Spitfire Mk IX Cockpit Build

[eland2705 16]

It all started when I bought a fantastic book on the internet from Canada. It contained every conceivable drawing, tech specs and photographs of one of the most beautiful aircraft in the world.

Seeing as I will never get to fly a real one (Piper Warrior jockeys don’t get to do that!) I figured I would take all this information I now had in my possession and build a 1:1 scale cockpit of a Spit MK IX.

 

Join me in biting off far more that I can chew (just as soon as I get the hang of posting photographs on this forum).

 

Stephan.

 

*A little later.  Could someone point me in the direction of the help/instrutions for uploading photographs? Thanks

[eland2705 16]

So the first thing was to decide how much to do.
In the end I chose from Bulkhead 7 back to BH 12 otherwise it would get too long, and not fit in my “Man Cave”.
 
No ways SWMBO was going to allow this in the house!

[britfrog 180]

Well may I be the first to welcome you to mutleys, That is some project that you propose, we have quite a few cockpit builders here

this is the link to the cockpit builders

http://forum.mutleyshangar.com/index.php/forum/8-hardware/

but things can pop up all over the place. we have a wealth of info here so if the search engine cant find it just ask!

[mutley 4,487]

Hi Stephan,

 

Welcome to Mutley's! That is big project you are taking on and by looking at some of the shots in your gallery you are a fine craftsman!

 

If you wish to post your pictures within forum topics this post should help http://forum.mutleyshangar.com/index.php/topic/7419-post-images-in-the-forum/

 

All the best and good luck captain! 

 

[jaydor 345]

 Hello Stephan and welcome to the mad house Mutley's.  Will be keeping a lookout of your progress.  Good on you for taking up such a large project. 

[needles 1,010]

Hi Stephan,

Welcome to Mutley's Hangar my friend.

I'm super impressed with your project, it's looking really exciting.

I'm now eager to see the next stages of your build.

It's nice to see a fighter being built.

Have fun in the forum and we want you to know, there are no daft questions, so ask away.

Good luck with the rest of the build.

Cheers

Brian

[eland2705 16]

Thanks for the positive comments Gentlemen. 

 

I photocopied the fuselage datum page on to A3 so I could read it) and started making little changes.

 

 

Most importantly Mr Mitchell designed his masterpiece to be made in aluminum, I am using 12 and 9mm marine plywood. The first thing that goes would be strength, and the other would be not having a structural skin.

 

 

That meant making it like a Guillows Balsa wood model with stringers. To get perfect symmetry I screwed two sheets of ply together and cut a half section, then plated them together.

You can see the stringers standing up in the left of the phoro.  The main stringer is 4 lamination of 12mm ply making a square of 48mm.  The smaller are 2 laminations of 9mm making 18mm square stringers.  The whole thing will be almost 2 meters long, just under 900m wide and a little over 1.2 m high.  A remarkably small office for one of the most agile and effective fighter planes ever made.

[eland2705 16]

I decided that I was not going to use shop bought controls, with apologies to Mr Saitek and Co. 

 

Leo Bodnar makes a great little board that interfaces with Microsoft Flight Simulator X, with the use of potentiometers and press buttons.  (http://www.leobodnar.com/shop/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=67&products_id=180) I spent 50 pounds (about 75 Oz dollars) of my pocket money and got one sent over by post.  It gives you 6 inputs for pots and 30 buttons. 

 

I need another one now as I have to have 8 pots - elevators, ailerons, rudders, throttle, mixture, prop pitch, elevator trim and rudder trim.

 

 

That now meant I could investigate a look-alike throttle quadrant.  This is my attempt in 9mm marine ply.  In due time there will be control push-pull rods (coat hanger wire) to bell cranks and pots.  I am not happy with the handles, but the general idea can been seen.  The drawing is the one in the top right of the page (the drawing at the bottom of the page is for a MK XIX with a gyroscopic gun sight controlled at the throttle lever).  In the center under the compasses is the undercarriage retract module, the next bit of cutting.  This one has to have a press button fitted to actuate FSx

[eland2705 16]

This is where we are at the moment.  Bulkheads all lined up, stringers glued and screwed in place

 

[brett 2,283]

Excellent looking work there Stephan, may all your screws hold fast.  Thanks for posting your project, I will be interested to see it's progress.   

[eland2705 16]

Frustrated! When I had a crappy little old PC running almost no resources at all I almost never got "Fatal Error" crashes.

 

Now I have built a bespoke, top of the range, you beaut, PC with all the bells and whistles, FSx with the SpiT IX, FSUIPC and Simplugins panel builder runs fine....until you want to save or change anything.  As soon as the menu is called - CRASH!!!!!!!! (The crash log means nothing at all - unless I suppose if you work for MS, and then I wonder)

 

I have HIGHMEMFIXed it, check all the settings in FSX.CFG, I have searched though this forum, and done just about everything that everyone said. I am buggered if I can find anything! 

 

:help: :help: :help:

[needles 1,010]

That's a strange one Stephan, hopefully someone on the forum might have suffered the same and get back to you.

Hope you get it sorted soon.

Looking on the bright side, it gives you more time to build you cockpit. No consolation I know.

Good luck mate.

[stu7708 244]

Sweet looking build you've got going there Stephan... Just wish I had the talent, and the room, to build something like that...

 

Regarding the crashes you're experiencing.. Do you have the UiAutomationCore.dll fix applied...

