Carpeting the floor

We recently laid some carpet tiles in our hall and so this provided the ideal opportunity to use the offcuts to carpet the floor space of my home-built.

Offcut carpet to deck out the floor space - bit missing behind the seats that I will get round to

Well the build of the flight deck is all but complete now and this short movie shows what it's looking like.  The panels (in case you don't notice) are still just cardboard cut outs, but the next step is to start buying the components for the computer and also source some reasonably priced touch screen monitors for the over head and the flight management computer.

I'm going to be using the touch screen monitors as a stop-gap as, believe it or not, it must be at least a year since I had a decent fly on flight sim. The ultimate aim will be to using electronics and programming to make all the functional switches and dials through out the system. This will take a lot longer.....longer than I can wait ;-)

Central Pedestal

Started work on the central pedestal last night in front of the fire.  Here I'm just joining some MDF to get the right height on the sides.....and being helped by my trusty co-pilot :-)

Over the weekend I've been putting the central pedestal into my cockpit.  Here are a couple of photos showing how it's all coming together - still cardboard cut-out panel

Initially, my plan is to use a touch screen monitor for the overhead and the FMC, and standard monitor for the main panel and engine management systems - co-pilot seat will be used primarily for those wanting to come along for a ride and enjoy a touch of in-flight hospitality and entertainment.

Central pedestal in place, but not fully painted up yet.

This is the ped in it's basic state showing the steps up from radio deck - closest, to throttle quadrant - centre, to FMC panel.

Colour Scheme

Work has kept me occupied for a few days, but I was able to carry on with a little bit of painting here and there.

Painting done - seats can go back in

So, this is just a small update - colour scheme complete - now it's time to bite the bullet and take the big step and start buying parts for the main computer

Video Outputs - Update

With the research I've been undertaking, it's become clear that there are at least two main options available if you want to use multiple video outputs - initially I'm looking at about 6 outputs; two data projectors, two standard monitors and two touch screen monitors.

The first option is to build a computer with duel graphics cards - there appear to be a couple of options in the way they can be connected using Scalable Link Interface (SLI) or Crossfire, but either way it seems to take a bit of a hit on frame rate. Although I haven't yet got my head fully around this, it makes sense because you're still only using one processor to drive the whole lot.

Duel Graphics Card option to provide multiple outputs - SLI/Crossfire

The other option is to use two computers joined together to provide multiple outputs.  Again, I haven't fully researched this, but it makes sense because in  this case you have got two processors managing the service - splitting the load.

Multi-screens with multiple computers  - this one might be a bit OTT!

I did contact Jetline systems (http://jetlinesystems.com/contact.php) and after a couple of attempts received a very comprehensive email giving some excellent, helpful and friendly advice.  Jetline are one of only a few companies that build specialised PCs for flight sim - based in the US they only supply to the US and Canada, but have been very willing to provide advice (I've deliberately not mentioned names for the sake of privacy).

Also, in recent editions of PC Pilot, they have started a discussion on home built flight sims - this is a bit limited at the moment as it is focussing on specific builds using purchased components, but I'm hoping they will continue this topic and become more generalised.

Still so much to do and find out, but I'm grateful for the support of the Flight sim community that is out there, always willing to offer help and support to those embarking on this great adventure.