Introduce Yourself

[KarlSack]

Hey guys,

My name is Phil, I'm 33 y.o. and I'm from Letchworth, England. I am a civil engineer by the trade, but very much into human space flight and exploration of another celestial bodies. Couple years ago, I've started building a space flight sim for Orbiter 2016 and started digging into nuclear propulsion systems for manned missions to Mars and beyond. Researching all those fascinating designs from 60s-70s (such as M-19, the Star raker, etc.) led me here.

Cheers!

Welcome Phil! Sorry for my ignorance but what do you mean by building a space flight simulator? Do you mean coding your own sim module?

The closest I got to building a flight simulator was when I was 8 years old and my Dad wanted to throw away our old wooden see-saw. I begged him to keep it for one more summer. I drilled a hole on one end through the seat area; stuck an old mop in an old bucket and filled it with cement. When the cement cured, I stuck the handle end through the hole in the see-saw and attached it with rope and used it like a joy-stick. I had a counter-weight on the other end to balance things out. When I moved the stick forward, the see-saw went up and when I moved the stick back, the end went down. When my Dad came home for lunch and saw what I had done, he rushed back to his work to get a long grey carpet runner and we used it like a run way. He pretended he was the control tower with his walkie-talkie and I had mine asking permission to land. That summer I collected over $8 by charging my neighbours $0.10 for a ride on my simulator!

 

[Uncle Smith]

Welcome Phil! Sorry for my ignorance but what do you mean by building a space flight simulator? Do you mean coding your own sim module?

The closest I got to building a flight simulator was when I was 8 years old and my Dad wanted to throw away our old wooden see-saw. I begged him to keep it for one more summer. I drilled a hole on one end through the seat area; stuck an old mop in an old bucket and filled it with cement. When the cement cured, I stuck the handle end through the hole in the see-saw and attached it with rope and used it like a joy-stick. I had a counter-weight on the other end to balance things out. When I moved the stick forward, the see-saw went up and when I moved the stick back, the end went down. When my Dad came home for lunch and saw what I had done, he rushed back to his work to get a long grey carpet runner and we used it like a run way. He pretended he was the control tower with his walkie-talkie and I had mine asking permission to land. That summer I collected over $8 by charging my neighbours $0.10 for a ride on my simulator!

Hi Karl,

What a brilliant story! I bet it was fun to play And you've made some money as a bonus! haha
By slight simulator I meant real hardware one Of course some programming is involved to connect it to Orbiter software sim, which is not as straightforward as with Xplane or DCS for example.
Unfortunately, I live in apartment right now and have not adequate space for building simpit shell (aka crew compartment), but different control and display equipment are being built right now, such as:

1. Primary MFD (24” LCD)
2. Auxiliary MFDs (2x 10” LCD’s)
3. Fuel quantity indicator (4” square LCD)
4. Rotational hand controller – my interpretation of Apollo Command module RHC. Translational controller will follow.

I've attached some of WIP pictures to give an idea of my endeavour

 

[KarlSack]

Hi Karl,

What a brilliant story! I bet it was fun to play And you've made some money as a bonus! haha
By slight simulator I meant real hardware one Of course some programming is involved to connect it to Orbiter software sim, which is not as straightforward as with Xplane or DCS for example.
Unfortunately, I live in apartment right now and have not adequate space for building simpit shell (aka crew compartment), but different control and display equipment are being built right now, such as:

1. Primary MFD (24” LCD)
2. Auxiliary MFDs (2x 10” LCD’s)
3. Fuel quantity indicator (4” square LCD)
4. Rotational hand controller – my interpretation of Apollo Command module RHC. Translational controller will follow.

I've attached some of WIP pictures to give an idea of my endeavour

Wow! Super impressive!! 03.jpg looks like the back of an AGC (Apollo Guidance Computer). Those parts look 3D printed. Did you design your own parts? How long have you been at this so far?

 

[Uncle Smith]

Wow! Super impressive!! 03.jpg looks like the back of an AGC (Apollo Guidance Computer). Those parts look 3D printed. Did you design your own parts? How long have you been at this so far?

Thank you!


I've been working for 4 years on this current iteration with occasional "holidays" which can last for several months..
Big chunk of work is preparing CAD files and documentation (drawings, schematics, etc.) This month I've finally come up with part/assy/drawing number system to assist finding necessary components quickly.

Yep, spot on, most of parts are 3D printed.
Everything is designed by me, including custom PCBs which I etch at home as well (you can see 2x of them stacked on 04.jpg from my previous post).
I try to use real mil-spec western/soviet toggles/switches/you-name-it wherever possible to provide a proper tactile feeling to it.
(Find typical MFD bezel switch assembly photos enclosed - this is a soviet mil-spec switch assemblies + my custom wiring (button caps should be re-painted though! lol))
But even with 3d printed controllers I still try to achieve same results. E.g. that rotational hand controller has a force of around 10N (1kg/2.2lbs) to deflect/twist at any direction which is quite substantial

Apollo program is a huge inspiration for me - there are tons of photos/engineering drawings/schematics around the web - very nice source of information.

 

[Ugly]

Hi, guys!

My name is Ugly and I'm 45 years old. I'm from Russia =)
I found this forum when searching for information on Western UAV models.

It will be good!

 

[ItalianAFDFail]

Hello everyone
My name is ItalianAFDFail and i'm from Italy, i'm 23 years old and I've previously neglected to introduce myself.
i've been looking a lot on the forum before joining, specifically italian aircraft, lately i've been very active in my postings of various stuff as i am very interested in vehicles as a whole, if need be i could find equipment of the italian army and prototypes, time permitting of course as i am still in university and not in the best state as of the current period, i love talking about equipment and please let me know if i sound aggressive or assholery sometimes, i have some issues sometimes with expessing and i am trying to fix it.
Best regards to everyone and i hope this is thorough

 

[overscan (PaulMM)]

Welcome!

 

[Karnitin75]

I am the owner and first moderator of this site. My name is Paul Martell-Mead, I am 32, and live in London, England. I work in IT, but I am very interested in military aviation technology and have built up a large database of knowledge on this subject. I post as "overscan" or "aerospacetech" on various aviation forums.

I recently got married in New Zealand and plan to move there eventually with my New Zealand wife, Vanessa.

[note this information is 14 years out of date - see this post - Admin]

Hello im a 18 year old guy studying Game graphics. On the side i travel around sweden looking at military museums and archives. Otherwise im at home watching movies or playing games like Generation zero, War thunder or just messing around with youtube. I have a Girlfriend(18) as of last year. Oh yea, i live in Sweden.

I love tanks from the 1940-1989 period

 

[Antonio]

Welcome Z Generation. Nice to have you with us!