Raceguy

Great pit Zoren! I think Extranajero has hit on a good idea regarding simpit entry. At 67, I'm in the same group. Here is my pit with my thoughts on entry. Take care Ed Entry for the young simpit pilot. For the more "mature" simpit pilot. For the "older simpit pilot. (me)

WarHog, thank you for the kind words! Your build was one that really pushed me over the edge to build my own pit. Space is tight as my "hangar" is my 11 X 12 foot office. At the moment my main screen is our old 46 inch TV that I added to the pit when we upgraded to a 65 inch TV. As you can see it is about 1/2 inch off the wall when centered on the pit. In this pic you can see the tight space. I use a TIR so I have pretty good visibility but down the road a larger screen may become available if the wife is not paying close attention. :music_whistling: Take care Ed

Regarding plans, I have been told that in about 2 weeks P51 plans will be available. I'll post here when I get a confirmation. Ed

DE, thank you for the kind words! Here are a few pics of it's current state after I added a Saitek radio panel. I have also added a Buttkicker to the seat and I'm in the process of extending a MS FFB stick with the grip from my original stick. Take care Ed

Hi Gary Thanks Gary! Glad to hear you are still working on your excellent P-51pit! That was truly the inspiration for my build. I have never made any vids of the pit in use but may in the future. I just need to figure out how to make one since I don't have a camera other than my iPhone. JG14_Smil and avidflyer Thank you for your kind words! avidflyer, I made the windshield frame using NAA blueprints that I purchased. They were not perfectly clear so I had to do some "guestimating". Spitty mentions Stangs fantastic prints but I don't think he still has them for sale. I glued two 1/2" pieces of MDF together to get a 1" core. I printed the plans I had at 100% then laid them on the MDF and cut to match. Then I added aluminum angle on both sides, notching it like Gary did for his frame to make the aluminum bend. This gives me a very rigid frame. When the other sections are added and anchored behind the MIP this is strong enough to use as a hand hold for pit entry and exit. Here are some pics that I hope explain what I built. Take care Ed

My aluminum is 1/8" and was not too difficult to bend. I drilled holes in 3/4" plywood and inserted round oak dowels then bent the aluminum around the dowels.

Looking great Bazooka! I got the round balls at Hobby Lobby and cut slots for the aluminum bar stock.

Fantastic!!!

Yep, exactly!

Thank you all for your kind comments. Bazooka, I used a standard 12 position rotary for the mixture. Playing with the anchor point locations on the mixture lever and arm on the rotary allowed me to have the points of the rotary match the lever position on the quadrant. The sliding pots are working great. So far I am only running the A2A Mustang, T-6 and C172 in FSX. When A2A upgrades the Mustang to 64bit for P3D I will make the move too. Also, I have had DCS for several years but have not yet installed it in my new flight PC. That will be the next challenge as I get familiar with the setup for DCS and program all of the controls. Thanks again everyone. Take care Ed

I have added throttle pics to my P-51D cockpit build thread. Take care Ed

Since there is a post specifically about a P-51 throttle I'll post all of the build pics from my throttle project. If there are questions, please ask. Ed The shafts for the throttle, prop and mixture were aluminum stock bent to shape. These are the 2 locking devices I made from raw materials. You will see the 3rd one on the completed unit at the end. It was a plastic knob that I filed and sanded to shape. And here is the sandwich with all of the parts temporarily held in place with a wing nut. The following pics will show the sandwich piece by piece. The first pic is the mounting base with a spacer then the throttle lever and another spacer. Here I have added the prop lever and another spacer. This is the mixture lever with a bracket and slot to attach the rod going to the rotary switch. And, another spacer. Test fit with prop and mixture knobs attached,face plate and all 3 locking devices . Throttle grip with PPT button. Here is the setup with the throttle and prop lever each connected to a slider pot with a steel rod. A steel rod runs from the mixture to a rotary switch which clicks through the 3 mix positions. Closeup of the 2 pots and rotary. Here is the WEP bracket made from aluminum angle. WEP with wire in place. The green lever switch is activated when the lever breaks through the wire for WEP. The red device is a cabinet door catch that gives me resistance and a click when I push through for WEP. And, the completed throttle.

Hello everyone I had intended to update my lost pics but have since found a fix for the Photobucket issue. I hope this helps. Since Photobucket started charging for hosting we have experienced a LOT of lost photos in forums everywhere. While on another hobby forum someone suggested a solution using extensions for Firefox and Chrome that allow the original photos to again be viewed. I use Firefox and added the extension and can now see the "lost" photos! Direct links to get extensions for Firefox and Chrome browsers to delete the PB ransom demand and restore the original image: Firefox extension https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefo ... edded-fix/ Chrome extension https://chrome.google.com/webstore/deta ... jjgj?hl=en This is a painless exercise, it simply adds an extension to the browser and doesn't alter anything in your account or computer registry.

