AlyMac

Hi mate, I just recalibrated my yoke - first time in about a year ! The Cessna flies better for me now - so it may be worth trying.

As a training aircraft for the sim it is quite complicated. Have a look at the Ercoupe - https://www.flightsim.com/vbfs/fslib.php?searchid=84920002

The aircraft was designed without the need for rudder pedals - so thats just one less thing to think about. you can use your CH pedals to steer it around the ground but in the air you dont need to worry about them.

I'm into Classic aeroplanes and the Baby B-25 is has always been just outside my grasp in real life. Its decidedly pretty, forgiving, visibility is superb and its very easy to fly. Its got everything you need to start out with.

It was designed for an earlier version of XP so when you select the aeroplane you need to open the box "Customise" and tick the box "Start with engines running". You cant start it manually in XP 11.

Nobody can just take off and land. It takes a few hours to get into the groove.

Make sure to use the two red buttons for trim. The front one for Elevator trim down and the rear one for Elevator trim up.

Practice trimming the aeroplane for different phases of flight. This is the most important thing to learn so get it right. The aeroplane should fly level when you let go of the wheel. if the nose drops - press the Up button a few times. If the nose keeps coming up press the down button. Just use a few little taps. Dont hold the button for up or down. Three little taps is usually enough mate.

On the right of the panel you will see an instrument "Climb". This is the V.S.I. or Vertical Speed Indicator. Practice fine tuning the trim to keep the needle of this instrument at "0" for level flight with your hands off the wheel. The trimmer needs constant attention to fly like a pro.

Now get yourself on the runway. There is a knob on the left of the altimeter. Use your mouse to get both needles to point to zero - then open up the Donkey to full power.

Track the aeroplane with the wheel to go straight down the runway and gently ease the wheel back when you get to 50 kts. Watch the V.S.I. and gently move the wheel forward or back to see 500ft/m - thats midway between "0" and the big "1". Now look at the IAS (Indicated Air Speed) and use those red trim buttons to trim to keep the aeroplane at 90 kts when you let go of the wheel.

You should find that it Climbs at full power around 6 - 700 ft/m.

Level flight with the donkey set at 2200 rpm gives 90 kts. Again use the red buttons to trim the aeroplane so that you can take your hand off the wheel with the V.S.I. at "0" and the aeroplane flying straight and level.

Climb up to about 3,000ft and practice Level flight at 3,000 ft and use the trim buttons until you can take your hand off the wheel and the VSI stays at "0" and you maintain 3000ft

Now practice descending.

Remember that this phase of flight changes the function of the elevator and the throttle. The elevator now controls the speed and the throttle controls the altitude.

Throttle back to 1,700 rpm and ease the wheel back a little until you see 75 Kts on the A.S.I and retrim until the airspeed stays at 75 kts with your hand off the wheel. This gives you a descent rate of about 400 ft/m on the V.S.I.

TRIM TRIM TRIM ! The trimmer is not a thing you set once. You have to keep fiddling with it. As the speed increases the wing becomes more efficient and a little down trim is required. The slower the speed the less efficient the wing becomes and you need to trim back to let go of the wheel and let it fly hands off with the V.S.I. at whichever phase of flight you are flying, climbing, level flight or descending trim trim trim.. Little taps on the red buttons.

Once you have the trimmer hacked - now try a few approaches.

With the aeroplane trimmed at 1700rpm and 75 kts (hands off the wheel) and start your descent (at 450 ft per minute) towards the runway. Choose somewhere with a good long runway(s) like LAX. This is the tricky bit. You have to keep your head outside the cockpit to see the runway but also you have to get used to glancing at your altimeter, the VSI and the ASI every3 - 5 seconds. If you are over 75 kts retrim with the back red button. If below 75 kts retrim with the front button. Keep the aeroplane straight to the runway and and keep glancing down at the Altimeter.

If you think you are too low - add a little power, this will reduce your rate of descent and you will float further.

