F-14 Cockpit and instrument dimensions

By the way, Mumbles, can you post up how you are building your tub once you start? I'm new to pit building, so having at least an idea of the materials and construction steps would be a huge help.

Unfortunately, the -D drawings are inaccurate as well. This is actually a constant for most aircraft manuals. Inaccuracies range from several centimetres to just a few millimetres.

Perhaps does not ring true for every single manual out there; but certainly so for the F-14 and Viggen in the context of our DCS modules.

We will for sure release material for you to acquire accurate dimensions. It's however low on the priority list at present and I'm unsure on the timing at present.

Thanks Mr. Dackard. For myself, I completely understand and look forward to the info when it becomes available. I am sure most of us are all looking forward to the release of HB's li'l kitty. While I have a few cockpit items, it would be very difficult to base an entire pit around those few dimensions. I wasted my time in the real cockpit when I tried video recording as I took measurements instead of writing them down. Unfortunately, I hit the pause button and did not get one measurement recorded lol. Murphy's law for you.

More than generous of you to provide us with info, whenever its convenient. I think i speak for most of us when I say we definitely want you prioritizing the module development over our own pet projects :)

The F14 announcement in some blog years ago is what got me started in DCS. I've dreamed of an F14 sim ever since my first video game. In the meantime, I'm going to figure out what all the hubbub is about DZUS rails. Only thing I've ever used DZUS fasteners on is motorcycle fairings.

By the way, Mumbles, can you post up how you are building your tub once you start? I'm new to pit building, so having at least an idea of the materials and construction steps would be a huge help.

Dino,

Absolutely mate. I built a generic pit in my early teens with my old man. I'll see if I can dig up some old photos.

Works keeping me busy at the moment. I'm hoping I get some actual down time over Christmas. I'm going to knock together some loose sketches on how I'm going to build it around then.

Bergison's F/A-18E simpit has some great design features in it (all links bellow). The plan will be to use similar design principles specially for the tub construction.

It might be worth looking at Shogun's tomcat build on HornetPits as well if you get a chance. It looks pretty good.

I think I'm going to build the GRU-7/A first. I'm having difficulty trying to get some decent measurements for it thought. Might have to buy a plastic model and see what I can get off that.

Chris "SpeedOne" Van Lierop designed an ACESII a while ago that is well deisnged, I'm hopeing that the GRU-7A will come together in a similar fashion. I'm pretty new to 3d modeling but the plan is to make it in sketchup so that I can get it sent to a CNC machine simplifying construction.

Dino the seat might be a good place to sink your teeth. I found I learnt alot building it first as you can work out the basics of construction for the rest of the pit etc.

Are you gents thinking of building the RIO pit as well? I'm kinda of up in the air with it at the moment. I don't know if I should build it as a separate tub and network it together or build it as one and slowly start to fill out the backseat way later town the track. I'm also not sure If one PC driving the engine will be able to cope with two people mashing buttons at the same time.

Cobra thanks for pointing our the issues with the Delta manual fold out. Loved your newest update. Your dev team and Meteor has been shacking it as of late.

Links:

http://bergison.simpit.info/bergisons_f18_simpit

http://hornetpits.org/index.php?topic=179.0

http://www.simpits.org/design/HowTo_AceIIseat/HowTo_Ace1.html

If you haven't already I would have a look at the link bellow. I used alot of the info I learned from their old site.

http://www.simpits.org/Articles.html

Cheers,

Mumbles

Definitely going to build the back seat as well. I have hopes to play RIO for my daughter as she flies (when she is old enough). I plan on running two PCs - rear will use VR and front will use projector and trackIR.

Thanks for the great info. Going to start on the seat first, per recommendation while I also update the panel designs. I figure 4 or 5 year build overall from start to finish. My daughter is now 16 mos, so its going to be perfect timing.

Definitely going to build the back seat as well. I have hopes to play RIO for my daughter as she flies (when she is old enough). I plan on running two PCs - rear will use VR and front will use projector and trackIR.

 

Thanks for the great info. Going to start on the seat first, per recommendation while I also update the panel designs. I figure 4 or 5 year build overall from start to finish. My daughter is now 16 mos, so its going to be perfect timing.

Sounds good :thumbup:

My grandson is 8 now, and still loves aircraft tho his dad fancies him as a footballer ...

I have little goodies around the house to keep tempting him back ...

Only just managed to hold on to that, it's a signed edition by Ian Black ex-Lightning pilot.

Would love to have a pit here but not got the time or space to put one up.

I had planned to build the back seat as well Mumbles. I want to try and get my son to play a game with me, I like sports and flight sims, he likes FPS types and Xbox ones. I will probably make them separate as he said he would try it out. It would be nice to have one behind the other but might be a bit impractical. Will see when I get that far. Probably will make them modular, just in case. Time will tell. Handsome grand son Alicatt, I remember my son at that age, he'll be 18 in a couple months. Time flies by so fast.

Dino,

This is just something I drew up over lunch in 20 minutes but it's roughly how I was thinking of making the seat.

