I’ve been playing around with DCS:World, and the ‘VSN’ mods, which allow you to fly a multitude of aircraft types leveraging off the FC3 F-15C and A-10A. This week I did some experimenting and training for air to air refueling. Using the VSN Super Hornet, and the default S-3 tanker was a hoot!
737 Parts with Historic Significance
At work we recently started to convert our first simulator, our own ‘Ground Zero’, into a display piece. A positive (for me) spin-off from this is that many parts not required for the display project have made their way into my 737 project.
The two ‘prize’ items from the haul were the pilots seat, built by Russell from an old 737 passenger seat, and the Rudder Pedals, which I made in my former life and sent South for Russell to install in his sim.
The Seat has had a bit of an upgrade, gaining seat cushions, armrest covers and headrest from real 737 seats. Next it will get a height increase to bring it up to my preferred seat height, and a repaint in Boeing grey..
The rudder pedals will have a big re-condition, with new linkages, and of course a paint. It will be a nice feeling to have the pedals I built all those years ago, in my own sim!
I also scored one of the yoke heads, which again I helped make back in 2001 or so, I’m not going to use the yoke in my sim but I plan on making a display piece out of it…
DCS: SSA Mod
Or “Sean’s Strategic Assets Mod” is my pet name for my conversion project… I plan on converting, with original modelers permission, a bunch of ‘Strategic’ aircraft from FS9 AI models. The idea is to build a mod around aircraft which would be based out of the theater of operations, and so would only be seen ‘in flight’. The reason for this is that until I learn the finer details of animation in Blender or 3D Studio, my models will be static, which is fine for the sorts of aircraft I am planning.
The plan is to convert a few ‘samples’, which I can use to send screenshots to the owners of the models, in the hope that they will grant permission for me to distribute their modified models.
John Young’s P-8 
Michael Person’s B-52H 
HTAI C-141 in Camo 
In AMC Grey 
And in MAC White
Quick-Build Sim
Yesterday I put together Nikolai’s F/A-18 cockpit. The cockpit design was from Luka at Dogfight Boss, which I had modified for a potential customer at work. When the sale didn’t go through we had the prototype laser-cut cockpit laying around, which Nik purchased. Which goes some of the way to explaining why I ended up putting together someone else’s sim…
The Dogfight Boss design is a simple, slot-together kitset, much like the laser-cut dinosaur toys we all had as kids.. 40 minutes after opening up the package of bits I had the first dry-fit of the ‘pit together.
After disassembly, I laid out all the bits logically, then set about gluing and nailing it all together.
After a good evening’s work it looks quite good. The final step is to roll it all over and secure the floor to the main structure. I’m sure Nik will be happy 🙂
New IO Interface Component
I have been using up recycled interconnect boards from the skip at work, but as that source is quickly running out I thought I should find an available substitute.
I like the idea of using CAT5 cable and connectors for running between my components and IO boards, so I looked for an RJ45 connector which would suit my needs. A quick search on Aliexpress.com came up with these:
For around $3 each, these things allow me to wire 7 IO lines, plus a common to each cable, which in turn runs to my centralised IO.
My first use of these will be on the 737 MIP, when I wire up the remaining buttons, then the long-awaited EFIS Panel, where I hope to design the connector into the panel, as an integral part, allowing for easy removal for maintenance.
Click here to check out this product on Aliexpress
CT4 Forward Air Controller?
With my playing around in DCS, and my love of the FAC mission, I decided to try a conversion of my CT4 model as a working FAC aircraft in DCS.
I had the basic aircraft geometry imported and converted, albeit with a few bugs so I tackled the task of adding weapons to it one night, and the results were surprisingly good!
I was certain that somewhere in the past the idea of a FAC conversion of the CT4 had been floated, which added some sort of legitimacy to my project.. A bit of searching on the ‘net came up with this page at Aviadejavu.ru
Finding this image was a great step, giving some credence to the idea of a FAC CT4. I need to model the pylons, and find the right sized pods to hang under the wings, and we will have a usable FAC platform for our multiplayer missions!
The most recent news on the modding front is that I am running a 30 day trial of 3DStudio Max, which will hopefully give me time to finish the CT4 project at least… And plans are in play to secure the use of 3DS Max for longer… watch this space!
Seeing the Wood, Despite the Multitude of Trees
After a bit of a revelation it occurred to me that for a very long time I have been trying to create a simulation environment in my sims which is almost exactly the same as DCS:World provides. I have been, for a long time, been trying to develop a multi-platform ‘combat’ simulation, using the tools with which I am very familiar.
I found it very interesting that I opted to stay with my known and familiar environment, rather than taking a leap…. In this case I was very ingrained in the development of FS9 content, I was comfortable working in the environment, I could ‘talk’ to the simulation, I understood the way most things worked inside the sim. What I was really after was a complete combat simulation covering air land and sea warfare, with a Tactical Commander function.
