Hi guys, thanks for your interest in my '51 and also for your advice on the control interface side of things.
A little bit about my '51. She's scratch built in Aluminium, full scale, using North American Avaition blueprints. I'm using original equipment where I can, and making what I cant.....or at least having ago at making it !!!!. The armour plate on the fire-wall is good ol' MDF, and the floor is 3/4 ply. I've made a box section chassis, again out 3/4 ply with fully castoring wheels so she is mobile....but getting bl**dy heavy !!!!. If anyone wants details on how I've got to where I am, drop me a line and I'll help out as much as I can. Would you guys be interestd if I did a thread on the build to date, bearing in mind she's not connected to a flight sim yet ?.
Some of the stuff, like the trim wheels and the parking brake lever are full size cast resin items (cast using the original item) that me and a mate are developing. We are also looking at producing a full size kit made out of MDF, resin instrument bezels, high def photos of instruments and the instrument glasses, of the P-51D instrument panel (we can also do earlier versions) and immediately after the Christmas break are going to start a selection of control grips for the '51, 47, and the F4U. These will be resin cast and can be either a solid one peice item or split into sections as per the original grip for wiring purposes.
I was intending on using mechanical connections to a PC joystick setup, but I can see now that this is a bulky and not very effective way of making the interface. I'm fortunate in that the '51 has a cockpit floor that sits about 4 inches above the top of the wing itself, so I've got a bit of space to play with under the flooring. The '51 control column is attached to a torque tube for aileron input and a pushrod for elevator. What I have to do now is figure out how to use the stuff you guys are suggesting (all sounds very comlicated !) and mount it.
