Dropship Pilot

Deadman, those images are fantastic! :thumbup: That's exactly the details needed to build a seat where you sit exactly like in an A-10. :beer: Cheers, Stefan

Ah! Thanks a lot! :thumbup: Cheers, Stefan

I'd love to get it, but shipping to Germany combined with the custom fees will be a small fortune..... :( A parachute container would be more in my price range, but I couldn't locate one yet. Cheers, Stefan

Deadman, would you be so kind to measure the following dimensions on your seat: I found several, contradicting values for most of these dimensions - so it would be nice to have some first hand from someone with the real deal. :smilewink: Thanks a lot in advance, Stefan

And another Yep! Cheers, Stefan

I'd be in for a full set. :) Cheers, Stefan

You did this by hand? So .. ähhm .. woha! :surprise: Cheers, Stefan

:doh: - that was a typo - ejection angle was what I wanted to say. Error fixed. Thanks, :thumbup: Stefan

Deadman, those images are great (especially the one showing the mechanism of the ejection handle)! :) However, the confirmation that the ACESII has a difference of 4° between the seat back angle and the ejection angle helped even more! :D So under the assumption that the 15° seat back angle are correct (I still haven't found an official source for the A-10) we'll have these angles: Note that the 2° angle is the angle of the seat pan supports (e.g. the actual seat pan angle is probably larger, but again I haven't been able to come up with anything for the A-10). Cheers, Stefan PS: Did I read you correct and you have (access to) the seat in your pictures?

Vitabutch, that dokument you found is really great! Especially the CAD side view of the F-15 makes my day. It clearly shows that the top of the F-16 seat sides were modified from the F-15 design (both seats shown with the same ejection angle of 17degrees). So while a lot of the dimensions will be the same, I'll base my A-10 seat on the F-15 seat view shown on the left. Thanks a lot! Stefan

As given by the plans by Brenda and others the angle between the top of seat sides (red line) and the ejection rail (blue bar) is 107degrees. From the picture you can see that the top of the seat sides is not exacly parallel to the top of the side consoles but tilted slightly to the back. If I assume an angle of 3degrees here we will get an ejection angle (which is measured to a vertical plane) of 3+107-90=20 degress. The problem is that the 3degrees/20degrees are only a guess based on pictures. I'd love to get some solid values for these. Cheers, Stefan

Deadman, you got me there! I wasn't even aware that there is an ACES II with real arm rests. In my post I was actually refering to the top of the seat base side walls - therefore the quotation marks. According to the plans I know, the angle between the top of the side walls and the eject rails is 107 deg (or 73 depending how you measure the angle). So if the top of the side walls is parallel to the top of the side consoles, the ejection angle would be 107-90=17deg (see MIL-S-18471G Figure 2). However, the top of the seat side wall seems to tilt slightly down toward the rear which would make the ejection angle even larger than 17deg (maybe about 20 deg). I'm not sure how to measure the seat back angle on the ACES II. So it's well possible that the seat back angle is the often quoted 15deg. I hope I'm making sense here.... Cheers, Stefan PS: It would be great, if you could post some dimensions of the A-10 seat pan (like it's done here for the F-16 seat pan).

Hi Ice, I'm currently in the same boat looking for a nice and ergonomic ACES II. While looking for some plans I found Brenda's which look like the most accurate to me: http://www.viperpits.org/smf/index.php?topic=7133.0 I'm also looking for the correct seat angle. Actually, I'm looking for the angle between the surface of the side instrument panels (which should be parallel to the waterline of the A-10) and the guide rails of the seat (e.g.the eject angle). I'm going for the eject angle as it is more clearly defined as the seat back angle. Judging from the "armrests" of the ACES II I'd say the eject angle is about 18 degrees. However, it would be nice to have a value from an official source. Cheers, Stefan PS: Brenda's plans include the F-16 seat pan. So you'd have to replace it with the less tapered A-10 version which should be no big deal.

