P-51D throttle quadrant friction mechanism?

Hello everyone,

I'm going to be attempting to build a P-51D throttle quadrant soon and am just doing my preliminary research. I've been studying all the images I can find, but do not have any real experience pushing aircraft throttles around.

In short, I'm puzzled as to how the friction and tension mechanism in the throttle works as I'm hoping to replicate a semi-real feel. Since I have no experience and no one around locally to help me, I figure my best shot is to understand how the real mechanism works and try to aim for something close to that.

I'm fine with the electronics and computer side, but any help on the mechanical side would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks in advance.

Chuck's DCS Tutorials would be a good place to start.

These are invaluable references.

https://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=135765

Would like to see your work in progress as I plan on doing a lot of pony-time in the next few months.

Cheers

Hello everyone,

 

I'm going to be attempting to build a P-51D throttle quadrant soon and am just doing my preliminary research. I've been studying all the images I can find, but do not have any real experience pushing aircraft throttles around.

 

In short, I'm puzzled as to how the friction and tension mechanism in the throttle works as I'm hoping to replicate a semi-real feel. Since I have no experience and no one around locally to help me, I figure my best shot is to understand how the real mechanism works and try to aim for something close to that.

 

I'm fine with the electronics and computer side, but any help on the mechanical side would be greatly appreciated!

 

Thanks in advance.

I think the best way to simulate this is with cables/linkage, these aircraft were not Fly By Wires, so design your throttle with that in mind, would actually be easier that way IMO

Marc..

Hello everyone,

 

I'm going to be attempting to build a P-51D throttle quadrant soon and am just doing my preliminary research. I've been studying all the images I can find, but do not have any real experience pushing aircraft throttles around.

 

In short, I'm puzzled as to how the friction and tension mechanism in the throttle works as I'm hoping to replicate a semi-real feel. Since I have no experience and no one around locally to help me, I figure my best shot is to understand how the real mechanism works and try to aim for something close to that.

 

I'm fine with the electronics and computer side, but any help on the mechanical side would be greatly appreciated!

 

Thanks in advance.

Friction joints are pretty easy, and if you use real damping grease in them work almost as well as straight up hydraulic damping. Here's a few albums showing simple compression type joints, where two moving faces are compressed against each other with a greased plastic rub in between them. By using a thrust bearing on one side of the joint, you can precisely regulate the friction by adjusting the nut.

This is a positioning joystick, it moves the way a throttle does, but in two axes, pitch/yaw in this case. https://imgur.com/a/ixi64 Very smooth tension and will hold its position when I let go. Because I use real damping grease it takes no more force to break if from a standstill than it does anywhere else in the moving stroke. Every other grease I tried would make it ratchet long before I achieved desired tension.

Here's another version of it, this one is pitch/roll (would make a great helicopter gimbals) https://imgur.com/a/jTw6H that was also an experiment to see if a hemispherical section of metal could be used as a 'mousepad' to pick up a Logitech G502 mouse sensor mounted on it. It worked, but the results in practice were indistinguishable from using TARGET and absolute mouse emulation other than having no control over x and y independently from each other.

Both albums have dissections of the friction joints with descriptions and parts lists. The grease I use for this is called Nyogel 767a and is in a class of its own when it comes to this. I also have a throttle made this way, but not documented well but the anatomy is the same...

Friction in this WW2 era throttles is "bolt and nuts and washers":

https://forums.eagle.ru/attachment.php?attachmentid=88236&d=1379729786

https://forums.eagle.ru/showpost.php?p=2087117&postcount=164

https://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=105956&page=6

https://a2asimulations.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=93&t=60751&start=15

If you are not building a cockpit, but just the throttle, no reason to deal with cables.

Thadiun Okona that's a beautiful piece of work you have and very well presented.