It's in 4 sections. The SKU (survival equipment seat pan), backrest and the frame. The frames made up of the base frame and heatrest/rocket rail section.

Once the basic seat is completed you can trick it out with pipes, canvas stickers, ejection handles, etc.

If you have feedback/criticism send it. Hopefully this might give you some ideas for yours.

Please excuse the crudeness of my artwork, it's not my finest work.

Cheers,

Mumbles.

G'day Dino and Punk,

Just a few quick screenshots of the SKU and frame I have been building in Sketchup, dimensions are approximate at the moment, I've been using the NACES dimension and my best guess as to the correct shapes.

Cheers,

Mumbles

I'll align our ejection seat laser scan in the next few days and give you some key dimensions of the ejection seat. :)

:thumbup:

I'll align our ejection seat laser scan in the next few days and give you some key dimensions of the ejection seat. :)

G'day Gents

Merry Christmas. Hope everyone enjoyed themselves over the last few weeks.

Cobra you're amazing. If you could just provide some of the basic dimensions I'll see if i can adjust my seat to suit and then with some research convert it to pdf so anyone can make one.

Attached is a few photos of the first prototype seat's progress. This is to check the design work. Should look cool in my entertainment area once I'm done with it.

Cheers,

Mumbles

G'day again,

Just a bit of an update on the seat. It's been finished to a reasonable level. Started painting today and making the seat cushions. I'm pretty happy with the way it came out overall. I still have some bits and bobs to make. For example, I'm going to make the drouge gun to make it look a little more authentic.

Cheers,

Mumbles

Mumbles,

Still making progress? I've stalled out in my data gathering, but am slowly digesting some of what you've posted. The frame and seat will likely be the part that gives me the most trouble, just because I don't have access to many tools for large size wood working.

Hoping to buy a house with a garage and change that in the next 6 months, so actual building is not yet started. I enjoy perusing yours and other's creations in the meantime.

Hey Dino,

Very Slowly. Moved house and the job has keep me really busy.

I do have something you may like thought. I found some blueprints from what looks like the really early 70's.

I have mostly sorted a 3d model of the pilot’s cockpit based around these plans. Once I'm happy with it, I'll send you a copy. It's as accurate as I could make it with the blueprints and cockpit drawings that I have been able to get a hold of. In saying that I think it’s pretty close.

I'm not sure how and if I want to build the canopy frame. Any thoughts?

Mumbles.

I'm not sure how and if I want to build the canopy frame. Any thoughts?

Mumbles.

Just a side note Mumbles: If you make a complete canopy to scale it would need about 10ft of clearance, so unless you have high ceilings it might not be a great idea. Even making it in halves would be a big job and look funny. That thing is huge. :thumbup:

Mumbles, thanks for doing that. The 3D/ blueprints will help immensely. Funny you should mention, I'm currently swamped at work and looking to buy my first house, so a bit behind where you are :)

The only requirements I gave to my wife is that there must be room for a full F14 cockpit and I must have money left over to buy power tools and DCS modules.

Hey Gents,

Punk and Sirius I agree with you on the canopy frame. When I get time later on down the track I might model it with RIO pit for anyone who has a shed to build it in.

Dino, Nice man. Make sure you keep ya RIO, ehem I mean wife happy. If you want a full F-14 cockpit (see screenshot) it's going to have to be a monster sized room. The cockpit including the canopy is: 192 in (16 ft) long by 87 in (7.25 ft) tall by 64 in (5.3 ft) in wide. (I really don't like working in imperial but it makes more sense with the plans).

My plans don't include the most of the jet thought so it should end up being way smaller than that.

What’s the easiest way to post a zip file with the images and plans in it for you guys to download?

Cheers,

Mumbles

Hey Gents,

What’s the easiest way to post a zip file with the images and plans in it for you guys to download?

 

Cheers,

 

Mumbles

I know you can use google to download things, I have downloaded stuff others have posted to their pages, but not sure how to do it. There is another site a lot of people use that I wouldn't for a long time, but finally gave in to and registered, but I can not remember the name for the life of me right now, when it comes to me I will post if someone else doesn't first or you find an alternative. Best of luck with your build and to echo my man Dino, thanks for posting.

Hey Gents,

 

What’s the easiest way to post a zip file with the images and plans in it for you guys to download?

 

Cheers,

 

Mumbles

Dropbox, that is what I was trying to remember. They offer file sharing, I think it's free, though I never uploaded anything, only downloaded so far. Best of luck!

Any ideas when we're going to get our laser scan dimensions

Any ideas when we're going to get our laser scan dimensions

My best guess is it is a low priority for them, so two weeks? :smilewink:

Sorry - I didn't manage to get to this when I had hoped to. The bigger issue is that our scans have large gaps on the lower areas of the seat due to blockage from other cockpit items (can't stick a laser scanner in crevices easily).

I'll do my best asap!

Sorry - I didn't manage to get to this when I had hoped to. The bigger issue is that our scans have large gaps on the lower areas of the seat due to blockage from other cockpit items (can't stick a laser scanner in crevices easily).

 

I'll do my best asap!

Anything will be greatly appreciated sir.

<Salute>