AeroPlayer53 follow up on my blue light

This period I do not have so much time for the cockpit: a new digital camera, the Nikon D300, the sunny weather and a lot of work keep me well far away from the simulator.

Riccardo just added a thread in the italian forum I follow describing the progresses of his home cockpit. As he said, the work started from the description of blue light of my home cockpit in the Cockpit light post of this blog. I found his proposal very interesting: he used strips of blue LEDs to lighten the instruments instead of the whole cockpit. He fixed the LEDs below aluminium arms fixed on top of the instruments.

For my taste, the arms are too far over the instruments and can interfere with the movements during the flight. But having the LEDs almost in contact with the panel could lead to a very good result. The reflexions, especially against a plexiglas cover, should be taken into account.

I wish to thank Riccardo, AeroPlayer53, for reading my blog and sharing his experience in the forum.

In the mean time I have received the landing gear and a new master card from opencockpits. The landing gear seems to be good and smooth even if not as smooth as I expected. 

Refactoring of the MCP/EFIS/RADIOS panels

It seems that next week I have to put all my stuff out of the shelf :(

I'll take the chance to fix the not working button of the light panel. At the same time I want to change the setup of the MCP, EFIS and radios. Current setup was in fact a temporary solution that is in place for more then one year. 

The idea is to create a wodden frame having the MCP and the EFIS in the upper side and the 4 radio modules at the bottom. If I have enought space, I will insert some controls in the upper side of the panel. I am thinking of the master switch and GA button or the annunciators or something else. The new panel, painted in RAL 7043, will be placed below the 2 monitors, where the MCP and EFIS are at the present. Giving that I already have at home all the wood I need, i guess that this remake will last for some days only. 

At the end, I will have the left side free for new panels and space on the left for e new panel that I am designing right now.

My idea for this new panel and for the following is to be modular. I mean that frame of the panel will be fixed and sub-panels will be mounted. In this way it will be possible to unmount a sub panel for upgrading or fixing without the need of open everything. Actually, this is nothing new...

Beside this refactoring, I am thinking of a new panel to put on the right side of the MCP/radios panel. I ahve thought a little bit on what controls I have to put in and I am now focused on the engines startup, the gera lever and myabe the flap. I have brosed the net for componets and I have found a gera for the 767 for 280EUR. It is crazy so I am going to build my gear level from scratch and depending on the result I will build a flap lever too.

I am quite disappointed fro the prices of hardware components on the net. Specialised web sites have crazy prices and I am probably not the best to browse electorinc web sites...