Simple, um yeah... I wish I had the skills to build stuff that simple! Good luck and keep us updated - looks like a great project.

But it is simple! Course, it helps to own a cabinet shop and access to lots of extra supplies.
I appreceate your comments though, thanks for following along.

Ok, more pictures:

The parts coming together, you can see the nose and one of the sides sitting next to the seat.



The entire thing sitting together, they are just sitting together, nothing has been bolted, finish sanded, etc. It is very rough.





The entire thing sitting on the pedestal, note that the pedestal slopes in to simulate a more rounded fuselage. This is roughly patterned after the SE5a of WWI.



More pictures as I get parts ready.

Looks fantastic!

g.

I'm with Gene. This is looking great, thanks for posting pics of the progress.
With all the folks playing Rise Of Flight and flying the wood and canvas crates, I was sure we would have seen a simpit covered with painted canvas by now.
Regards,
MP

aahhhh, you gave the surprise away MudPuppy

Thanks everyone, it has been an obsession.

PropNut, looking great. A couple questions, if you don't mind:
What are the dimensions, roughly?
What thickness and type of ply are you using to cover it?
What tool do you use to do the large radius curve cuts?
If you are planning on surfacing it with fabric, is there a safe(er) dope to use these days?

Hi Pakfront,

It is 44" wide by 60" long and 39" tall.

I am using 1/8" door skin plywood. This perticular product is baltic birch and is 5 ply, most is 3 ply but that would work perfectly also. I just happened to have several sheets laying around the shop.

I laid out the radius with a string and then cut it with a jigsaw. I then cleaned up the radius with a 80" edge sander (side belt sander on a pedestal).

The fabric that I was thinking of is Polyester Dress lining from Joanne Fabrics (about 1.00 a yard) and I would use clear contact cement to adhere it. You can use several products but the best might be a water based contact cement from a company called Weldwood (easy to find at most hardware stores and they have water based adhesive) you can paint it on the wood, let dry and then iron the fabric to it (I use a commercial type contact cement that is chemical based). As far as dopeing the fabric, I had not planned on doing so, just paint. Polyester shrinks when you heat it. If you want to dope the fabric you can purchase several products that are 'safe' from Aircraft Spruce and other such companies.

I love the concept of it being an SE5, perfect

The stick is looking good too, very in keeping with the SE5 spade grip.

Well done PropNut, looking forward to further updates

Thanks Brigstock,

This is not really patterned after any one aircraft, it just looks simular to an SE5a fuse. The grip is modeled after an I-15 russian WWII fighter that I found on airliner.net.

I really just wanted a quick shell that I could use, I am really looking forward to making the rest of the controls.

I set up the projector last night in one of the spare bedrooms, it is awesome! It fills an entire 12' wall floor to ceiling.

I have all the parts for the computer;
EVGA 680i A2 MotherBoard (SLI)
Intel Q6600 Quad core CPU (B2 stepping)
4 gigs Corsair DDR2 memory (800)
WesternDigital IDE 160gb HD
ASUS Nvidia 9600GSO 3D card (96 pipes)
Cooler Power 480W PSU

These will be mounted in the nose of the cockpit under the dual hoods. I need to make some "t" nuts to hold the hoods down, right now I am using hex bolts but the "t" nuts would look better.

Big change in the design:
I decided to have the seat slide out the back for egress instead of a suicide door on the left. I have two sets of 24" full extention slides left over from a custom build (customers) and I bolted them together to give me 50" (1" over travel each), I mounted a wheel on the bottom rear of the seat to take the weight of the pilot (in my case a very strong wheel, lol) and the slides are just to keep everything in line over the travel. This way you can sit and slide into place. I can also make it so the seat has several ajustment settings for legroom if anyone else every uses it (which I honestly doubt, I have no sim buddies around here).

Pictures later today. I have it disassembled so I could paint the insides of the components.