Forum Navigation
Please or Register to create posts and topics.

Down Under Shell L45-012 Project!

Page 1 of 2Next

(Original thread started on 06-05-13 by Mark Speechley)

Finally after nearly 2 years we've got the build page up and away. Mark S. ( kingchiro) the instrument builder and Mark C. the shell builder (rvcoops) have some progress to at last share with you all.

The shell is being built at Mark C.'s place so should be fun flying down the highway back to my shed when it is finished ! Approx 3/4 hour drive away:

Marks 31

 

 I ( Mark S.) did not have any room in my house to build the Lear so had to build a purpose built shed in the paddock. I only have 10 acres, which was commandeered by the wife for her horses. Fortunately she relented and the hangar was up and away.

This photo was taken by a helicopter showing my property and the hangar, minus the roof:

Marks 32

 

The finished product. 'The Hangar':

Marks 33

 

Newly completed path so no more trekking through the mud:

Marks 34

 

Somehow someone slipped a pool table and a bar in the shed. Naughty. Helps after a hard night soldering AML's. This view is only half of the shed which is the business end:

Marks 35

 

We were both so privileged, a few weeks ago, to have Will S. come and visit us and impart his vast knowledge to really get us honed into the projects we have been putting off. A big thank you to you Will.

Mark Speechley and Will Sasse testing for arthritic knees:

Marks 36

 

Mark Speechley, Mark Cooper and Will Sasse. Workshop day:

Marks 37

 

Chugging away at the instrument panel. Since that picture was taken, have added Ron's Turn Indicators:

Marks 38

 

Mark Cooper hard at work flying the shell, complete with guard dog:

Marks 39

 

Hope not too many photos, but got to give you all an idea how some of us Aussies are progressing. Just got to say thank you to so many of you for the advice and knowledge on this forum. Without it we couldn't have gotten this far. Will keep you all updated when we can.

 

(Posted by Shane Barnes on 06-05-13)

Wow, you are living the dream of several builders in the U.S. Eric, Ron and I have talked often about how nice it would be if we lived closer to one another. Would be really nice to be able to build a project together with a friend who shares the same interest.

 

Your hangar looks great and I can imagine all of you will have a lot of fun "hanging" around together. I would really like to have a building dedicated to my sim. Your project is looking great. Keep us updated on your progress

 

I understand the horse situation, that is my wife's hobby too but I'm okay with it. It gives me time to work on the sim! My wife and daughter spend quite a bit of time with the horses. Really nice aerial shot of your property, looks a lot like Kentucky.

 

(Posted by Alan Norris on 06-05-13)

Mark & Mark, great looking build and building! That was some rotten bugger who dumped his old pool table in your nice new hangar. Is that the second of Ron's shell down under? I definitely think you need a really nice sign to hang over the door to greet people. I have an idea...

 

(Posted by Mark L. on 06-05-13)

Hey to Mark, Mark from Mark! Would love to have a building like that for my very own amusement. Looking great, I think that TQ makes the whole rig!

 

(Posted by Ron Rollo on 06-09-13)

Hey Mark, yes, you guys do have the only shell in Australia. Hey everyone, keep in mind that this shell was built from paper plans!

 

(Posted by Mark Speechley on 06-09-13)

So many wonderful messages of support and advice. Thank you. Ron will confirm but I think we are the only shell in Australia. Amazing when you tell tradesman what you are building and they nearly fall over each other to lend a hand. Not short of electricians and painters at the moment. A little short on the Flight Stewardesses though !

 

Alan. I will take your sage advice and organize a beaut 'HANGAR 45' sign. Now that we are on the board will try to keep the updates flowing.

 

(Posted by Randy Buchanan on 06-16-13)

Thanks for showing us your way cool place. I don't feel too bad for you with only 10 acres that as Shane "looks like Kentucky". There are allot things I like about your project. I like the guard dog. Everyone needs one to make sure no unauthorized people are fooling around with your sim. I like the idea of good friends to help you with the project. And I like the idea of having a pool table and a pool in your back yard. I have a snooker table in mine but it is currently covered with all kinds of parts. By the way you and I have to wonder if our friends are really interested in our sim or taking our money playing pool. They say things like do you play for money? Not so much did you fly anywhere last night.

