In addition to re-painting the shutters of my country home I also found time to continue work on the Spit Sim Project.
I completed most of the wiring and fitting of the electrical components to the spade grip and control column. My brother in law has been busy with setting up the Arduino chipset as a game controller - the next step being to plug my wiring into the chipset and test the functions. This should happen next week !
In the meantime I had to find a way to install the Radio Remote Controller unit above the throttle quadrant and at the correct angle. I ended up doing the same as in a real Spit, i.e. the controller unit is attached directly to the cockpit coaming just forward of frame 9. So yes I built a bit of cockpit coaming out of plywood and wooden stringers. To ensure the correct curvature I also mad a cut out of the instrument panel. This will be mostly cut away in the production version to allow pilots to see their monitors, but I would like to try and keep the left hand side and bottom part of the panel, as this is where the nav lights switch, flap lever, magneto switches, coil & boost buttons, fuel cock lever and ki-gas primer are located and it would be nice to add these to the kit at a later date.
Just a suggestion; find out if there is a company nearby doing base maintenance on aircrafts and ask them for AC aluminum alloys leftovers (scrap parts) you can use it for your spit cockpit.
From my work experience there are always some leftovers (aluminum alloys not electrical spare parts:p).
Happy to announce that the prototype is up and working. Am loading 2 short videos on Youtube that I have just made on my iPhone, a more professional version will follow.
I did some flight testing in Clod and Box today - even if it’s my stuff i’m dead chuffed by the results. The only thing to get used to is the amplitude of the control column - to land you really have to pull the column into your tummy. On the other hand the elevator trim control is very sensitive and gives very good control especially in dives where nose up can be easily trimmed out as speed picks up.
The aircraft is very steady in pitch which should help me in shooting, providing I put enough column input in to follow the buggers around !
In Clod and Box I have assigned the Fuel Cutoff lever to the landing gear.
Because of hand made mods to the prototype, I now need to update the 3D parts files before I can get into production mode. I hope to start building kits before the end of October.
Thanks for you kind remarks. I will post a few photos when I get home.
Cockpit panel art !
Inside cockpit
Sim kit with control column
At a photo exhibition this w-e so won’t be able to shoot a nice vid before Monday.
Did axis & key mapping set ups for DCS and managed to do first off a cross-wind take-off & landing, even if I admit to bending le port oleo leg. This is pretty good for me, as with the short fighter sticks I generally need a few attempts to get away cleanly. BTW this feat was done without adjusting input sensitivity. Both trim wheels are over sensitive and I might need to add curves on the control column to improve pitch response - had difficulty flaring which is why I bent the u/c.
Should be back in time to fly Sunday night - cu all then