If you are too fast pull the elevator back 2 millimetres - thats all. Too slow push the wheel forward 2 millimetres. Retrim.

When you see the longer needle on the altimeter getting towards the "5" "thats 500ft) you dont need to use the trimmer any more. When you get to between the "2" and the "1" gently ease the wheel back a few millimetres (3 -4mm is enough) and hold the wheel there. Glance at the ASI and you should see the speed decay - we want to see about 55 - 60 kts. You may need to ease back a few millimetres more. Forget about the throttle at the moment mate just concentrate on the elevator and keeping the aeroplane straight.

Trim like a pro - land like a pro :cool: - good luck !

Hi Minas Man,

I have a Saitek yoke and with the default cessna the elevator if unbeleivably over sensitive. Its actually the worst aircraft Ive ever flown and the last time I tried to fly it I just gave up (im an ex airline jockey !). Could an over controlling elevator be your problem ?

its a bit late for me now to try it again - but in the meantime have a look at this -

Panel I was going to start last week with DiBond - a PVC sandwich composite with 0.5mm aluminium each side. Being 3mm thick I can partially bury the OBS and other instrumental potentiometers without them being too noticeable.

Glad I didnt do it because I asked Angelo Zangarini to rewrite the AirManager instrumentation to my own fit. They are looking superb and they all work beautifully. Still not happy with the generators as they should be on the upper right switch panel. Arduino ? maybe. Angelo is working on the fuel gauge now. this will be operated externally from a 4 position switch.

Next will be an early radio stack, working warning lights (LED) and if possible a working Sperry Type A-3 Autopilot.

Flight panel

and the engine panel

The fiberglass rod arrived on a DC4 freight flight from the company. A little epoxy here and there and the structure is strong enough for government work at least.

Actually it looks better in real life than in the photos.

All is finished now and Im still about 160 miles from Gibraltar where I'm going to drop in to get some cheap fuel to keep the company happy.

Time to go aft and get some cheesy biscuits and a bottle or Rioj... I mean a cup of tea !

The pedestal is slightly smaller than the real thing but it will have all the right junk in all the right places !

I havent shown a picture of the back but there is a large access hole to service the cables, switches, potentiometers for the trims etc.

I have little aluminium discs on order for the fuel taps. These taps give a very convincing "Clunk" when switching tanks ! An unexpected bonus of natural amplification within the ally box :D

Stickers and paints should come on the next DC3 Airways cargo flight on Tuesday morning !

I also added extensions onto the Saitek Levers. These were designed by a great guy called Marko on Fiverr. I made them way too long and had to cut them down. My Mk2 levers are being drafted now and will include the ball ends with "P", "T" and "M" moulded into them above and behind.

The difference flying with extensions on the levers is a revelation. Like the real aircraft they can be adjusted perfectly to syncronise the MAP and Pitch. :cool:

Not so much a replica - its a homage to the original but all the bits will be in the right place.

Aluminium I bought from Ebay and had folded at a local machine shop. I have two quadrants, an ancient PFC unit I bought 20 years ago - and a pair of Saitek units. The Saitek I will use first but I will convert the PFC quad at a later date.

I joined up with DC3 Airways again after an 18 year lay-off. Deciding to fly to the USA over the North Atlantic Ferry route "Live" theres lots of time to spare with the Sperry in control - as long as one doesnt wander too far anyway !

First sector took me from Glasgow to Stornoway then onwards to Keflavik Iceland, Bluie West One Greenland and onwards to Newfoundland. Long sectors but time for me to fiddle on the cockpit floor.

With the cowl flaps done and programmed by Angelo Zangarini on Fiverr - I progressed to the fuel selectors which will go onto the Pedestal.

Quite a simple affair for younger engineers, my incinerated fingers and two scrap switches later they were done.

The switches are 12 way- 360 degree rotational. Not idea as 5 doesnt go into 12 very well but with a few "Bridged" contacts they work flawlessly. With the wires from the switches soldered to "Jumpre" cables they were plugged into the LeoBodnar Matrix Breakout board mounted on top of the BU0836A potentiometer board used for my elevator trim wheel.