Is there any "official" source that the A-10 CDU is a CDU-900? The similarities are there for sure. However, there are also some obvious differences: - the location of the inner DZUS studs - the shape of the keys and the keyboard layout - the number of characters and lines given for the display (24/10 for the A-10C and 22/8 for the CDU-900) Cheers, Stefan

Hi Alex, don't discard the raised white frame that separates the key areas! It's actually there: Ok, the one above is not the C-version, but you can see it here too: Original page: http://prometheus.med.utah.edu/~bwjones/2007/04/a-10c-thunderbolt-ii-a-k-a-warthog/ Cheers, Stefan

Actually, MS25212 does say how far the DZUS (centerpoints) are from the top and the bottom: 0.562" +.000 -.015 that is a maximum of 0.562" and a minimum of 0.547" from the edge of the panel (or 1.5 DZUS units :music_whistling:). This is the same for all panels. Cheers, Stefan

Found a good example of how the buttons are done in the real CDUs: http://www.esterline.com/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=0yl6H7vMWls%3d&tabid=1438 If you look under 492 panel technology you even find the travel rage of 0.015" to 0.02". Cheers, Stefan

Deadman, thanks for the numbers and the data sheet! :) The DZUS system uses a bayonet locking mechanism. Thus the slots of the DZUS heads should line up along the rail they are mounted to - usually from front to rear of the aircraft. There's a slight variation of about +/-5 degrees from the ideal axis. A larger deviation shows that the stud is unlocked and thus unsafe. Figure 39 on page 54 of the DCS A-10C Manual is a good example for the orientation of the locked DZUS studs. Cheers, Stefan

I can't agree more and I didn't want to bash the ED team in any way with my comment above. Nevertheless, some parts in the ED cockpit differ from the real deal. Some of these differences may be explained with better useability (the omnition of the anti-G-connector and the oxigen connector) but others look like simple errors (the slots of the DZUS connectors should all line up as these are no screws and there are no fractions in the DZUS spacing). I know this is nitpicking (or should I say DZUS counting? :D) but if you spend a lot of time/money into a pit you want to get it as close to the original as possible. It would be great if you could get me the dimensions and/or part number of the individual lights. Cheers, Stefan

That'd be too easy! :D But thanks for the offer - I'll sure get back on that! Actually - do you know the size/part number of the caution lights? Cheers, Stefan

Yep, I was using the DZUS holes/heads as reference for the size of the panel: As the height of all panels are multiples of the DZUS spacing of 0.375" it is very easy to handle. In most cases you can tell the size of the panel just by looking at the DZUS distances (at least for panels with < 7 or 8 DZUS units). Stefan

Yep, I was using the DZUS holes/heads as reference for the size of the panel: As the height of all panels are multiples of the DZUS spacing of 0.375" it is very easy to handle. In most cases you can tell the size of the panel just by looking at the DZUS distances (at least for panels with < 7 or 8 DZUS units). Stefan

Deadman, according to the Collins data sheet for the AN/ARC-186(V) the Remote Control C-10604 (shown on the left in the picture) is 2.25" high. With 2.25/0.375=6 you get 6 DZUS units. Also check the photo on page 53 of the DCS A-10C Beta Flight Manual (figure 38 ). It shows an relatively undistorted view of the radio and that looks pretty much like 6 DZUS too. Cheers, Stefan

Have a look at the photo on page 54 of the DCS A-10C Beta Flight Manual (figure 39). It clearly shows the spacer between the CMSP and the caution light panel. There may be differend configurations, but at least there has to be enough space on the DZUS rails for the spacer to fit in. As for the radio - I'll have to ckeck that. Stefan

Sadly, I don't know of any picture of the A-10C showing the new CDU. Here is a picture of a similar unit: It might help in a "guesstimate". As for dimensions and travel range of the knobs I wouldn't trust in the ED cockpit model too much. It sure is nicely done, but there are some errors: For example: the height of the AN/ARC-186 radio is too big (the original is 6 DZUS high) and there should be a one DZUS (0.375") wide spacer between the CMSP and the caution light panel. Hope this helps, Stefan