Finally "finished" the rear bullhead just today... it needs some "re-sculpting" on the curved edges before it will fit proper-like, but here it is mocked up in place. The tape residue, etc will get cleaned off later, after I fab the two doors. Might add a few more rivets later, too. It's made of 1/4" Masonite, built-up on the inside with 1x2 pine.  I had just... barely enough sheet aluminum to cover this thing; had to get a little patchy on the bottom edge there... but it looks OK, I think. Really getting the hang of forming this stuff around the edges with a hammer- I've never worked with sheet aluminum before; it's fun to mess around with.
The upper door will be a sort of peephole, and the lower, which is for storage access, will have a nice 12x12 grille like the front.

http://www.simviation.com/yabbuploads/rotpit1103.JPG      




There are several rolls of old fabric still here from when this place was an athletic-wear "sweatshop"... decided this stuff, a kind of thin canvas, had the right color and texture to upholster the inside of the bulkhead. I laid thick foam tape around the frame before stapling on the fabric- hides all sorts of sloppy seams and badly-set nails, etc... and gives it a sort of padded look.
Perfect, because I'm just about out of aluminum and really didn't want to finish and paint the inside surface of the bulkhead. ;D
Still not 100% sure how to attach the sides to the rear part- may use window latches; I want the whole thing to come apart easily... but not while I'm in it!! :D

Not seen here is the headliner, which will be more thin Masonite covered with fabric... it'll sit on that lip seen on the side rail of the roof and hide all the nastiness seen here.

http://www.simviation.com/yabbuploads/rotpit1102.JPG      


A look through the peephole... I may mount a webcam in here someday, so really, really bored people can watch me fly the sim. ;D
The 15" Nokia LCD will eventually get mounted in the panel, to display the six-pack. I know, I know... the hole's too small... ::)
Obviously will require some design revision. Our motto here at Rottydaddy's Simpit Works is, after all: "Build First, Design Later"!!
I will also probably dismount the LCD from its case, which will help. The speakers will go in the trash, where they belong. :D
Got it for about $50 on eBay, BTW... works great!
The primary display will be a 22" probably... I'm thinking widescreen, but haven't made up my mind. Going with three 4:3 LCDs might be better- I want three eventually, but a matched set might be best, rather than a 16:9 with two 4:3s on the sides... which may not fit without boxing out the windows... sigh... ::)


http://www.simviation.com/yabbuploads/rotpit1101.JPG



I'm hoping to get all these shell parts tweaked up and fit together soon, so I can rivet the skin on the left panel and get the door hardware installed. Then the whole thing comes apart for final painting, etc...vents and light, headliner, for the roof... and of course the side units for stick and throttle need to be built (starting over with the right one... another change...).

Trouble is, I'm probably going to be out of town for the better part of three months starting later in April (rebuilding the Hard Rock Casino A/V system, in lovely storm-tossed Biloxi, Mississippi), so things are really going to slow down with the ol' pit project... ah well. At least when I return I will have fistfuls of sweet overtime cash... which is good, because I still have to buy the  primary monitor (or three) and a sound system for this thing.

Haven't donw much work on the website lately, but it may be ready to launch before I hit the road this month.

rottydaddy,

The aluminum skin thing really adds a nice touch as does the metal "ribs" on the interior.  It is really shaping up now.

I know your frustration at being away..... my summer in japan last year really derailled my work.  And then when I got back life was SO busy.... that I am really just now starting again to have some time to do something.

Keep up the good work.... and more pix.

best,

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

Well rotty you're the projector expert, but couldnt you put a projector where that peep hole is and set it up to display on a screen in the front of the cockpit?  That way you don't have to deal with the FS limitations of multimonitors.  Or I would suggest looking into that TripleHead2Go thing but if I remember correctly it is a bit pricey.

Jayhawk Jake wrote on Apr 11^th, 2007 at 10:36am:

Well rotty you're the projector expert, but couldnt you put a projector where that peep hole is and set it up to display on a screen in the front of the cockpit?  That way you don't have to deal with the FS limitations of multimonitors.  Or I would suggest looking into that TripleHead2Go thing but if I remember correctly it is a bit pricey.

The problem with projectors is twofold: space and expense. Anything that will do 1024x768 or better will cost over $1000, and even the lower-priced units have lamps that cost hundreds of dollars to replace. Also, unless I want to take over my room completely for this, I'd need to confine the rear-projection setup to the confines of the enclosure, and to do that I'd probably need a "non-stock" short-throw, wide-angle lens... which also would cost  hundreds. Then a screen... proper RP material is expensive. Front-projection probably wouldn't work without a major redesign... or using up a lot more space in front of the simpit, which I don't really have. I only have so much space of my own here, don't want to have to live around my simpit, and I don't want to set this thing up out in the common areas or storage areas. I also probably won't be living here more than another two years, so I'm trying to keep it compact so it will fit in whatever new digs I find myself in (which could be quite small).

But I didn't rule it out completely: I could rebuild the top of the nose box to make that work, if I happen to find a good deal on the right projector.  I do have quite a bit more vertical space, so with two mirrors I could probably set up a decent "upside-down" RP setup with the projector up top, instead of resting on my feet... ;D

Until then, Triple Head is exactly what I plan to use... the cost of that plus three good LCDs would be about the same as a suitable projector, and will be a lot easier to set up without re-doing half of the structure.
But initially it will be just one good LCD... which will be plenty good enough for me. I am not really going for the illusion of flight here, so much as a better ergonomic setup, with the enclosure allowing enough "sensory deprivation" to allow me to focus better on the screen. Sometimes I can get totally sucked into my current 19" CRT sitting out on a desk... I want to get that effect on every flight.

