Deacon's Pit

Made a little more progress today. In the picture attached, I have some test panels I printed a few months back. I have them in place just to test the led strips lighting with a dimmer. Looks like its going to work great. Should get everything else in place this week and the 47" monitor mounted. Hopefully I'll be airborne soon.....then on to pit number 2 :pilotfly:

Looks really good and clean.

Got another piece added today and mounted the joystick.

Got another piece added today and mounted the joystick.

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Hi, this mount will be extreamly uncomfortable to fly. I recommend to mount the base lower and make a stick extender. There are many HOWTO's for that in the forum. 10 or 15 cm will make a huge difference.

Hi, this mount will be extreamly uncomfortable to fly. I recommend to mount the base lower and make a stick extender. There are many HOWTO's for that in the forum. 10 or 15 cm will make a huge difference.

Thx vitabutch. I have the pieces to make the stick extender and will work on it soon. My seat sits higher than most so the stick is positioned relative to it.

Deacon,

You are doing a great job, especially when you consider it's your first pit. I wish my first one would have turned out that well!

I reference to your question about which physical switches to put into the pit, I would recommend having all of the ones you would use in flight. Ones that are only used during start up - shut down - ground operations are easily done via Helios. This should cut down on the number of physical switches you need to contend with. In my current pit I went the other direction and put in about 70% of the switches needed to fly any one of several aircraft/sims. Now I have a BUNCH of switches, which required a BUNCH of wiring, and I don't use most of them very often, if at all. Being that you have the panel space, you can always add a switch or two later if you find that it would be more handy to have it as a real switch.At least that's my experience anyway.

Keep up the good work!

Dud

http://cnadeau.webs.com/simpitasitsitstoday.htm

Deacon,

You are doing a great job, especially when you consider it's your first pit. I wish my first one would have turned out that well!

 

I reference to your question about which physical switches to put into the pit, I would recommend having all of the ones you would use in flight. Ones that are only used during start up - shut down - ground operations are easily done via Helios. This should cut down on the number of physical switches you need to contend with. In my current pit I went the other direction and put in about 70% of the switches needed to fly any one of several aircraft/sims. Now I have a BUNCH of switches, which required a BUNCH of wiring, and I don't use most of them very often, if at all. Being that you have the panel space, you can always add a switch or two later if you find that it would be more handy to have it as a real switch.At least that's my experience anyway.

 

Keep up the good work!

Dud

http://cnadeau.webs.com/simpitasitsitstoday.htm

Thanks for your reply. Your idea is just what I'm hoping to achieve. I like your idea of using switches to fly with rather than spending a lot of time going through a lengthy startup. Just me. love the DCS A10 but I "fly" different sim planes including those from FC2 like the F15....& hopefully a DCS F18....maybe :music_whistling:

Yup, nice job... and I wish also I knew someone with CNC machine

Awesome job so far, wish I knew someone with a CNC machine.

You and I both...indeed!

My buddy works as a machinist at the Lawerence Livermore Labs and I've been meaning to ask him about making some panels. He has access to machines in his spare time (like a student shop). Would like him to machine me an arming and landing gear panel. Cichlidfan I grew up in Woodbridge was a great place to live as a kid, lived down the street from Rippon Elem. School!

Great job deacon looks great!

Thanks for all the comments and suggestions so far. The sim community at large is a great group of people who each bring their own gifts, talents, ideas & suggestions and make this experience even more enjoyable.

I've made a bit more progress and just about getting all the loose ends wrapped up. Got the 47" LED installed, HELIOS up and running, my panels printed, etc. now just have to get the toggle switches in place and set and all the wiring for everything hidden away.

I seem to have lost my HELIOS bindings once I update DCS World but that's for another thread.

EDIT: I figured out I needed to run HELIOS as administrator and and click the set upain. All is good now

Here's a couple more pics of my progress.

I also still need to print and install my decals on both the pit and seat.

Wow deaconjb that looks pretty freakin' nice. You have a *nice* playable cockpit! Many start but don't get that far me thinks.

Wow deaconjb that looks pretty freakin' nice. You have a *nice* playable cockpit! Many start but don't get that far me thinks.

Thanks donbinator. I'm having a blast so far....it's my first pit. My wife asked me what my plans were this moring. I told her that I was going flying and that Id see her tomorrow. :pilotfly:

Nice! Reminds me of the F-35 cockpit. :D

Thanks donbinator. I'm having a blast so far....it's my first pit. My wife asked me what my plans were this moring. I told her that I was going flying and that Id see her tomorrow. :pilotfly:

Yeah, I told my wife 15 years ago when we got married that I was going to get my pilots license. Turns out she has a phobia for flying (and thus me flying). I could put my foot down and say "i'm getting my pilots license" and she would say "ok" but instead I get a lot of mileage out of her not wanting me in a real airplane :). Gotta choose what's important and while I'd love to fly real airplanes it's just not important enough for me to put her through that :thumbup:. Besides, I'm pretty sure it will be awhile before any A-10's go to civilian market....

Yeah, I told my wife 15 years ago when we got married that I was going to get my pilots license. Turns out she has a phobia for flying (and thus me flying). I could put my foot down and say "i'm getting my pilots license" and she would say "ok" but instead I get a lot of mileage out of her not wanting me in a real airplane :). Gotta choose what's important and while I'd love to fly real airplanes it's just not important enough for me to put her through that :thumbup:. Besides, I'm pretty sure it will be awhile before any A-10's go to civilian market....

Yea...if the wife ain't happy....

I started my PL training in high school and couldnt afford to finish but finally got it last year. I purchased this C172 in April of this year. Having a blast. My wife likes to "go places" so the plane makes trips a lot of fun.

Well I've had a couple of months using the pit and getting up to speed with the A10c sim and I've learned what I like and don't like about the current pit. With that said, I've re-designed it and will be routing the new design next week. It will be easily configured for racing sims as well. As soon as I get it started I'll post pics and will also share my DXF file and plans for those who would also like to use it.

Happy New Year!

I have completely redesigned my "in-home" pit and will soon post some pics. I also plan to make available the DXF file if anyone wants to use for both the pit and my seat design. Until then, here's the cockpit I've been spending most of my time in.

Nice. He's a cute kid

after my demo flight i think i'm ok staying a true chair pilot ) but that is absolutely awesome you exposing your kid/grandchild to this stuff.

as far as DXF i will be very curious to see . i have bunch of drawings , but as i never had any CAD education past high-school basics i'm quite sure they are so-so at best