Building a 737 radio panel

[Aerosim Solutions]

Hi all,
I've just finished my last customer order and the line has been drawn in the sand - no more! I have a cut and paste reply to all requests that says Aerosim Solutions is definately on hold. I am now working on my 737 until it is finished. This is the result of the first weekend with some good progress made on the radio console. It has 6 radio modules from Open Cockpits and a few panels from GLB flight products, (fantastic quality btw!) I will make the missing pieces soon and I'm planning a custom panel for push buttons that will go towards eliminating the keyboard. I used clear 10mm acrylic for the ribs at allow good light spread when the backlighting is installed.

I was very fortunate this week to score a pair of beautiful 737-300 yokes complete with the top gearboxes and wiring still intact, cheers Greg L. The fibreglass units and columns will be coming out soon and will probably end up on Ebay, you can see these in a video on my website!
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Cheers Gwyn

[jackpilot]

Good move.
Take time to build your own toy!!
Note: for the audio panels you may also consider real units.
Check EBay for recent gables units.

[Aerosim Solutions]

Hi all,
I've made some more progress on the radio panel and here it is after day four. I've made and fitted all the missing pieces which include two panels I've named "Auxiliary Switching", there are twelve momentary buttons on each that can be utilized for sim commands, ATC reply etc. The open cockpits radio panels are 8.5mm thick so I rebated the ribs where they sit and now all the panels are sit flush. I have sourced some M4 straight slotted screws and now have to make 80 replica DZUS fastener cups - yawn, that will be a boring job but it has to happen! I don't need real panels Jack as I have already cast the ACP panel knobs in clear resin and these will probably also become momentary push buttons, I was thinking maybe assigning them to the alphabet plus Shift and Ctrl seeing as there are 28 buttons here. This might eliminate the need for a keyboard. There are a few more rotary and toggle switches to fit then the task of wiring the beast can begin.
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Cheers Gwyn

[Aerosim Solutions]

More progress! I cast about forty clear ACP knobs in clear resin and Leonie was kind enough to paint the arrows for me! The large knob is machined from a solid, this was quicker to machine than making a mold. There are 10K pots mounted under the panel and the clear knobs are glued to the pot shafts. I hope that there can be some functionality for these later. I still have to fit buttons to the Mic select switches but it's almost there!
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Cheers Gwyn

[fordgt40]

Hi Gwyn

Excellent, it is always a pleasure to see your work. Thanks for posting

Regards

David

[Aerosim Solutions]

More progress made on the Lower Aft console - The panel is physically completed now and is ready for lighting and wiring. I made the supporting box from 10mm PVC so it has turned out to be quite a heavy structure. I'll save the painting until final installation. The old seats and supporting frames have been removed, I modified these and they are now in the C172 sim. I have to extend the floor area in length and width before I can install the console and new seats. The fibreglass yokes and columns have to come out to make way for my real yokes and aluminium columns, it's such a shame because I did so much work installing these as an initial part of the rebuild. I also did a trial fit of the TQ on it's new stand...a good weekend!
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Cheers Gwyn

[fsaviator]

Gwyn,
you are a master with that PVC...  I never cease to be amazed at how well you are able to form and work with it.  Each project you complete makes me look forward to retirement and time to pursue projects such as these.

Thanks for sharing.

[Aerosim Solutions]

Thanks Warren, much appreciated!
Here is another couple of pics of the radio box sat in place. I have to strip everything off again now to increase the floor size to full scale, another weekend of welding coming up.
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Cheers Gwyn

[Aerosim Solutions]

Hi all,
I have started installing backlighting to the lower aft console and I'm very pleased with the result! These two picture show the first four strips of LED lights installed at full brightness, there will be another two rows of LEDs behind the centre row of panels and they will all be hooked up to the panel dimmer. The Open Cockpits radio modules have their own backlighting and these aren't hooked up yet of course. There is quite a lot of light bleeding around the edges of the panels but that should be easy to fix. More pics soon!
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Cheers Gwyn