TripRodriguez

I say yes, but what I really want is a Vietnam era AH-1 Cobra! PS- Harrier is my most anticipated module and I LOVE how much Razbam is sharing etc. Great work guys! :thumbup:

Hi Molevitch, and thanks! I have SimShaker for Aviators running L/R Aura ST Bass shakers, and also have a JetSeat that has been integrated into my home made seat cushions. Totally invisible except for the wires coming out of the chair, but works as well as it did in it's original seat pad if not better. The collective has plenty of friction in it's existing (real) mount. I also have a motorcycle hydraulic steering damper on hand if I need it, that I had been using on my old home made collective. I'm working as fast as I can (given other RL responsibilities) trying to get flying again! I'll be flying before the panels and wiring are all done, as soon as I get the things in the "blockers" list taken care of.

Update for May 19th: Minimum work required to start flying: Cyclic warthog tube not done Collective not functional New Motion Sim electronics need to be wired up I'm working on building the Warthog grip compatible tube for my microhelis.de Cyclic, hopefully I'll have that together in the next couple days. I've got the right half of the overhead console panel made, but haven't installed the switches etc. yet. I also just finished prototyping out the mount for the overhead console. I placed it very close to the proper height above my head (within an inch) which is great but I am definitely worried about clearance to the ceiling of the room. I'm really wishing I had sunken the motion sim into the raised floor now, at the time I had no intention of doing full cockpits like this because I thought it was going to be important to keep it light. I can still go back and sink it into the floor but that's going to take probably at least a couple weeks by itself as well as requiring materials etc. I can't currently afford so for now I'm going to keep it where it is and reduce motion travel if need be. No pics right now, hopefully I'll have some with the next update which should be Monday or Tuesday.

Thanks @Hawkeye60 ! As far as how much, you probably don't want to know! :music_whistling:

Thanks Brewnix! Here is tonight's update! The pedestal/instrument panel frame is in! It's really starting to come together. Now to make the Pedestal panels.

Thanks for all your hard work here Capt. Zeen.

Oh nice, I'll have to take another look!

Thanks @FragBum !

Greetings friends! If you are looking for info on the motion simulator specifically, visit my build thread over on Thanos forums here: http://motionsim.freeforums.net/thread/35/trips-ac-hp-6dof-build I have decided it is finally time for me to start a cockpit build thread. Some of you may know that I did a lot of asking questions/research to build various cockpits for DCS. Originally I intended to do a Warbird cockpit, but plans change. I do still intend to build modular cockpit modules in the future including a WWII plane, Ka-50, and several other planes, as well as my racing and space sim setups. A couple months ago I finally settled on doing the Gazelle cockpit because I thought it would be really cool to be able to fly multi-crew on the motion sim. Unfortunately as I worked on the Gazelle and spent some time flying it I became less and less satisfied with the flight model compared to the other DCS helicopters. A few weeks ago I finally decided to stop working on the Gazelle and build a different helicopter instead. I deliberated for several days, deciding on whether to build the Ka-50 or the Huey. The Huey really appeals to me because of its lack of advanced technology. I really prefer not to have automated systems and guided weapons. I also absolutely love the Huey flight model, and it's the only Western helicopter. Without further ado, here we go! This is what I started with. This setup is really minimal, without even a full floor because when I originally built my motion sim I was under the impression that lower weight meant higher performance. I later decided that was not the case for me. More weight actually smooths things out a bit and feels better in my opinion. My motion sim capacity is theoretically over 300KG, and I've tested it with over 600 pounds on it without any negative impact. My new seat is from a 1970's Rotorway kit built helicopter. I made the cushions from scratch, and they contain a secret! I integrated my JetSeat vibration cushion into these cushions. It's basically invisible but works at least as well as it did when it was in it's original condition. My Cyclic (joystick) is from microhelis.de and it is excellent! It's got basically no centering force and hydraulic damping, along with a proper asymmetrical gimbal. Excellent quality and feel. I will be building a tube to attach my Warthog stick grip to it for the Huey, in place of my original Gazelle grip. I'm going to stick with this instead of getting a B8 style grip because it will be very beneficial to have the extra Hat buttons etc. for binding functions that don't exist in the RL Huey, things like centering the Rift camera. Also the metal Warthog grip just feels amazing, and a natural mate to my metal collective. More on that later. Note that the floor in my new setup is basically a four foot wide grid for attaching modular components for different cockpits. The seat can be located in any of three positions, in this case it's on the right hand side to match the Huey layout. The pedestal console will be occupying most of the left side, and the collective is almost dead on the center. This past week I mostly completed my main instrument panel. I suppose this requires explanation since I fly entirely in VR: What I'm going for is Mixed Reality, where every switch etc. I use in VR has a real life counterpart in as near as possible to the same position. The big problem with this of course is that there is no support for mixed reality so you generally wind up blindly fumbling for a switch you are looking straight at which breaks immersion. My solution is that I cut the bottom portion of my Rift's foam surround assembly (including the frame) off, and made an opening at the bottom. I can look down, almost like bifocals, and I can see my hands and any control that is in about the angle range you would normally find your keyboard. I can still see what is going on in the simulation a bit in my peripheral vision, things like the rotor beginning to spin up for example. When I'm done operating the switches etc. I look straight ahead and I'm 100% back in VR. I don't even notice the opening at the bottom unless there is VERY bright light outside the headset or I'm intentionally looking down at that area. The opening is only slightly larger than the Rift DK2 had out of the box. It did make the headset just a touch less comfortable as there is a little bit more pressure on my cheeks but so far I don't even notice after a few minutes. I do have a replacement foam surround too, so it's not like I wrecked the Rift if it turns out to be a bad idea. My original one was starting to get a bit beat up from many many hours of use. I think it's going to work great, but we'll see! Here is my main panel, non-functional instruments but functional switches and rotaries: And last, the star of the show! I'm incredibly excited to (for my Birthday) have got my hands on a 100% genuine real life Huey collective! I think it's going to be pretty easy to get it wired up and fully functional. Tonight I got it mounted, this mount is the beginnings of the permanent mount but it will be beefed up a lot mechanically and cosmetically finished. I matched the angle and position up almost perfectly to what I see in VR when seated in the Huey: That's all for now. Hopefully next week I'll be making progress on the pedestal console and overhead console. I'm trying to get ready to fly as fast as I can manage, given other family responsibilities etc. Thanks for looking, Trip

