Hello  chaps,
                     my first post here, good to see some other WW2 pits are being constructed. I'm in the process building a Spitfire MkV cockpit section, along with another guy. I am doing the fab work , the other guy is working on the pit interface system . i have a small website detailing the construction progress if anyones interested.
http://www.simhardware.org/

Good to be here chaps,
all the best
Dave

Dave that is INCREDIBLE work!!!
I'll be keeping an eye on your site for regular updates...

Ozzy ;)

Hi Ozzy,    
            thanks for the kind words. It's been a steep learning curve on the sheet metalwork side of the project, but a great experience.

Thanks
Dave

Dave,

Totally amazing approach to the project!  Most of us tend to use easy to form wood to try to simulate all the metal parts.  It never looks quite "real", and the moving levers and such never feel quite real.  You stuff looks like you are fabricating the real aircraft from a kit  ;).

I am very impressed with your craftsmanship  :o .  Nice job.

Hey..... now that Ozzy has spotted you... he'll probably ask you to build a simpit for him too.  When you quote the price for him, please remember that you will have some extra major design headaches in dealing with his pit.

And I am not quite sure how you will figure out how to mount it all upside down on the ceiling  ;)  ;).


Seriously.... welcome to the "Homebuild Cockpits Forum" here on SimV.  I think a lot of people will be following your project.  In addition to updating your own website......... please pop some info and pictures here occasionally.

best,

....................john

Hello John,
              thanks for the welcome and the kind words. Ozzy has already been in contact  ;D. I'd be happy to post some photos,if that's ok.

All the best

Dave  

Dave. I just happened to spot this thread.  I've only had a quick look at your website & all I can say is WOW.........! :o

If you want my honest opinion you're wasting your time with simpits. I don't know what you do for a living but your skills would be very useful & much appreciated in the warbird restoration business, building & restoring real aircraft. This is outstanding work by anyone's standards.

Thanks for the positive feedback on the project, though my thanks must go to my wife, not many woman out there that would put up with 8 feet of spitfire cockpit in the spare room.
Believe me guys, there are people out there with far more skill than i'll ever have.
A few photos of parts for the project,

all the best

Dave

Dave,

Thanks for the new pictures of the pit here.  The more I see... the more astounded I get   :o   :o   :o .

Hagar is right..... you likely could turn your hobby into a profession.

Where did you learn metal fabrication?  You obviously have access to some good tools..... some of the heavier metal work looks like it came from a CNC machine.

best,

.................john

Hi John,
            I'm a toolmaker by trade, the sheet metalwork is "on the job traning" i learned when building the cockpit. I am lucky enough to have my own small workshop at home, but none of the parts are made on CNC machines and most are  just simple fabrication work using basic hand tools . The cockpit frames are made from .040" (1 mm) bending quility sheet aluminum, and then bent round full size MDF formers using very basic hand tools,i.e soft face mallet, some "G" cramps to hold the sheet in place while its being worked.
There is a small "how to" on my website regarding the sheet metal forming http://www.simhardware.org/page9.html. I am certainly no expert on sheetmetal work, and the method used is simple but worked ok.
Dave

Dave
I've just been to your site and I'm blown way !!!
Your simpit is an outstanding piece of work, fantastic !!
The workmanship is INCREDIBLE, BRILLANT !!
A Spitfire simpit is always something I've dreamed about but the problems with forming the canopy etc was too difficult for me to overcome so I settled on something a bit easier.
Do you have full scale plans ?
I think you need to keep going , you know - add some wings a tail and a motor and fly that sucker !!
Seriously though ,that is absolutely outstanding work , please keep us updated and thanks very much for sharing your work with us.

