AusMumbles

Hey Domhaus, To answer your question, the guages in the first image are the Engine Pressure Ratio guages. Without getting into it too much they measure the difference in pressure between the intake and exhaust. The 2nd is of the NASA owned F-14 cockpit. Becuase it was used for aerodynamic testing specifically in the spin regime, they removed some of the combat kit and replaced it with a spin chute and canards on the nose. The picture you attached is of the replaced instruments and switches which control these new systems. Cheers, Mumbles

Heya Gents, Nicka, love your setup mate. It looks great. Dino, I have redone the seat in accordance with Cobra's model (in Dropbox). I have had a crack at how I'm probably going to build it with the model as well. Currently I want to use 16mm MDF for the structural parts with 6mm and 3mm for the non load bearing components of the seat. I haven't modelled the structural pine reinforcements of the interanals yet but this will give you an idea. I have managed to find a SKU-12/A Seat-pan for sale in the US as well. Depending on the cost I was thinking of getting them it shipped to Aus for the seats. RomeoKilo's build (Awesome A-10C cockpit here https://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=160233) at post 200 on Page 20 has given me inspiration for how to mount the seat. I'm still working out how to do the headrest and parachute packs curved shape. I think hot wire foam cutting a part then fibre glassing it will be the way to go. I'm still trying to find time to re-do the cockpit plans. I just got a 3d printer and I am thing of maybe changing the way that I build it to be a more modular for ease of maintenance. When I come up with something more solid I'll bounce the ideas off you. Punk, Thanks a bunch for those throttle plans. If someone doesn't beat me to it I will see if I can create a printable model over Christmas. Hope your ankle is healing up ok. Cheers, Mumbles

Cobra, you are amazing! I'm getting another licence and as many shirts as I can afford tonight. :pilotfly: As a side note, that model is the sexiest thing to ever grace my computer. Wow! Dino and Punk, if your keen we should potentially do some sort combined build log/ page/post community F-14 project thingy. I'll have to think about how to do it but it would be great. Punk, Sucks to hear about your ankle. Hope it's a speedy recovery. Cheers, Mumbles

Dino, Your models are looking really nice dude. Can't wait to see you start putting this beast together. Mumbles

Heya Dino, I made you a front cockpit model. It's in dropbox. The side panels have a 5 and 3/4 Inch split already in it for you. Just note that this has been made with those old blueprints that lack some detail, especially in the front panel so this is my best interpretation on reference pics etc. I chucked the reworked seat sides in as well for you. If I can help you with anything give me a yell. I have completely reworked the whole cockpit model over the last couple of days, it wasn't as nice as I wanted it to be initially. I'm pretty happy with the way it came out. This might be a stupid question but can keystrokes, joysticks etc be set to control the backseat while flying in the front? I don't have an multi-seat aircraft just yet and was trying to work out if I should get an additional PC to drive the RIO Pit. If anyone's got ideas and wanna chime in with points that might be cool etc I would love to hear em. Cheers, Mumbles

G'day Gypsy, Your cockpit was one of my inspirations to start work on my plans. You have done a great job of it. Your best bet will be a combo of DCS-Bios and SDA's Ikarus Simpit software to convert your pit over. Have a look through these threads for more but basically DCS-Bios is a scripting platform that will allow you to integrate all your switches over and Ikarus exports instruments and allows you to display them on a separate monitor. SDA Ikarus https://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=179525 DCS-Bios https://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=141096 Dino, I've knocked something up that I think will make our seats look awesome. I was doing a bit of research and I think I have come up with a way to add detail to the sides of the seat without having to cut a lattice structure out of wood. You take a 2-3mm thick bit of foam and cut it out with the new template. Then resin coat it to the side of the seat. I've seen it done on movie prop's and RC foam aircraft. If finished correctly can look really good. I'll put it in the drop box shortly. Cheers, Mumbles

Punk, Thanks mate, I think that we will have something pretty unique on our hands shortly. I haven't sat in one for ages. It was at NAS Pensacola. Great museum. Mate what did you fly previously? Cheers, Mumbles

Heya Dino, How goes the seat construction? I have finally got some time to get onto the cockpit. I have mostly sorted the RIO pit now. I'm now just sorting the naff measurements to make it as close as possible to the real thing. It's never gunna be 100% perfect but as long as a real Turkey crew could get in and say this feels right i'll be happy. Once Nick and the team gets the F-14 out and gets some time to put some measurements together, I'll cross reference it and hopefully start building the frame. Cheers, Mumbles`

