helped by an air conditioner.
Filip and Krzysztof have put out a stellar quality product and the perfectly machined parts fit together like a puzzle.
I still have some work left with the switch knobs and led installation behind the annunciators but I'm close.
"Dry fitted" the 18.5" screens and they fit perfectly next to the standby gauges. Now I just have to create a simple mounting method and I will be in business.
Final piece becomes getting the yaw damper, flap and brake pressure gauges. At least it is starting to look like something.

[MLeavy737]

Andre,
  Looking great!  Hey i finally flew a trip and had a chance to take a window pic from the outside due to having stairs like i said. Not sure if you still need it however here it is. Hope it helps!

Mike L

[Flyboyandre]

Andre,
  Looking great!  Hey i finally flew a trip and had a chance to take a window pic from the outside due to having stairs like i said. Not sure if you still need it however here it is. Hope it helps!

Mike L

Awesome Mike! Thanks so much!

[Flyboyandre]

Well, ADHD as I am I couldn't hold off mounting the screens until this weekend (shocker!)
The mounting solution is very straight forward and is fairly identical to the brackets that flyengravity sells.
I tried getting some decent shots of the backside. Yeah, i know that the screws on the backside needs cut but I worked fast and time ran out
I still have to install the main supports for the MIP but it's looking pretty good.
Needless to say my wife wasnt too happy with me when i yelled for her to come help carry the module inside to the living room. I just had to move some furniture around and it fit perfect as a corner piece

[Flyboyandre]

Upper Eicas in place.

[jackpilot]

Building fever hey!..

This is not a sales pitch but sharing on a good product.
Your monitor supports are fine but you will need all the space to wire everything behind and they will be in the way.
Check these, they are effective and inexpensive.
Super lightweight, adjustable to the mm and easy monitor removal for maintenance.
These are at the back of my MIP
http://www.flightdecksolutions.com/prod_info.php?id=518

[Flyboyandre]

Building fever hey!..

This is not a sales pitch but sharing on a good product.
Your monitor supports are fine but you will need all the space to wire everything behind and they will be in the way.
Check these, they are effective and inexpensive.
Super lightweight, adjustable to the mm and easy monitor removal for maintenance.
These are at the back of my MIP
http://www.flightdecksolutions.com/prod_info.php?id=518

It's funny you should say that Jack because late last night I started thinking about the same myself.
Actually I will be changing quite a bit more, including the backer to the mip panels as I used material that is way too thick. I really want to get the screens as close to the bezels as possible. So here we go enginnering again

[Flyboyandre]

Took Jack's recommendation to secure the monitors in a less space consuming way. Had to do a bit of re-engineering but it worked out great. I installed the main glareshield supports tonight as well.
Now I'm just a plywood run away from moving the MIP in place for fitting.

[jackpilot]

Coming along nicely.

Here are two posts you may look at and pick ideas if you find any...no copyright !

Scott and I built some nice stands before turning to the dark side of "assemble & play" !!!

http://www.cockpitbuilders.com/community/index.php?topic=1480.msg11295#msg11295

http://www.cockpitbuilders.com/community/index.php?topic=291.msg1884#msg1884
Jack

[Flyboyandre]

The economic crisis experienced another casualty today as the south Puyallup 737 plant was forced to shut down due to budget cuts. A company official stated that it is unclear as to when the plant will re-open.

Pictured below is the main instrument panel and what appears to be interior fitting of the yoke flight control mechanism of a 737-800 in Spirit of Seattle colors.

[blueskydriver]

Hi Andre,

Since your accounting department has you in a holding pattern, here are some free things you can do in the mean time:

In your shell ribs, you need to drill some holes that will be of the same size and directly even from one rib to the next, and you should drill about 6 holes, which could be up to 2 inches in diameter. You will need these holes to route cables from the sides of the shell to the front. You might not think so now, but later you will need them.

Next, plan for ventilation inside your shell and up into the seating area. You could have some flexible tubing to run from the front to the back or vice versa because you will 100% need cooling later on. Thus, the holes for that cooling (tubing) could be done now. Also, plan to place vents into the top of your shell, as all the heat will collect up there, and that'll be about 1-2 feet from your head; unless, you like sweat boxes.

You could also decide on using glass or plexi for your windows at this point, going without either one is fine, but the immersion factor does go way up with some type of windows in place. In either case, you could make poster board cutouts, and then use those for cutting out the glass or plexi. Surely, you have no problems cutting things, but it is something to do until the funds or bigger projects get going again...

Otherwise, always happy to see your progress.

BSD

[Flyboyandre]

http://boeing737simulator.blogspot.com/2012/08/my-story.html

[Flyboyandre]

Main instrument panel in place. Fits like a glove. Click on the picture for a larger view.