1:1 Spitfire K9817 Cockpit Build

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T Bolt said:
:wav:

Won't be long until you're an Ace!!
I am so Jealous!!! I want to hook mine to a sim but I know that's out of the question.
Click to expand...

Thanks mate!!

It really isn't that hard to hook up what you have done. A couple of pots on the stick, a Leo Bodnar Card and you have a basic flying machine. and any help I can give...

THAT was my original intention...but those who know me well knew how it would end:)


Next project is to send her back to Castle Bromwich for the PRU equipment fitting. (plus the pipework on the right has to go back in after I have tidied it up a bit or redone it,


cheers mate, I just wish some of you were close enough to come and fly her.



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Thanks Wayne. It really was a great night. And many more to come I suspect. There are just a few little bugs to iron out but nothing that detracts badly from the experience.
 
Why isnt it home time ?!....I'm stuck at work and cant see the pics due to restrictions on my works pc....b*gger !!!:evil:

Not sure if you were flying a yours, or a real Spittie by the writing ?

Bl**dy well done mate, real proud of an outstanding project finished (yeah, righty, finished ?,,,never !). \\:D/:notworthy:\\:D/

I've ordered myself a new pc...specifically for gaming !... today so when its delivered and set up, I'll be in touch for a dogfight or two. We can sort out the games and timings later. Be interesting to hear how it feels to be in a full blown 'pit with pukka controls compared to a pc joystick.

I've also ordered some more Ali so I can crack on with my '51 windshield.
 
Thank a million Gary,

As you know, building these bl**dy things gives you plenty of years to research things. I have tried all the way through to find as much actual information on Spitfire flyingas I can. I will email Dudley Henriques shortly to ask him how my description of the testing stacks up with his experience in Spitfires. I just wish I could find an old Spitfire pilot to have a go and comment. Then there is the trick of applying that knowledge to the "feel" of the controls. I missed my Spitfire chance but having flown the Tigermoth, the Extra and the Nanchang, I feel I at least have a good bead on exactly what the pilots are saying and how to apply it. The sim "feels" right as far as I can tell...the ailerons are a little light as speed builds but the model compensates fro that by reducing roll rate and the model is still a Mk II or V parading as a Mk iA but A2A are already in teh process of Accusimming the Spitfire...THAT has great potential.


I'd love to fly when you are up and running. !!

Thanks again mate.




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Hi Tony.

I know the word "awesome" has been used plenty of times in this thread, but what you've done IS awesome, exclamation mark. :thumbleft:
I just love the fact that your wife loved the results of your project as well. :thumbleft: :thumbright: "War office" - LOL! :D
Next thing'll be that she'd want you to build another Spit cockpit for her as well, so that you guys can fly together. ;)
Thanks for sharing all of your work and efforts, experience and troubles with us here, it has been great, and I can hardly wait to hear more from you about this project. *deep bow*

Cheers,

Maria.
 
Congratulations on the first flight Darryl, bl**dy good show old chap, what !
It looks absoutely fantastic mate, and a job very well done after all this time.
 
Gott in Himmel! That's amazing. Now if you could only mount it on gimbals like an old Links trainer. Do you do commission work - I could use an IL-2 cockpit for my two IL-2 simulators...

Venganza
 
Thanks guys!!! You are an inspiration! And I don't mind telling you nthere have been times when I have REALLY needed that. As late as last week when I had al l the trouble with fitting controls, I thought about making it just a nice stsatic display piece (when my wife calls out "do you REALLY have to use THAT language" i know I am close to breaking point.

It has NOT been an easy road I can tell you. I have, pound for pound, had ten times the trouble with this that I had with the F-16. But the thought of actually flying her, the thought of what Tony Hill and others went through (largely without complaint and with even less thanks sometimes) it all kept me going.

This weekend Gwyn brings down the last piece (Radiator Shutter) and gets to see first hand how his craftmanship has, hopefully, been complimented, if FAR from equalled.


Thankyou all, (and I really DON'T want to start naming names, as I will VERY probably miss someone and that is not fair, particularly given the generosity and enthusiasm I 've found.)

I'll not quite put her in "finished models" yet..but it is close. I'll post some video soon and photos of the rest of the placards which are now in place.


THANK YOU ALL!!!!!!!!!!
 
Well, no video yet but a whole lot of fun. A mate has an Irvin Jacket, so we just couldn't resist…. It makes the whole cockpit shrink VERY quickly and you start to get a feeling for what it must have been like to sit squeezed into the Spitfire for hours. It also explains some of the "put the Spitfire on" rather than "get into the Spitfire" which many pilots describe.

Unfortunately even in mid winter, as it is here now, the jacket is intolerably hot, so I just couldn't wear it for long periods. In summer you would literally boil your brain.


I now have a whole new understanding of some of what Spitfire pilots faced. Maps on knees and trying to stay on course whilst barely having room to move and heaven only knows how the hell you look over your shoulder to see behind!!


Video as soon as possible, probably on Sunday.


When they will see the pig half-man:
Noise, song, battle, fighting in the sky perceived,
Nostradamus


Ready to go.
pigs.gif


Chocks away
putonweight.gif



Easy turns.
pan.gif


Throwing her around
rollout.gif


Hanging in the straps
invert.gif



Pre landing checks
Dive.gif


Turning final
turnfin.gif


Short final
shortf.gif


Having a ball flying this baby. It's a pity I have to work during the day!!
 
Nice one mate! Have you tried it with the parachute harness as well? If not, you'll feel even more restricted. My nearest experience to that was an hour in a Chipmunk, front seat, with the canopy open. Being RAF, I had the 'chute, life jacket and bone dome, with the seat harness slightly slack on the left shoulder, and we were doing mild aerobatics whilst photogrpahing the BBMF. I dropped a lens cap, so had to keep one foot on it, in case it got caught in the rudder pedals or the stick and, by the time we landed, I could hardly climb out of the cockpit. Gawd knows what it must have been like with all the rest of the clobber on, throwing the crate around the sky violently !
 
Cheers guys!

It was an experience, that is for sure. No, Terry, the chute is still in production, Tracey is knocking me up a decent replica but all things considered the thing has got so out of control now I will probably try to track down at least a real harness. The MAJOR discovery was just HOW hard it is to look behind you. I guess there is always a feeling, in hindsight that "if I had been in the Battle of Britain *I* wouldn't have got bounced because *I* wouldn't /let my guard down/forget to turn/forget to look behind/get caught napping / etc, etc" I am now firmly convinced that *I* should probably have got shot down on my first flight whilst desperately clinging to my Flight Leader and wrestling the Merlin JUST to keep up!!! I would guess you felt similar whilst wrestling that camera?

So much for the fantasies of a 13 yo boy of being the next Douglas Bader. It is actully very humbling. I have found, after all the Kokoda trips, the Imperial War Museum Trench and now this, that "living history" will not really show you what it was like but it WILL shatter most of your illusions about how you would have "done it".

cheers guys, I'll wrestle the video this weekend..I promise.




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