First Test

The last two days were busy in finishing up the major part of woodwork, including applying the second coat of paint to the superstructure of the pit.

I'm very happy that the major, labor intensive work of the pit is now behind me.

Started the day early today, to assemble the super structure and mate the flight-sim computer with the pit. There were a few areas of concern, but nothing that I couldn't take care of with a little work. 

Assembled Pit
The seat if more or less done now, with new upholstery.
Two mock ejector tubes on the side.
Two more mock drogue tubes are pending fitment.

Despite all the tests, and final measurements, the seated leg length is a tad short. Will need to figure out how to work around that. I've full movement of rudder pedals available to me. However, I'm only able to apply about 75% brakes. 

Firing Up the Computer for the First Time
Had to play a bit with screen resolutions and screen positioning in the nVidia tuning applet. Had to retune my nVidia Surround resolution also.

Not very happy with the positioning of the sub-woofer.
Will need to find another place for it.

The Triple-Monitor setup is about 4" too high. Need to bring it down a bit.

The 19" monitor on the side, looked okay till now. Till I didn't have a pit. Now, it's an eyesore. Will have to design a contraption, so that I'm able to position it above the Triple Monitor setup. But, that can wait for the time being.
There is other stuff to take care of first.

Firing up the Flight Simulator
Firing up the Flight Simulator.

Even with four displays undocked, and a pretty heavy scenery, the FPS (atleast on ground) is pretty steady between 25 - 35. The FPS is locked at 35 on my rig.

The 'Panel Positioner' needed a little tweaking also.
It worked like a charm in further tests.

The First Ride!!
Ha ha. She deserves the first ride, even if she has no clue how to start it up :)

Some of the pit dimensions didn't turn out how I had planned. But, it's looking good the way it is setup right now. All the labour intensive work is now done, hopefully. 

Now comes the 'interfacing' part. 

Over the coming weeks, I will be working on adding switches to the Left/Right consoles, Left/Right Side Panels (including Gear/Hook levers), fabricating a UFCP (don't like that big blank space between the L/R DDI's). In a departure from the real deal, I'm planning a touch screen for the MPCD also. Let's see how that pans out. Then, there is HUD brackets along with AoA indicator. The output annunciators will come last. 

And, there is getting all the cables routed nicely, add an instrument panel shield. Phew!!! And, I thought this was going to be a piece of cake.