Oh I meant to attach the breakout board as ordered from Bodnar, it has no pins or terminals on it so it looks like I would have to solder it and I'm not very good at soldering small fragile things.

Nice results Yogi, on the bead blasting! Are things starting to get nearly caught up? I almost ordered one of those breakout boards myself to add, but I'm afraid I would have a difficult time installing it to my bodnar joystick board. =(

Sweet, thanks guys. I think I've found what I'm looking for but I'll keep you in mind. Nice quality video by the way!

The Thrustmaster T-flight is the only Thrustmaster stick that is lousy. Also stay away from Logitech (pot spiking) and arguably Saitek (now owned by Logitech) due to reliability/durability issues. T16000M, VKB, Warthog, and CH Products are my suggestions. If willing to spend a lot for helicopter controls go with Microhelis.de gear (they have everything) or the VKB Gunfighter (just a stick, but has friction adjustment)

This is how I roll. If you think you overspent, you should take a look at what I've done. I'll be paying credit card bills down for my sim setup for at least three years, and that is very optimistic.

Glad to hear things are starting to come back together Yogi!

Man that looks sweet!

Wow, that's more or less the farthest you could be from me and still be sharing the same planet LOL. Land of the Drop Bears and everything alive trying to kill you! Still I guess you never know when you might suddenly find yourself taking a trip to New York City, it's only 2 hours drive away. If you cross the globe I'll pick you up at JFK or Newark Aiport =P.

@Frakin' Toasters If you can get yourself to NorthEast Pennsylvania you can come try out not only flying in VR, but in a pit (Huey now under construction), on a 6DOF motion sim, with SimShaker for Aviators; four transducers and Jetseat. =O The SSA VRS vibration alone is amazing in the Huey. It's a dream come true for me, but on the other hand I'll be paying it off on my credit cards for several years now LOL. I'm really looking forward to building that Ka-50 pit too! My rig is modular, so in fifteen minutes or so I'll be able to swap cockpits, or even swap to a Rally Racing setup.

Sweet! This is exactly what I was looking for! I ran into one problem right away, when I try to install Helios it says I have to install .net framework 2.0. I'm on Windows 10 and the newest .net framework is installed. How do I get past this? Also I need to look up instructions to run Helios on a separate PC, don't want the performance hit since I fly in VR. I'm hoping I won't have any complications from the export.lua given that I've already got it running my motion sim and SimShaker for Aviators. I'm SO excited! Just in case anyone is scratching their head wondering why I'm doing this when I will be wearing a Rift on my face, my plan is to use Helios and button boxes for cold starts, then put on the Rift and take off! I think this will be cool. Trip

Thanks for that reply, that is exactly the kind of testimony I was looking for. I have decided for the time being to focus on the Huey first, but I'll be tinkering around in the Ka-50 and maybe get serious about it after a few months of hardcore Huey time. I prefer not to have auto-hover etc. but I do really like the feeling of the Ka-50 on my motion sim in VR and what you describe definitely sounds like it could be fun. Trip

zerO_crash you do many of the members of this community a great disservice by underestimating their intelligence, knowledge, and experience. I apologize for coming off as abrasive or flip. I am a polite person in general, but suffering the ill effects of frustration. As such I am bowing out of this conversation as well as any/all further conversations about the Gazelle flight model.

Great link! I enjoyed the read.

Thank you Holbeach. I think the problem is people who haven't been paying attention are commenting. This list is exactly what we needed.

There is a big difference between us being told that PolyChop were told by a real Gazelle pilot that in his/her opinion it feels right, and it actually being right. Beside that, what I'm focusing on here is the stuff that is not a matter of opinion but plain facts and physics. VRS recovery via increasing collective is not a matter of opinion, and neither is the helicopter staying level with neutral cyclic when there are two missiles on one side and none on the other.

@borchi 2b Per my above suggestion might I recommend you enter into PRIVATE conversation with the following forum members and listen to them with a receptive and open mind. FragBum Shagrat Frusheen There may be others and I apologize for the exclusions, these three stood out off the top of my mind.