All the best
chuckcrc

Hi Chuckcrc,
                   thanks for taking time to visit the site and for the comments.
After some long evenings spent looking for useful info for the project, i found a company that sells copies of the original factroy drawings. Better still, the company will e mail the requested drawing ( usually the same day, depending on the time of order) You can request hard copies, but these are slightly more expensive. Guess thats a rather long winded way of saying yes to your question regarding plans  ;).
The Canopy will certainly be a challenge, I'm going to use  1/4" thick MAKROLON (Polycarbonate) it has excellent bending qualities and can be hot or cold formed to very tight radii.
Thanks again for all the positive feedback and the interest shown
Dave

Dave,

A polycarb canopy!!  OK... the truth here....... you actually are going to FLY that thing, aren't you ?   You just haven't figured out how to tell your wife about it.  ;)  

best,

................john

Hi John,
            Dam !, No fooling you guy's i guess. Just hope  i can hide the plans for the Merlin from the real boss  ;).

A few more pic's of some of the completed parts,
Frame 5
Compass bracket
And the Throttle

Dave

Some of the latest work on the project, gunsight/dimming screen mount and the front end of the Kigas primer pump.

Dave

That is amazing...my mum wouldn't let me do that....
The detail... I think you should give t to a resoration group as Hagar says...
*stres in wonderment*

A.

Gosh Dave you have been busy :o

Finished the Kigas primer pump today, and made some good progress on the gunsight.

Dave

Dave do you live in your workshop or something? ;D ;D ;D

Hi Ozzy,
           most of the time yes, still at least my wife knows where i am  ;D,

Dave

All I can say is:

1) Wow...

2) When are you going to build the rest of the aeroplane...

3) Can I have one (er, when I've paid off the student loan, er, finally settled in one house, and had a pay rise)???  :) ;) ;D

Charlie

I used to overhaul Kigas pumps. Yours looks better than the original ever did. I wouldn't be surprised if it works. :o

I was serious about aircraft restoration work. Your project doesn't look much different to what these guys are doing. http://www.russellw.com/planes/ryan/cowling.htm

Hi Charlie,
                the most expensive items for the project were the gauges, the sheet aluminium is £28 UK per 8' X 4' sheet.
But the largest investment is time. I have just over 400 hours on the project so far, and probably the same again on research .

Dave

Hagar,
          thanks for the kind words, but i am not in the same league as the guys in the link. The sheet metalwork i had to pick up as i went along. I'm re making the pilots seat from sheet ali, and now have to learn how to do wired edges.

wrote on Oct 7^th, 2004 at 12:22pm:

But the largest investment is time. I have just over 400 hours on the project so far, and probably the same again on research .

I can imagine...

Anyway, keep up the good work, I llok forward to seeing the finished cockpit.

Cheers

Charlie

Another part to cross off the build list, the early type gunsight.
I have afew problems with the reflected image as can be seen  ::),  Oh well back to the drawing board.
Dave

amazing!
What about the little adjusty thingy.... ::)

Thats *drools*

A.

Some good news on the gunsight  image problem, I managed to find some beamsplitter glass. The beamsplitter works great and only $20 including shipping to the UK from the USA  ;D.
Other work completed on the project includes the B/P pilots screen frame and I've almost completed the new build pilots seat.

Dave

I can't wait to see the new pics Dave ;)

Mark

Three words:

OH MY GOD !!!

Been at your site and it is an absolutely amazing piece of work!

Chapeau !!!

Dude, I'm doing metal work in dt and I'm worse at it than a dead monkey. You however seem to have the right DNA.
Do not waste your talent.
Make the whole plane.

A,

wrote on Nov 5^th, 2004 at 12:08am:

Dude, I'm doing metal work in dt and I'm worse at it than a dead monkey. A,

Hi Flt.Lt. Andrew,
                          Stick at the metal work you will get better. I never did any sheet metal work till i started the Spitfire Project, and had a few disapointments myself with some of the stuff.

Dave  

thanks ;D

A.

To see what Dave is up to next, click on Link!!

http://www.simviation.com/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.cgi?board=homebuild;action=display;num=1099170795

And Dave's astounding construction work continues......... check this link:

http://www.simviation.com/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.cgi?board=homebuild;action=display;num=1105138749


best,

....................john

i admire your work, i will like to do that work and have my proper spitfire, i cant because teh age and the money, but can you send me the maps of the anatomy of the plane?? much thanks

If you look on his site...there a plans link....