Dino, Mate your work with the seat is incredible. Fair call on the main beam. Just some food for thought but you might find that using a 2x4 in the seat cussion area will reduce the complexity of the lattice work your going for. I'm still working the RIO pit at the moment. I'll chuck some photos up shortly I can't wait to see how you go when you start cutting and assembling it dude. It's gunna look great. Any thoughts on if your going for a full f-14 front pit or something more generic. Cheers Mumbles

Dino, Thanks dude. I'm pretty sure their is a function in sketchup when you can print full size. If you have acess to a big printer you might be able to print it at different angles to give you a template to glue onto your wood before you 'zip zip' it. Let me know if I can do anything to help. Mumbles

Evening All, The latest copy of my GRU-7A Sketchup model is now up. Dino thanks for hosting. It's under the Ejection Seat folder then Sketchup Model. Cheers, Mumbles

Dino, Those images are pretty small. I cropped them out of some blueprints I paid for a while back. I'll put a copy of them as well as my sketchup file in your drop box as soon as I get a chance. Cheers, Mumbles

Sorry about the slow updates, Lots of stuff happening at the moment. Dino, attached is some pics from the blueprints of the seat. Hopefully if I copied them right, in a paint program (I use Paint.NET in inches for this) bound the area you want to get the dimensions for and times the distance by 24 to get the correct scale. If you have issues chuck it up here or PM me and I'll see what I can do to help. Cheers, Mumbles

Nick, Absolutely no rush on those dimensions. We all just appreciate the fact that your making time to do it. Dino, If your looking to make a modular pit I would potentially recommend using LynxDK's A-10C plans bellow. (Free) http://lynx.dk/downloads/a-10c-plans-blueprints/ His side consoles are 2 panels wide just like the Tomcat and look like they are setup for DZUS rails from the get go. Making new panels and swapping them out would be pretty straightforward at that point. The same principle would apply for the instrument panel. I would build a free standing frame that a flat panel TV could be mounted on. If you wanted to swap it out between a F-14 and A-10 at that point just placing a new instrument panel frame into a mounting bracket just in front of the TV would work a treat. The SDA simpit software would allow you to do this pretty easily once you set it up and saved it for the first time. I'll try and make something up in sketchup this weekend for you just to give a rough idea as to how I would do it. Yeah I'm using it sketchup. I really haven't had an issue with it so far. I would start with something small like altimeter frame and work your way up to bigger and more complicated parts. If you’re not sold on a CNC you can always just print the plans full size from the pdf and glue them to the MDF you’re going to cut. Just use a jigsaw to cut the panels out. You will have to spend a little more time cleaning your products up later but it’s far from hard to do. What are you going to do for your HOTAS? I was thinking a Warthog mod might work I've gotten a little further with the F-14 model, specifically the instrument panel. If anyone has the dimensions of any of the instrument I would greatly appreciate it. LynxDK has made a few products for DCS cockpit builders. He is currently working on a F/A-18 is anyone is interested. https://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=216683 Cheers, Mumbles

Morning Gents, Progress has been slow going at the moment. Finally got some time to crack on with the model over the last couple of days. Punk and Dino, any thoughts on how you’re going to do the instruments? I was thinking 6 Screens across the front instrument panel. If the F-14D gets released swapping out the front façade plate might be the way to go if you want to upgrade. Cheers, Mumbles

Afternoon, Would anyone be able to shed some light on where the Bullseye info for a track on the A2A radar page is? I was assuming that the avionics were good enough to do it as it's the same era as the later F-16 blocks. I've just watched Matt's AIM-7 video and can't see it anywhere. Cheers, Mumbles

Hey Gents, Punk and Sirius I agree with you on the canopy frame. When I get time later on down the track I might model it with RIO pit for anyone who has a shed to build it in. Dino, Nice man. Make sure you keep ya RIO, ehem I mean wife happy. If you want a full F-14 cockpit (see screenshot) it's going to have to be a monster sized room. The cockpit including the canopy is: 192 in (16 ft) long by 87 in (7.25 ft) tall by 64 in (5.3 ft) in wide. (I really don't like working in imperial but it makes more sense with the plans). My plans don't include the most of the jet thought so it should end up being way smaller than that. What’s the easiest way to post a zip file with the images and plans in it for you guys to download? Cheers, Mumbles

Hey Dino, Very Slowly. Moved house and the job has keep me really busy. I do have something you may like thought. I found some blueprints from what looks like the really early 70's. I have mostly sorted a 3d model of the pilot’s cockpit based around these plans. Once I'm happy with it, I'll send you a copy. It's as accurate as I could make it with the blueprints and cockpit drawings that I have been able to get a hold of. In saying that I think it’s pretty close. I'm not sure how and if I want to build the canopy frame. Any thoughts? Mumbles.

