For some reason I’ve always wanted to visit Trondheim in Norway. Perhaps it was all the Alistair MacLean novels I read as a teenager, with the Russian Convoys as their theme…..
So far Norway has been a great adventure. Next I hope to explore around a little more, then set sights on the UK to continue the exploration I started last year.
For links to the Norway scenery I am using go to Freewarescenery.com
From Kolkata we continued on our North-Western heading, landing in Tashkent, Uzbekistan before the final hop to Oslo in Norway…
Tonight’s mission is the arrival and landing in Oslo. The beauty of X-Pause means that the sim automatically paused 100 NM’s from it’s destination… waiting for me to come home and fly the arrival 🙂
Now that everything is working properly, I thought it was time to send the 737 out on another mission. Part test flight, part exploration 🙂 I had been looking at some great scenery for Norway and thought I should go and check it out!
NZCH-YBBN-WSSS-VECC so far… Heading mostly North West from there.
Nice weather in the cruise, and a good opportunity to tune the settings for the displays…
Something I have been messing around with is a terminal server, with all sorts of devices connected to it. Tonight I had an old android phone working as a moving map, as well as managing X-Pause
After much research, head scratching and changes of plans… I *think* I have a workable solution for my sim intercom systems.
I had gone down the track of hardware intercom solutions, even as far as using headset distribution amps and mic mixers, but after quite a lot of research, and a suggestion from an internet post I have found a really simple solution:
Basically it is a software mixer, which enables both internal intercom and a connection to and from either TeamTalk (which I use between all my sims) or Squawkbox when flying on VATSIM. Only required hardware are USB sound cards for each headset, plus any impedance matching circuitry for the individual headset. So.. ALiexpress order placed for a bunch of cheap sound cards… and then to set it all up!
Just when you thought I’d abandoned the Arrow project….. I ordered some seat sliders as part of the conversion of my 737 passenger seat for the Arrow.
These seat runners come from scarles.co.nz who provide loads of car parts for custom/race car builders. I’ve used these universal rails on a project at work and the will be perfect for the arrow seat, and at $55, the price is right too!
Today was a pretty miserable day here in Christchurch, so it was ‘perfect’ to work outside breaking up a shipping pallet! At work we receive 737 cockpits on nicely made pallets, constructed of good 4×2’s with 12mm ply on top… and these things are not small… So today I deconstructed one of the pallets and brought the bits home as framing and lining for the upstairs mancave. This is the first of 3 identical pallets we have received, so I should be able to make a dent in the linings and ceilings of the ‘cave once I get the next 2!
After posting a couple of videos recently, I thought I should get a bit carried away and make a video-intro…..
Cheesy… but this is a re-run of my last video, with the intro on it…. 🙂 Happy watching!
Tonight I was throwing around some ideas for Nick on how he could bring all of his sim components together to make a cool sim out of it. Incorporating his Saitek based MIP and GoFlight Pedestal and Throttle Quadrant he recently acquired into a structure which puts everything in the right place, makes a pretty cool looking sim 🙂
I added my 737 seat for reference… but it got my enthusiasm going for my seat design again…. After a little bit of experimenting, and some tweaking of my design I think I will be able to cut all the parts on the CNC at work…. Soooo, I think I might spend some time and finalise the design and make my 737 seat!
Tonight, after a little research and subsequent tweaking I did a little more flight testing. For some this kind of flying is as boring as bat-sh&*…
for me it is interesting, and challenging! The program tonight was all about the interaction between the MCP and the flight model.. so lots of dull motoring around on autopilot….. Testing Autopilot pitch control through a range of speeds and configurations. The main issue I had initially was that the MCP was commanding trim changes which were way too aggressive, and so caused the aircraft to porpoise quite badly. After the tuning the aircraft is stable in *most* phases of flight, I just need to tune out some pitch sensitivity when the aircraft is in approach configuration.
I have also switched to the Wilco sound package… it is better than what I was using, but I’m still not completely happy with it. I’ve since downloaded a couple of freeware sound packages to add to the test programme.
Tonight I did a little flight model swap and tested ‘Wilco/Feel There 737PIC’ in the sim…. The test proved better that the model I have been using, but still has a couple of *small* issues to resolve.
A great little flight, with a challenging cross-wind approach. The flight test went well. Once the small issues are resolved the flight model and autopilot should work happily together!