Again using Fiverr I "bought in" the experienced staff to do what I cannot do. The fuel tap levers were duly designed by a draughtsman - then 3d plastic printed by someone else.

quite a simple job with two rotary switches and some script written for FlywithLua - by Angelo Zangarrini on Fiverr.

This is the later design than that of the AWX DC-3

All I need now is to have the knobs designed and printed in plastic - and take a high quality scan of the original unit - make a sticker and put it on the face.

I have been running the FS2004 with the default DC-3 with Win10 and everything works fine. Then I downloaded the FS2004 DC-3 ACOF-BB Centennial Aircraft and my simicons are not working. Once you load it, you can click on several of the icons and everything is okay, but then the panel freezes and I can't bring up another panel even using the Shift - number keys. If I don't click on any of the simicons when I first load the plane, then everything seems okay. Anybody have any ideas as to what is going on. Obviously, with installing a new plane, there were manual additions made to gauges, etc. Has anyone else had this problem?

 

Jack McAfee

macjack39

sorry old chap - Im on X-plane 11

..................and next stop the throttle levers. These were a nightmare. I had to pay to have them drawn for 3D printing and it took us two weeks to get them together. Now they have been printed out in silver PLA silver and they look great ! In tr5ansit as I write I cant wait to fit them onto the quadrant :)

The printer mixed them up a bit for the photo but you can work out which is which

[ATTACH=CONFIG]225488[/ATTACH]

A quick email to Angelo and he took the stock AirManager P-47 gauges and added a second needle for Manifold Pressure and for RPM's. The fuel gauges are poetic licence - but what the heck. In the Dc-3 I flew we used a broom handle with pencil marks - YES Im serious !

I moved house late in the year and it took a while to get sorted out in the new loft space. A new bigger table was added then I caught Screen-itus.

Lovely though the AWX Dc-3 3D Cockpit is (an good grief - it REALLY is!) - I wanted to see what a fourth screen would do to give me 180 degrees view. This was a gamechanger.

Then I downloaded AirManager and on two ancient screens I built the panels.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]225482[/ATTACH]

This little beauty turns 10 times. A really useful Pot for many things. Smooth operation without detents I will be using it for elevator and rudder trim too.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]225483[/ATTACH]

The BU0836A board is multi purpose for joystick and switches.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]225481[/ATTACH]

The idler wheel is attached to a Bourns 3590S Potentiometer. This rolls against the axle attached to the wheel which gives 24 turns on the Trim Wheel.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]225480[/ATTACH]

The original DC-3 Trim Wheel I added onto the bottom of the Saitek parts. Lots of imagination required. Two littl;e project boxes from ebay, alloy tube, a tape deck idler and two great parts from LeoBodnar

Got the panels to work with a script written by Angelo Zangarini. Im no good at that sort of thing. The original Magneto switch I couldnt get to work at all.

Hi alymac,

maybe this will help you with uploading images:

https://www.flightsim.com/vbfs/showthread.php?287742-Md83

I should have posted this earlier on here.

Im building a simple home cockpit out of a DC-6 Control wheel (ex TASSA fleet 1948 Douglas DC-6 C/N 43118 scrapped Magaluf Mallorca, original DC-3 trim wheel. Magneto switch, cowl flap valves and pilot and co-pilot seats, and of course some home made panels wired up with the excellent electronics kit from Leo Bodnar.

PC hardware will be Saitek Cessna Yoke modded to take the old wheel, two Throttle quadrants also from Saitek.

Having had DC-3 experience back in the noughties (some sectors solo!) it has been my favourite aeroplane since. I remember being in Mallorca and it took 9 hours to download the Jan Visser DC-3 on the old copper wires and a sloooooow internet connection - but the result was breathtaking 20 years ago !!

What??? NO VIDEO???

well done chaps