 

What I think is fun, and you and I talked about this is to try and fly over your home and get a sense of what a wonderful area of the world in which you live. I bet we can find you now with these pictures and maybe drop a couple of flower bombs in your back yard. You all can try it on me. I live 5 miles south of KBJC and looks like an RV storage facility just between a small lake to the south border and 100th Avenue on the North. Bombs away. Good job Mark more power to you.

 

(Posted by Mark Speechley on 06-20-13)

Thanks Randy for your comments. I will look forward to flower bombing your place !

Just have a few updated pictures from Mark C. working on the shell. I really do appreciate his work and anyone else tackling a shell. I really have to give Ron a +50 for his design. Had we been living in the U.S. then we would've had Ron build the parts and then we put it together. The postage for the parts was going to be me earning another 300 'Brownie 'points from the wife ( or a new horse or both !). Wasn't worth it:

Marks 40

 

Marks 41

 

Hope the pictures give others the incentive to have a go.

Thanks guys. The ' other ' Mark is the shell builder and that is his workshop. He built a Van's RV8 in that shed so he has certainly got great skills. No excuse for us dropping out of the sky when we eventually fly the Lear:

Marks 42

 

I am the biggest out of the two of us at 89 kg (stopped thinking in lb's years ago). I can just imagine though once everything is in that it is going to get quite cramped.

 

Still stuck on the seats though. Was in an auto parts shop yesterday and they had racing seats for sale. I had the lady measure the seat width and the smallest was 18.5 inches. I suppose once you out a sheepskin cover over it'll be a little wider. Is that outside of the range we can fit in? I remember in a previous thread that 17 inches was about the ideal. I remember the center seat for the Honda Odyssey was a possible but I have tried here and that is nigh impossible to track down. Maybe the racing seat is possible but obviously not authentic without arm rests.

 

UPDATE:

I found some seats! The seats were on special for about $200. I'm sure a bit cheaper than the 737 seats! Obviously won't have the cutout for the control column so would have to factor that as well as the auto track rails.Thanks for Shane's thread. I think I'll wait for the shell to be finished and get the ruler out.

(Edit; Didn't have the seats. Waited for the real ones !)

 

(Posted by Eric Tomlin on 06-26-13)

I've not got arm rests on my seats (out of an older Porsche) and it's never been an issue for me comfort wise. The authenticity issue is up to you. I am keeping an eye out for a set of relatively affordable non-J Rail style 737 seats like Shane has. To me, it will be very hard for anyone to build a seat anywhere near as good as a real one and I only say this because there is not one other part in the entire project that has as much action going on as the seat. My self-built seat risers/mounts are built out of heavy wood materials but even they are wearing out slowly over the years. Welded metal would solve that problem and paired with even a narrow auto style seat would likely be better than something out of MDF that looks "real" because it will probably wear out very quickly (of course this depends on design and how well built).

 

Since you have very limited real-aircraft resources there, I would focus on finding the seat closest to 17" and having someone come up with a super strong and adjustable metal base for it. Hopefully by the time you get the quote for it, it wouldn't be cheaper to spring for two real 737 seats.

 

(Posted by Mark Speechley on 09-10-13)

Finally got around to update time again. Mark S. and Mark C. finally got a chance to travel to Melbourne (Australia) to catch up with Will S. for another work shopping day on his sim this time. We had a very easy 2-3 hour drive down to Melbourne meeting Will at his apartment in the suburb of Toorak. For my international readers Toorak is a very 'trendy' area to live in so we were quite excited to 'hob nob with the hoity toity' and get to see Wills' sim at the same time!

Marks 43

 

Well it didn't take us long to get into the intricacies of Wills constantly refining method of wiring. By jove he think he has got it so I am just starting now to emulate his method which will make pulling the sim apart easier and making repairs and general maintenance easier. We were so engrossed that we went way passed our table booking at his local cafe he frequents:

Marks 44

 

Marks 45

As you can see smiles all round at the choice..and of course the company.

 

Well, after lunch we got back to the picking of his brains. I'm sure the early dementia is kicking in so I made sure I took plenty of videos.