Hello everyone Bazooka, thanks for the comment about my throttle. I have not updated my P-51 cockpit build to restore the pictures Photobucket killed because I thought most had found this solution I found on another forum. Take care Ed Since Photobucket started charging for hosting we have experienced a LOT of lost photos in forums everywhere. While on another hobby forum someone suggested a solution using extensions for Firefox and Chrome that allow the original photos to again be viewed. I use Firefox and added the extension and can now see the "lost" photos! Direct links to get extensions for Firefox and Chrome browsers to delete the PB ransom demand and restore the original image: Firefox extension https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/photobucket-embedded-fix/ Chrome extension https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/photobucket-embed-fix/naolkcpnnlofnnghnmfegnfnflicjjgj?hl=en This is a painless exercise, it simply adds an extension to the browser and doesn't alter anything in your account or computer registry.

Hi DE Thank you for your interest in my project! Since PB killed the availability of my pictures I have considered re-posting them using another hosting service but was not sure of the interest. My previous experience was woodworking and some plastic model building, nothing with metal, so my project caused me to learn how to shape metal in a very basic way. If I can do it, anyone can! I have learned a lot from other posters here and if my project can encourage someone else to take the plunge I will be glad to help. I have some down time coming up in a few weeks and will add some pictures. Thank you again Ed

Hello everyone Since PB killed my pics I have switched to Imgur and I'll add a few here later. Here is a quick pic I just took while flying around the Tampa Bay area with our wonderful afternoon summer storms. This is still in FSX as I have not installed DCS on my new PC yet. My camera was just behind the top of the seat so it gives you an idea what I see while flying. Take care Ed

Thanks Craig, I wish I could but the room is just not large enough. The 46" screen will be at the limits between the wall and my desk. Take care Ed

Thanks Warhog and Predator! I have not shown the build details but I can tell you I used the best aviation products offered by Lowe's, Home Depot and Hobby Lobby. All of the components are either wood, plastic, metal or a combination of these. The complete build is on the A2A forum under P-51 Mustang / P-51D cockpit build. If anyone has any questions just let me know. My wife told me if I wanted to retire early I needed to find something to keep me busy (I heard out of her hair) and I thought this 6 month build would be just the thing. Well, 27 months later, it is almost complete and therapy has been discussed a few times! Take care Ed

Hi guys Since my last update I've been fighting gremlins and control setup issues. Right now I'm down to 3 controls that are not setup correctly; the flaps and 2 ram air controls. The flaps need 6 positions/detentes and will be setup in FSUIPC and the air controls just need the right L:VARS to work. In the pics below I’m temporarily using a 32” monitor instead of the 46” so I have access under the hood while I trouble shoot the issues. The first pic is using an LED floor light so some details are washed out. You can see my TrackIR camera in the upper left (2 yellow dots on a slant) sitting on the cowl held in place with its magnetic base. The landing gear and lights are finally working and you can see the lights are inverted to reflect a tail dragger. For the second pic I turned off the floor lamp so the pic is a little blurry but you can now see that the MIP is lighted by the two dash lights mounted under the shroud. These are 120V chandelier bulbs in a housing I made from PVC pipe and the lights are controlled by 2 dimmers, one on each side of the pit. Thanks for looking Ed

Thanks Marc!

That's a great pit Goblin! I like the idea of VR but want to enjoy my build for a while. I've seen some videos of people falling using VR and I have an idea of how to control this. Just setup the VR in the garage with a range limiter and connect yourself to the garage door opener with a harness. If you get out of range the limiter activates the opener and yanks you back into position!

My wife once asked me if the seat in my pit still reclines. I told her just a little then asked her why she wanted to know. She said she just wants to make sure I'm comfortable. :helpsmilie: It sounds like I may be sleeping in here if I'm not careful! :)

Thanks Goblin! My space is limited too. I had to bring it in the house in sections and my office, which was a spare bedroom, is really cramped now. But, I'm not complaining!

Hello everyone I wanted to give a quick update on my project, which is NOT complete, and may never be. The simpit is now in my office but not completely assembled. I underestimated the amount of time to get the parts together and the switches programmed and working. The key word here is working. I’ve now got all 8 USB boards, the stick, rudder, Saitek panel, 5 screens etc. connected to powered hubs and working. With a total of 6 screens connected to my PC I spend half of my time looking for the cursor! I will have to use a combination of the A2A Configurator, FSUIPC, SPADnext and LINDA to program all of the functions. This week I set up the gauges using Air Manager by Sim Innovations. They have incorporated the LVars needed to pull the information from the A2A gauges and it works great. These pics are right after I sized and placed the gauges. The screens appear washed out in the pics, but that is the camera, however I will probably darken the screen when I get to tweaking the details. Take care Ed

Thanks romeokilo and Hansolo! The construction phase is complete but I'm still trying to decide what to add to the exterior. The front 24 inches of the pit will be next to my PC table and PC on the floor. Any nose art placed where it should be will not be visible. I could move any markings back to be visible but that is still in the thinking stage. Take care Ed