G'day again, Just a bit of an update on the seat. It's been finished to a reasonable level. Started painting today and making the seat cushions. I'm pretty happy with the way it came out overall. I still have some bits and bobs to make. For example, I'm going to make the drouge gun to make it look a little more authentic. Cheers, Mumbles

G'day Gents Merry Christmas. Hope everyone enjoyed themselves over the last few weeks. Cobra you're amazing. If you could just provide some of the basic dimensions I'll see if i can adjust my seat to suit and then with some research convert it to pdf so anyone can make one. Attached is a few photos of the first prototype seat's progress. This is to check the design work. Should look cool in my entertainment area once I'm done with it. Cheers, Mumbles

G'day Dino and Punk, Just a few quick screenshots of the SKU and frame I have been building in Sketchup, dimensions are approximate at the moment, I've been using the NACES dimension and my best guess as to the correct shapes. Cheers, Mumbles

Dino, This is just something I drew up over lunch in 20 minutes but it's roughly how I was thinking of making the seat. It's in 4 sections. The SKU (survival equipment seat pan), backrest and the frame. The frames made up of the base frame and heatrest/rocket rail section. Once the basic seat is completed you can trick it out with pipes, canvas stickers, ejection handles, etc. If you have feedback/criticism send it. Hopefully this might give you some ideas for yours. Please excuse the crudeness of my artwork, it's not my finest work. Cheers, Mumbles.

Dino, Absolutely mate. I built a generic pit in my early teens with my old man. I'll see if I can dig up some old photos. Works keeping me busy at the moment. I'm hoping I get some actual down time over Christmas. I'm going to knock together some loose sketches on how I'm going to build it around then. Bergison's F/A-18E simpit has some great design features in it (all links bellow). The plan will be to use similar design principles specially for the tub construction. It might be worth looking at Shogun's tomcat build on HornetPits as well if you get a chance. It looks pretty good. I think I'm going to build the GRU-7/A first. I'm having difficulty trying to get some decent measurements for it thought. Might have to buy a plastic model and see what I can get off that. Chris "SpeedOne" Van Lierop designed an ACESII a while ago that is well deisnged, I'm hopeing that the GRU-7A will come together in a similar fashion. I'm pretty new to 3d modeling but the plan is to make it in sketchup so that I can get it sent to a CNC machine simplifying construction. Dino the seat might be a good place to sink your teeth. I found I learnt alot building it first as you can work out the basics of construction for the rest of the pit etc. Are you gents thinking of building the RIO pit as well? I'm kinda of up in the air with it at the moment. I don't know if I should build it as a separate tub and network it together or build it as one and slowly start to fill out the backseat way later town the track. I'm also not sure If one PC driving the engine will be able to cope with two people mashing buttons at the same time. Cobra thanks for pointing our the issues with the Delta manual fold out. Loved your newest update. Your dev team and Meteor has been shacking it as of late. Links: http://bergison.simpit.info/bergisons_f18_simpit http://hornetpits.org/index.php?topic=179.0 http://www.simpits.org/design/HowTo_AceIIseat/HowTo_Ace1.html If you haven't already I would have a look at the link bellow. I used alot of the info I learned from their old site. http://www.simpits.org/Articles.html Cheers, Mumbles

G'day Gents, Long time lurker, first time post on the forums. Punk and Dino Might, awesome projects you have going on. Your panels are looking great. I'm thinking of potentially starting a F-14B Tub over Christmas. I know that it was previously mentioned by Cobra that the NATOPS fold outs were average at best. Have you had a look at the Delta manual? The panel diagrams are much clearer. Working with the assumption that the F-14D's MFD's are the same size as the F/A-18C's DDI's, the Delta's NATOPS Cockpit diagram scaled to match should give you more accurate measurements that the A/B foldout. I know that the switchology is a bit different but I'm pretty sure it will still work. Link to the F-14D NATOPS Manual - Page 1021 (Pilot) 1022 (Rio) https://info.publicintelligence.net/F14AAD-1.pdf Cheers, Tim "Mumbles"