 

So I hope you all enjoyed this little glimpse into the social side of this wonderful forum from here in Australia. We all had a great time and will be planning soon the next get together. Mark C. owns a Vans RV8 and Will wants to own one, so the next 'seminar' will probably involve simming above the ground. If anyone complains about the time it takes to build the Lear45, then just think that Mark took approximately 5 years to build his RV8. (I stand corrected if that was a little shorter but you get the gist.)

 

Thanks again Will and hopefully one day all of the Aussie squadron can meet up. Think of the conversations that day !

 

(Posted by Will Sasse on 09-10-13)

It was good to catch up with Mark and Mark, always helps with motivation!  Although I don't know why we are so concerned with neatness behind the panel.

(Posted by Mark Speechley on 03-31-14)

Catch up time again. Here is the Lear going for it's first flight. We had to move the shell from Mark C's farm to his new house in town 15 min away. The Lear performed flawlessly getting up to a speed of 70 km per hour. A credit to you Ron!

Marks 46

 

Our baby in her new temporary hangar:

Marks 47

 

Marks 48

 

Thanks to Alan Norris's website suggestion, our 2 seats (MD80) to be precise. I have three chainsaws just in case they don't fit ! These seats were courtesy of Cap.t Nick Louis of the Airline Pilots Historical Society. Worth a look if you haven't seen the website before:

Marks 49

 

Next is the proof of concept instrument panel. The visuals show P3D YMML 3 screens. Upper Right screen ATC and upper Left screen Flight Sim Commander:

Marks 50

 

Marks 51

 

After all the brouhaha regarding the Malaysian airlines 777 (not A380 ! thanks Eagle eye Terry) I'm expecting a raid from ASIO ( our Australian version of the CIA). We should be all proud of how advanced our sims are compared to others the media have given as examples of terrorist quality ones.

As Eric from Canada says "thanks for watching" !

 

(Posted by Shane Barnes on 03-31-14)

Hi Mark, I don't think you will have a problem with the seats, they are for all purposes identical to the seats I have except for the mounting method and Alan found a solution for mounting that style of seat base. The shell looks awesome! I love the photos of it "flying". I would say that drew some attention going down the road. Great to see your build at the new home. Looking forward to seeing more updates as your Lear starts coming to life!

 

(Posted by Mark Speechley on 03-31-14)

Thanks for the feedback. Good to know on the right track. Two us lifted the shell using stands for support. Should be a 4 man job once Mark C. finishes the shell and then it'll fly again down the Princes Hwy. The next trip will be my hangar 45 min drive away. Will definitely be tarpaulin time on that 'flight'. Still, for all the members who are behind in their build it shows that you just need to keep chipping away and everything will take shape.

 

(Posted by Ron Rollo on 03-31-14)

It is always exciting to see a shell nearly complete like what you have. Most impressive is that you guys built it from the paper plans which proves the concept that paper plans can be shipped half way around the world and still produce an incredible shell. The truth is the shell plans are only half of the key. The other key is a skilled craftsman which obviously your friend Mark is! Congrats on that and a great find on the seats as well.

 

The other point I want to hit again that you made is "chipping away". My saying has been, "There is only one way to eat an elephant, and that's one bite at a time". Very true, you have to stay steady and consistent at this project and most importantly, lots of planning which I think your doing a great job of.  When you are finally complete with the final shell skin your really gonna feel like you have something!

 

By the way, your FGC and other stuff is nearly complete. I suspect that your package will be ready for shipping by Thursday, so get ready!

(Posted by Mark Speechley on 04-01-14)

Thanks again all! The Lear is being built in two parts. I ( Mark S.) is the electronics /software guy and Mark C. is the carpenter. Hence he is building the shell. Unfortunately/ fortunately his marital status changed and his previous 'boss' has gotten the farm.A possible big problem for sim builders around the world. Hence we have had to move the shell to his new home in the city of Sale. (YMES if you want to fly there). Once he finishes it will be again 'flown' without flight permit, to the Latrobe Valley where my big hangar is located which has the instrument panel you can see in the photos. (YLTV). Thanks for offer with rail system. Will see Alan's approach and continue from there.

 

UPDATE:

Well time to catch up with the build page. Been doing the building, but not the pictures for you guys.  This is where our shell is up to as of today. For those of you going or down this route then you'll notice that it is the fiberglass time. Truly on the the home run now as the instrument panel is functional.