 

If not you can find all the relevant info and the files needed here

[eland2705 16]

Thanks Stu, Needles,

I investigated the UIAutomationCore.dll thing and thought that it is the answer, so I dowloaded the file off the internet. The gurus speak of the FSX folder, but either I am dense, or blind, but the only folder I can find is c:\program files (x86)\microsoft games\Microsoft Flight Simulator X.

Is that where the file goes? Do i have to run regsvr32, and what do I do with the 64 bit warning?

'scuse the ignorance, pilot not tech geek here

[needles 1,010]

Hey Stephan,

That is indeed the FSX folder. You simply paste it into that folder.

Just make sure that when you have extracted all in the file to a temp folder, only copy and paste the UIAutomationCore.dll into your FSX folder, nothing else.

I don't believe you have to run the regsvr32, but I'm not 100% sure.

As for the 64bit warning, I didn't get that so again, I'm unsure about that also.

Maybe one of the other guys will know about that.

Good luck and let us know how you get on with it.

It really should be just a case of either dragging or copying and pasting the .dll into the FSX folder, nothing more.

[stu7708 244]

Hi Stephan..

 

As Brian suspected there is no need to run the regsvr32 command, rather I think that might lead to issues in other applications that rely on the newer version found in Windows 7/8.

 

What happens, as I've understood it, when an executable file makes a call to a .dll file is that it will first look in the folder where the executable is located, and if the DLL isn't there it will look in the windows registry for a registered location of the file. 

 

If you use regsvr32 to register the DLL what will happen is that all applications will reference the older version of the DLL that is needed for FSX, rather than the new version located somewhere in your windows folder.

 

Assuming that you can find the fsx.exe file in c:\program files (x86)\microsoft games\Microsoft Flight Simulator X, and I'm fairly sure you can, that is indeed your FSX-folder.

[eland2705 16]

Gents,

 

Many thanks for the feedback and valuable advise.

 

It is late on Sunday evening and I have just got in from a weekend on the aerodrome doing flight instruction with my Air Cadets. 

 

Whoever said the future of mankind is in jeopardy when he looked at today's youth, has obviously never spent time with the kids who join the Air Force Cadets program.  I am truly privileged to work with such youngsters (and if you ever tell them that, I will deny every word....).  I can also understand the spirit that made young men, not a lot older than my glider pilot kids, join the Air Forces of their countries and to fly Spitfires, Hurricanes and the like.

 

Once I have had a beer, a shower and a sleep I'll be back into the Spit.

 

Stephan

[eland2705 16]

Before I went off gliding I managed a few more hours in the workshop.

 

I have added a few of the controls:

 

Rudder bars are now in place (still need to find someone who can weld aluminum to make the actual pedals)

 

(The damper you see there is to give some feed back to the control column.  It is a kitchen cabinet gas strut)

 

The Control column:

(I've decided that the ring at the top is too small, so that is being re made.) The undercarriage control is added, and has a press button activated by a cam on the back of the lever that will be programmed using Leo Bodnard's clever gadget.

  

The Throttle Quadrant:

In place but not yet connected up to the potentiometers on the other side of the bulkhead.

The large hole in the instrument panel is for a 22" Samsung flat panel monitor that will show the flying instruments using SimPlugin's Panel Builder add-on. I'll add a 3mm MDF mask to give the instrument panel effect.

[eland2705 16]

A few more hours in the workshop doing the linkages for the controls.

 

 

 

The brake handle has been pressed into service from an old motor cycle my son used to ride many years ago.

I am seriously hoping that once a couple of coats of undercoat and paint, these will start looking at lot less like bits of wood cobbled together.

Right under the rudder controls lives the elevator actuator, doesn't look much does it? Took about 2 1/2 hours to get right though.

The issues with the computer seems to have been sorted out. Would appear to have been caused but an update of the Nvidia drivers for the Geforce GTX 970 graphics card. Had to sift through the hard drive for all versions of the UIAutomationCore.dll, take ownership of the folder (Microsoft handles access rights very weirdly) and update with an older version from this site. (Thanks for the link, spot on). It would appear that Nvidia have completely forgotten FSx and have no intentions of supporting it, despite a myriad of requests on several forums, including their own.

[hifly 925]

Bits of wood cobbled together? It looks more like work of art Stephan.

[Quickmarch 488]

Hi Stephan,

You need to see ( if you have not already done so ) Britfrog's post in the Mutley's forum "Real World Aviation" called "How to Make an Old Man Happy".

Be careful where you tuck away your headset wiring when you start flying your Spittie.

I really enjoy your posts on the cockpit build. Can't wait to see the finished product.

[needles 1,010]

Love it, love it, love it.

Brilliant work Stephan.

What are you going to cover the fuselage with? Canvas?, Ply?, can't wait for more progress pics. This is really a smart piece of self build and I only wish I lived nearer you.

Keep up your sterling work.

[eland2705 16]

G'day Quickmarch, Thanks for the heads up to Britfrog's post. Brilliant! I'll remember to keep the headset lead away from the blow down bottle (I will probably put one in - just for realism). I was pleased when he said he flew that a/c the next day, with a new prop.

Needles, it is going to be skinned with 3mm marine ply (with a couple of access panels) to give it some strength. You can see the beginnings in the left background in the photo of the control column/brake lever. (PS - as you are a moderator, are you able to correct the spelling mistake in the title of this thread. My brother pointed it out, I am mortified!)

[brett 2,283]

Rest easy, thread title has been edited Stephan. I am surprised it passed inspection from the members.

[needles 1,010]

Brett you git, I wanted to do it. I don't get to do any moderation.