Thanks

I'm in the progress of finishing my design for a P-51 throttle. I too have been puzzled by exactly how all the individual components in the various pics I have create the friction and have decided rather than try to duplicate it as its designed I'm going to simplify. At this stage I'm going to use compression washers on all three levers but will set the friction on the mixture and prop lever by tightening the assembly nuts to a preset level of friction and only have an adjustment on the throttle lever. Raceguy built a pretty good homegrown version of a throttle quadrant for his P-51 sim but unfortunately the pics on his post are gone due to Photobuckets 3rd party hosting policy change. I'm hoping he will will have time to re-post them in the future as his pit is a great build and lots of good info in his posts, or at least add some info to this thread we both can use. I intend to post my drawings for anyone to use once they are complete and Ive figured a few things out. Then its on to figuring out a reasonable facsimile of the rudder pedals

Hello everyone

Bazooka, thanks for the comment about my throttle. I have not updated my P-51 cockpit build to restore the pictures Photobucket killed because I thought most had found this solution I found on another forum.

Take care

Ed

Since Photobucket started charging for hosting we have experienced a LOT of lost photos in forums everywhere. While on another hobby forum someone suggested a solution using extensions for Firefox and Chrome that allow the original photos to again be viewed. I use Firefox and added the extension and can now see the "lost" photos!

Direct links to get extensions for Firefox and Chrome browsers to delete the PB ransom demand and restore the original image:

Firefox extension https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/photobucket-embedded-fix/

Chrome extension https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/photobucket-embed-fix/naolkcpnnlofnnghnmfegnfnflicjjgj?hl=en

This is a painless exercise, it simply adds an extension to the browser and doesn't alter anything in your account or computer registry.

Hello everyone

 

Bazooka, thanks for the comment about my throttle. I have not updated my P-51 cockpit build to restore the pictures Photobucket killed because I thought most had found this solution I found on another forum.

 

Take care

Ed

 

Since Photobucket started charging for hosting we have experienced a LOT of lost photos in forums everywhere. While on another hobby forum someone suggested a solution using extensions for Firefox and Chrome that allow the original photos to again be viewed. I use Firefox and added the extension and can now see the "lost" photos!

 

Direct links to get extensions for Firefox and Chrome browsers to delete the PB ransom demand and restore the original image:

 

Firefox extension https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/photobucket-embedded-fix/

 

Chrome extension https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/photobucket-embed-fix/naolkcpnnlofnnghnmfegnfnflicjjgj?hl=en

 

This is a painless exercise, it simply adds an extension to the browser and doesn't alter anything in your account or computer registry.

Interesting, worth a try... if I can recover the photos from even one useful cockpit post it will have been worth it!

Use imgur from now on though...

This add-on worked great for me....am able to see pics in several different forums that I couldnt before. Just looked thru Raceguy's build thread over on the A2A forums and I recommend you look at his throttle build. Definitely a good build with lots of ideas!

Beautiful, thanks gents! More than enough info and help to get me over the hump.

I'll return back when I begin construction.

I have added throttle pics to my P-51D cockpit build thread.

Take care

Ed

Direct for my local Area 51 here are a few pics of my first prototype home built P-51 throttle. As a prototype I used what I had laying around so the faceplate and spacers are of 1/8 in aircraft ply and of course the hardware is all from the local hardware store. I tried to keep this within my KISS rules hence the crude levers and such. My design calls for the friction to be set during construction on the mixture and prop levers and is applied to the throttle lever by tightening the hex bolt in the center. Final construction will be all laser cut metal. Looking for any suggestions for improvement and any ideas for the round knobs. Once I have this nailed down, I will share my drawings and info for anyone to use to build their own.

OKay...lets try this

Looking great Bazooka!

I got the round balls at Hobby Lobby and cut slots for the aluminum bar stock.

I figured I might find some at Michael's craft place...if not Ill take a short drive to the nearest HL. Watched some videos today on working and bending aluminum, should be helpful as I go along. I had two attempts on the throttle arm break before I got one close enuf to work with on the prototype. More to follow.

Great stuff gents! I hope to begin my build in the next month and will return with my progress.

My aluminum is 1/8" and was not too difficult to bend. I drilled holes in 3/4" plywood and inserted round oak dowels then bent the aluminum around the dowels.

I used 1/8" aluminum for my levers also, purchased at your friendly Lowes...mine was little difficult to bend so it might be a different alloy....who knows! I spent some time yesterday looking at some YouTube vids on working and bending aluminum and have see the error of my ways. Will try some heat and some dowel pin type bending fixture on the final product. Need to master some metal working skills as my design calls for some of the same offset bends as the original levers and Ive found several different laser cut aluminum seat kits on eBay for a reasonable price that will go nicely in the pit. We're having fun now!!!