Planes and plans

The centre console is in place, albeit temporarily for testing purposes. I'll live with it for a week or two but I've already improved the design so unless anything changes I know what I'm doing with it now.

This has meant I've got my throttle back in operation and can fly again. Most of the latter part of last week and the weekend was spent testing and checking out my new Carenado PA28 Cherokee. It's a very agile little plane, which Hugo enjoys using for tree hopping.

I also added to my growing DC-3 fleet with the Just Flight version. This is a beautiful aeroplane to watch from exterior view, and sounds great. The VC is not so good though, being far too pristine. This is not a major problem for me as I use the 2D cockpit, but even that is just the default FSX one which is a little disappointing. My ideal DC-3 would be the Just Flight version fitted with the MAAM-SIM 2D panels, but the Just Flight DC-3 is now a firm favourite anyway.

On Saturday I spent a very useful fifteen minutes adjusting the height of my external monitors. This has enabled me to move the whole cockpit further in under the camber of the roof, giving me more room and allowing me to fix the overhead panel in place. This just has the engine management module on it at the moment, I still need to add the engine start module.

The side console is on hold as it's basically a glorified keyboard shelf and since adding the base I don't really need the stability it would give the cockpit anymore.

So now the two things at the top of the job list now are gauges and the glareshield.

I'm fed up with using the default 2D cockpits on my instrument monitor as these appear ugly and pixellated. I'll have a play with editing their dimensions but I suspect I will have to buy the RealityXP gauges to see how these look. Unfortunately these do not include engine gauges so I'll have to source these elsewhere if I can't get the default ones looking okay.

My plan for the glareshield is to curve some bendy MDF or flexible plastic around the curved edges of the MIP, then carve a block of insulation foam into a gently curving top. Once it's all covered in black vinyl I'm hoping it will look okay.

I'll mock something up in cardboard first to see what it looks like.