Hehe, as I said you're the expert ;)  I just was thinking that with a projector (from my limited knowledge and experience that only includes helping my teachers use them in class occassionally) you don't have to put up with the spaces between screens.  I know with LCDs it isnt that bad, but it still seems like it might get a little annoying.  

I've been giving thought to what I would do if I built a simpit (it wouldnt be for years mind you) and I thought that one way to make things more versatile for someone like me who flies both big jets and small props.  I thought if you use LCDs for the gauges and by default you just have a PFD in a hole in a pice of wood you could make a sort of cover piece: a piece of wood that fills the square hole with holes in it for the six pack and make a screen using some program that places those six pack gauges in the holes.  That way theres just a little more realism.

Jayhawk Jake wrote on Apr 12^th, 2007 at 8:04am:

Hehe, as I said you're the expert ;)  I just was thinking that with a projector (from my limited knowledge and experience that only includes helping my teachers use them in class occassionally) you don't have to put up with the spaces between screens.  I know with LCDs it isnt that bad, but it still seems like it might get a little annoying.   I've been giving thought to what I would do if I built a simpit (it wouldnt be for years mind you) and I thought that one way to make things more versatile for someone like me who flies both big jets and small props.  I thought if you use LCDs for the gauges and by default you just have a PFD in a hole in a pice of wood you could make a sort of cover piece: a piece of wood that fills the square hole with holes in it for the six pack and make a screen using some program that places those six pack gauges in the holes.  That way theres just a little more realism.

Believe me, if space were not an issue, I'd consider dealing with the expense required for seamless, "Wraparound" graphics ... but LCDs are being made with thinner and thinner frames, and they can sometimes be modified... I'm considering doing that (basically re-mounting the panels in home-made cases so there is little or no boundary between LCD panels).

I've thought about the cutout thing for the six-pack, too, but I'm a multi-plane VC kind of flyer- I like the flexibilty of having the "blind flying" instruments for the Ford Tri-Motor displayed there for one flightand a G1000 for the next... ;D

Or are you talking about making interchangeable panels with cutouts? ??? I'm not sure it would be worth the trouble.


In general, I am convinced that the eye can overcome a lot of "unrealism"... stuff like gaps between screens, 2D instruments, etc...after a while, you stop noticing things like that.

The thing I'm after first and foremost with my 'pit is to have almost everything at hand, where it should be: controls and buttons, etc.  The enclosed aspect of it is just a cheap way to make the most of my display(s)... the less extraneous stuff you see and hear, the more you can get "sucked into" the primary display.

Well if I was to build one I'd have at least 2 instrument displays (PFD and MFD), but regardless I don't mean interchangable, just removable.  A square 15 inch LCD might be a little ig for a realistic PFD, but it's good enough.  I'm a multiplane flyer as well, sometimes I'm in a 777 others something smaller.  So I would have a cutout for the sixpack that could just be latched into the space for the monitor and then when I want to fly a 777 or other glass cockpit plane just take out the cutout and set it aside.

Jayhawk Jake wrote on Apr 16^th, 2007 at 4:57pm:

So I would have a cutout for the sixpack that could just be latched into the space for the monitor and then when I want to fly a 777 or other glass cockpit plane just take out the cutout and set it aside.

Velcro, my good man.....Velcro!  :)

JBaymore wrote on Apr 16^th, 2007 at 5:03pm:

Jayhawk Jake wrote on Apr 16th, 2007 at 4:57pm:  So I would have a cutout for the sixpack that could just be latched into the space for the monitor and then when I want to fly a 777 or other glass cockpit plane just take out the cutout and set it aside. Velcro, my good man.....Velcro!  :)

Eh.  ::)

beaky wrote on Apr 16^th, 2007 at 10:52pm:

JBaymore wrote on Apr 16th, 2007 at 5:03pm: Jayhawk Jake wrote on Apr 16th, 2007 at 4:57pm:  So I would have a cutout for the sixpack that could just be latched into the space for the monitor and then when I want to fly a 777 or other glass cockpit plane just take out the cutout and set it aside. Velcro, my good man.....Velcro!  :) Eh.  ::)

Interchangable front panel facings for different aircraft over the LCD that attache with VELCRO.  Push on / pull off.  To paraphrase a beer commercial:

Velcro........... BRILLIANT!

BRILLIANT!

JSpahn wrote on Apr 17^th, 2007 at 8:22pm:

BRILLIANT!

;D ;D ;D

I was thinking of doing the same thing. Although Ill be flying the heavies most of the time, Ill probably want to jump in a Cessna from time to time to hone some basic skills.

JBaymore wrote on Apr 17^th, 2007 at 9:30am:

beaky wrote on Apr 16th, 2007 at 10:52pm: JBaymore wrote on Apr 16th, 2007 at 5:03pm: Jayhawk Jake wrote on Apr 16th, 2007 at 4:57pm:  So I would have a cutout for the sixpack that could just be latched into the space for the monitor and then when I want to fly a 777 or other glass cockpit plane just take out the cutout and set it aside. Velcro, my good man.....Velcro!  :) Eh.  ::) Interchangable front panel facings for different aircraft over the LCD that attache with VELCRO.  Push on / pull off.  To paraphrase a beer commercial: Velcro........... BRILLIANT!

Magnetic tape might be better. The thing with Velcro is:  the better it is, the harder it is to separate.  ;)