A.

With the quality of work I see here, you may as well build the whole airframe, and an engine to boot! Fantastic. How much will you charge to let poor desk- simmers like us just sit in it when it's done? ;D

wrote on Mar 17^th, 2005 at 4:53pm:

How much will you charge to let poor desk- simmers like us just sit in it when it's done? ;D

If you figure the price of the airfair and the accommodation is worth it, no charge sir.
Thanks for the interest.
Dave

wrote on Mar 17^th, 2005 at 6:29pm:

If you figure the price of the airfair and the accommodation is worth it, no charge sir. Thanks for the interest. Dave

Okay... how about actually using  it?
Y'know, I'll best Microsoft would pay you to tour with that rig, to airshows and computer gaming conventions...

wrote on Mar 18^th, 2005 at 9:23pm:

Okay... how about actually using  it? Y'know, I'll best Microsoft would pay you to tour with that rig, to airshows and computer gaming conventions...

If he was using an MS sim in it... :P ;D

Oh? What's he using.... (whispered)...ubisoft?

Oh my....did I hear....ubisoft does a better combat sim that makes more sense?

A.

Not Ubisoft either.

Rowans Battle of Britain. :o

Thats right it is Rowans eh.....I wonder how the actual cockpit itself is progressing....

A.

Pop over to Daves website for more info ;)
I am sending him some stuff for the next few parts just as soon as I get ICQ running properly again ::)

Hi! Hard and good proyect :o

Where do you get the blueprints??

I was searching for them since 6 months!!!

Zitin

Zitin if you want plans you have 2 options, either the RAF Museum at Hendon, they have nearly all the Supermarine sheets you'll need, but it will cost a fair penny.
Or if you just want some CDs of the MkV plans then contact the guys over at the Y2K Spitfire project in Canada, Harold will be glad to sell you the CDs, and the money goes to helping put Y2K back in the air ;)

how much is this gonna cost?

Absolutely brilliant, I agree with the others that you should just put an engine in and take her up for real!  :o
This is an unprecedented level of craftmanship in my books, the detail that went into your work!  :)
Fantastic wok, its hard to described how awed I am. Keep it up!

PS You've put in a hydraulic tank? Come on, you are planning to one day take her up for real!  ;)

Very nice work. ;D

Wow... stunning... :o

gosh! NOW THIS IS  A  COCKPIT FOR JESUS CHRIST!!!well don let me in on that cockpit y would probably wont come out never .. soo cool man that's the way proyects has to Be done...

* goes out runnig to see if the airbase will sell a piece of an f-5

If you can build this then why dont you build the real thing, all it should do is take a little bit more time. :D


Looking fantastic there, il surely watch this closely.

Just making sure this stays current!  I like the idea of renting the thing out to MS when it's done for promotion.  Great stuff!

Now that's a homebuilt cockpit. It'd probably be easier to just build the whole plan to practice in (then just be able to plug it in to FS and fly there for pratice). Still... amazing!! That will be a very realistic sim for you. Microsofr would probably pay you a lot to display that for people.

Bonjour All !

Any updates or news about this project ?
Dave, if you read this, could you get in touch with me ?

Best Regards

INCREDIBLE! Why not just keep going, and skip the sim altogether!?! :o

This is an astounding project.  I hope the effort is still alive, the website
http://www.simhardware.org/page2.html shows no updates for over 18 months.

Yeah, I wonder what happened there... this thread was started in '04  :-?

The site hasn't changed much from what I remembered from the first time I saw it... The last update is from '07

I hope he hasn't abandoned the idea... he put so much work into it...


Cheers

Dave had to take a break for personal reasons ;)

Wowww!! I am impressed! I have seen some nice build mustang controls made by simcontrol. And my favorite helicopter build sim is http://www.computerrepairs.ca/Simulator.htm

But your work with building it and using alu - whowwww!!

Continue the great work. I just started my own micro heli sim. That is a more low cost / small space project!

http://myhelicoptersimulator.com/