DCS:World has always been on my radar, I have ‘played’ around with it over the years, but never anything more than that. Recently though, with my interest in VR, I have been learning more and more about how DCS works, and how I can develop content for it, and make it into the sim I’ve always been looking for!
So. I am now ‘officially’ (as officially as I do…) I have stopped development of TACOPS and pretty much all of my projects around trying to morph FS9 into a combat sim…..
My focus now is on development of content for DCS, focusing on NZ and the Cold War era.
My 737 and Arrow sims will continue, running FS9 and FSX respectively, but wont be trying to be involved in any ‘combat’ mission.
It is very odd to look back and contemplate all the time and effort I have spent on a project which was merely trying to replicate something which was already around..
So now it’s onward and upward… I can concentrate on using the best software for each of my sims, rather than trying to make the one platform do everything I wanted.
SO, New software plan
– TA-4k Skyhawk will be running DCS:World.
– Piper Arrow will be running FS9 and/or FSX
– Boeing 737 will remain on FS9
That is, until the plan changes again!
TA-4k Sim:DCS Conversion
The deadline for having the sim at least “flyable’ was Saturday, and I made it… just. We had a group of friends over for a ‘BBQ and Sim’ evening, and my mission was to get the Skyhawk sim converted over to DCS ‘enough’ for them to have a fly around. This got further complicated when I discovered that my oldest controller in the sim was not Win64 compatible… which lead to some hectic re-wiring, and trying to figure out how I had wired some of the earliest panels from *many* years ago.
Before… 
…and After
After a few beverages, and some good music I had it all re-wired, and ready to test. Only thing which didn’t work (that I’ve found so far!) was the gear lever, which wasn’t bad given the significantly compressed time-frame on this part of the conversion.
With the hardware (mostly) working it was time to start ‘mapping’ the various buttons and switches in DCS. For the purposes of the Saturday night flying, I only mapped the more important controls, allowing all the novice flyers to have some nice scenic flying.
Before the flying night I had three eight year old’s test the sim, headed by Nathan, my Chief Test Pilot… I figured if some 8 year old’s had fun, then a bunch of middle-aged, half drunk motorcyclists would be fine 😉
I didn’t take any photos on the night, but everyone had a ball, lots of sight-seeing around Vegas, and some ‘unplanned landings’….
Next morning, slightly hung-over, I tidied up the display-extraction tools to correctly display the Maverick TV Images on the RH DU, then did a wee test flight ironing out issues with the weapons systems.
Initial lock with the Maverick.. there’s an FFG here somewhere 
Hazy view through the HUD 
Yep, it’s an FFG 
Wave as we pass by… 
and RTB 
Turning finals 
Taxi to the ramp
After the past weeks experiments and steep learning curve, I am petty happy with where the sim is at. The path to a more-functional ‘Kahu-esq’ Skyhawk is clearer than it was. I am going to try and merge some of the Community A-4E project, with a TA-4k visual model and A-10A avionics. This will allow me to shoot Mavericks, drop laser guide bombs, and fire Sidewinders. The only thing missing is a radar, but for the most part I think it will give the best compromise feeling.
Sunday night, sitting on the couch writing this, I feel that I have accomplished a lot in the last few days. There is a lot more to do, and a lot more to learn, but it’s a good start. A very good start!
What a night!
Sometimes you just have to take the plunge, and last night was *THAT* time. After procrastinating for so long about changing over the main PC in the Skyhawk sim, I decided to just do it, and figure it all out as I went along.
First step was to fire up the sim in it’s current state, to say farewell.. I was going to go for a fly, but with my motivation levels at a high point, and not wanting to get distracted I decided to just take a couple of final photos then rip into it.
The final Start-up 
…and shutdown 
New i7 box ready to swap-in 
Complete with label (OCD??)
The PC swap-out wasn’t too big of a deal, but running and sorting cables was… One day I will just rip all of this mess out and start again with cut-to-length cabling..
With the PC in place it was a case of figuring out what needed to be re-connected, and what wouldn’t work. So far the list of ‘wont work’ things is short; can’t connect my MIP monitor, due to the new PC only having one analogue output, and can’t connect my **seriously* old DB9 COM cable… which runs ACCIS.
SO, PC in, fired up, windows updates done.. time to fire up DCS and see what happens. Of course, DCS needed updates.. many many updates, like 5Gb’s worth.
Updating…. 
And finally ‘LOADING’
But finally, we got there! Nothing mapped, and only the stick <sort of> working but it flew.. and looks awesome!
Tonight I hope to start mapping some of the cockpit switches, and maybe define what I want to be able to do in the sim, at least in the short term.
Compass and Clock for the Skyhawk
After making my mock-up compass and clock I started looking for real components to replace them. It all started when I stumbled over an inoperative clock on a suppliers website, then a black compass showed up at work…. 2+2 in this case equals ‘yeehaa’ 🙂
