Hello Chaps,

As you can hopefully tell I am currently working on a foldaway Spitfire Cockpit


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I will be starting work on the actual frame tomorrow however I have been very slowly working on the innards over the past few months.







Unfortunately I seem to have misplaced pictures of the throttle so I will have to take some again...


Kudos to Troll for his fabulous Simbox which inspired me "aka I stole is idea..."

http://forum.vkb-sim.pro/viewtopic.php?t=1953

I have been pondering one of my biggest issues in recreating a 1:1 replica Spitfire Control Column and that is how to dampen/load it

At present I am looking at around ~15lbf for the elevators and ~30lbf for the ailerons however this is subject to change (There was a marked difference in the real aircraft which is why I want to mimic it).




The elevators force above should be fairly simple to replicate, I was looking at something like this...

http://www.slamproof.co.uk/epages/BT3287...ation_Cylinders

However replicating the aileron force will not be so easy...

Currently I am thinking along the lines of one of these....

http://www.slamproof.co.uk/epages/BT3287..._Rotary_Dampers

Which would attach to the gearbox at the end of the column (The part which attaches to the fuselage.. see images below).





However the rotary damper could leave me with a 5% slip (No resistance from the rotary damper at the start) & an expensive design, so if you chaps could steer me in another direction/solution that would be very much appreciated! :thumbup:

Bottom of the column is a universal joint onto the aileron control drum for the cables to go left/right out to the wings.Maybe a rubber bungie cord or springs out from the column to replicate the forces for that.Back and forward is a tube for the elevator control so a small car gas strut can be used.

Probable you will need use a combination of springs and dampers, e.g. MMaister Bf 109 gimbal.

Look at motorcycle steering dampers on eBay, Aliexpress, they are not too expensive, and used be several people in rudder pedals.

Thanks chaps I will look into this

So far I have seen these below, however data is a bit thin



http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Black-CNC-Moto...nYAAOSwKtlWjhUK

For the elevator. Unfortunately I do not know what size of force they can dampen?

For the aileron forces?



http://www.ebay.com/itm/C201-Steering-St...2-/302059265633

I would adapt a plate to fit on the gearbox so it would move with the elevator and a pin coming off the control column

Nice Krupi.
I'll be looking out for updates on this project.

I was a big fan of Trolls SinBox and this one looks equally "right up my Strasse"

Same here, Krupi. Trolls Simbox is brill. Keep the piccies coming.

Cheers,

Flying Colander

Thanks chaps, nice to hear from you Colander

I have been trying to crack on with this project between cooking, drinking & flying the spit of course

When it comes to tools I don't always have the right stuff so workarounds have to be employed as the image below shows...



But it works out okay in the end



I could not put off the biggest job any longer and final finished the gearbox assembly, which actually went very smoothly.







Tomorrow I will attach the pedals to the frame & start to build the box

Thanks to draken152 for inspirational use of aluminium profiles in his mind blowing Dora Cockpit...

https://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=132743

I'm really impressed with the control column. Excellent job there

Thanks Steve, I stumbled upon a forum which eventually led me to calling a chap that made castings of original parts then it was a lot filing and drilling until I could fit it all together.

I am still playing with various methods of damping the column and spade, it is not a simple task

Hey Chaps, I have been quite busy moving into new digs and having to paint etc... which I have been doing for the last few months.

I made myself promise not to fly in DCS until I had the majority of the rooms painted and also reached a decent step towards completing the spitfire control column. This has been torture as I have completely missed the Normandy Pre-Alpha :doh:

However this weekend I almost finished the apartment and made significant steps towards finishing the control column as you will see below...

I was able to purchase a camera button and connection for my grip, luckily it just manages to clamp around my fake "grip texture"



Over the past few months I have been experimenting with a variety of mechanisms on the aileron control and have finally settled on a design. Unfortunately the cost of making the parts I required was insane, luckily I was able to make use of a milling machine at work after a bit of a refresher (I relived my apprentice days fortunately I have gained a lot of patience from those days ) and was able to pay attention long enough to make something that would do the job



I know it doesn't look like much, I can already see the sneer on real machinists faces. However this piece of aluminium has an important job it allowed me to complete the column and send the parts off to my local powder coater who turned my odds bits of aluminium into something far more presentable











I still have a long way to go to see my original concept come to fruiting & some parts are still rushed together experiments...





However once the columns and buttons have been connected I am one step closer to my goal of immersion and my first flight in DCS in months

FYI there is roughly a 50% difference between the elevator and the aileron control in an attempt to mimic something like the actual controls, hence the need for four springs

Outstanding Krupi!, if the rest of the build matches this quality, you'll have something very special at the end of it.

It looks great Krupi, congratulation!
Can you explain what is in that cylinder? Only compression springs or some sort of damping as well?

Thanks chaps

Regarding the cylinder it is a self centering mechanical strut, essentially it appears to be two compression springs simple idea that works great.

https://www.asraymond.com/self-centering-mechanical-struts.html

It took me a while to find something on the market at the right size and with the right force. I could have gone for two struts mechanical or gas and have them work against each other however this m-strut allowed me to simplify my pit and it would have been a pain to account for the 11degree offset position of the Spitfires column.

It looks like a solid solution. You did a great job to utilize off the shelf components for your build.

Very well done, always wondered why it had that kind of mechanism, was it meant to be held by two hands? And what is the lever for?

Marc..

Your work is amazing, but design of the control stick, I mean the original one, is... absolutely terrible. This is for sure the ugliest control stick I have ever seen. It looks like simply taken from horse cab or earliest cars and attached to the (quite nice!) aircraft frame.

Due to the small cockpit widthways only the top of the stick pivoted for aileron control.The lever is for the brakes.It diverts air pressure to a valve down near the rudder bar so you can use left/right pedals for control.

Your magnificent KG13 inspired me to do this so thank you





To answer both your questions...

The Spitfires column which is present on many British ww2 aircraft is a brilliant design. Take the centre stick, invariably you end up smacking it into your thigh due to the narrow cockpit... Not this design the aileron control hinges above your thighs so that you don't have to worry about space or a complex gimbal system.

The lever is actually for the wheel breaks, the Spitfire doesn't have toe brakes you press the rudder which ever direction you wish to turn and then press the lever.

The Spitfire is in general an odd mix of ultra modern (for the era of course) and antiquated philosophy pneumatic buttons etc...