 

The thought of pulling it all apart again will turn my grey hair, grey!

Marks 52

 

Marks 53

 

Coop and I flew in his RV8 for a short flight ( ~1 hour 20 min) from YWSL to YMER for lunch. Problem was we were stuck there due to low cloud ceiling and showers. Had to stay the night in a popular holiday resort. Shucks!

Marks 54

 

Marks 55

 

Leaving YMER:

Marks 56

 

On the way back a strong head wind plus we needed clearance from the local Royal Australian Air Force (YMES) to track to YWSL. Problem was the RAAF aerobatic team, the Roulettes were practicing so we had to keep well out of their way. Flight home took nearly 2 hours.

 

On final YWSL. Back to Coops home airfield. Mine is YLTV. Strong variable crosswind to contend with. Coop did a Stirling job:

Marks 57

Hope you enjoy our bit of Australia.

 

UPDATE:

As we are up to the fiberglassing it's time to pick the brains. In other threads, advice was given that about 4 gallons turned out to be the right amount of resin. That in the ball park? Also 3 layers as advised elsewhere, to be strong enough or a heavier weighted mat could get away with 2 coats?

 

Also the other 3 questions are:

1/ Does the weave of the mat, matter ?

2/ gsm of the matting ? You will have an equivalent U.S. weight so we will convert.

3/ Anyone tried the coloring in the resin ?

 

Once got the info will drive 2 hours to Melbourne to the suppliers to pick up.

Thanks in advance.

 

(Posted by Shane Barnes on 01-17-15)

Hey M & M, I can't recall exactly how many gallons of resin needed as I was fortunate to have a supplier 3 minutes away. As for the weave the only consideration is that fiberglass cloth is not desirable for your last coat as the pattern can show in your paint. I used fiberglass mat for all layers.

 

Here is a link to what I used. It will give you an idea as to weight of mat etc,. I believe I used three layers:

http://www.jamestowndistributors.com/userportal/product.do?process=checkout&part=15576

 

Here is a link to what fiberglass cloth looks like. Don't use this as a last coat as it will most likely show the pattern thru the paint: http://www.jamestowndistributors.com/userportal/show_product.do?pid=2071

 

I did not try coloring in the resin as I used quite a bit of body filler (Bondo) to completely smooth the shell after fiber glassing so I had a lot of long board sanding to get the fiberglass completely worked smooth, followed up by primer and paint.

 

This is a link to my build thread showing some of the body filler and sanding HERE

 

(Posted by Ron Rollo on 01-17-15)

Hey Mark, your right on the money with everything your thinking.

 

Just to recap a few key points:

1. I used matting because it "gives" more and it is easier to manipulate on compound curves, like the shell as an example. (The weaved fiberglass would be difficult to get to lay snug on a sphere if you can imagine.)

 

2. I also did two layers of matting and fiberglass. I wish I had done three. What ends up happening is in the sanding process with the orbital sander, you will end up sanding down the high points. So what I ended up with is a few places where the fiberglass is only one layer thick. It's not a big deal for something that is not flying through the air or floating in a lake somewhere, but still!

 

3. If you don't have one, get an orbital sander. You will become one with it. I have a pneumatic orbital sander. It magically finds the high points and leaves the low points alone.

 

4. Shane had a great point about the fiberglass Bondo filler. Get a gallon of that too. The orbital sander will show you right where you will want to use the Bondo filler in the low spots. It is a heck of a process but each time you add and sand, the shape gets more refined!

 

5. Get plenty of $1 paint brushes, gloves and dust masks. I used at least 20 brushes and double the gloves.

 

(Posted by Mark Speechley on 03-14-16)

Need to do a bit of updating here.  Will try some uploaded YouTube videos.

Here was a get together to try out the instruments, obviously minus the shell. We decided to fly around Hong Kong and then land at the old Kai Tak airport. Anyone interested, this is Fly Tampa Kai Tak, Dragon Eye Hong Kong, ORBX Global and P3D 2.5. The three projectors are Benq 1080ST.

 

Hope you can see the eventual fun you can have persisting and eventually building a wonderful sim like the Lear.

 

We have always maintained flying along the way whilst building, to keep the enthusiasm going and to focus on the big picture of why we are building a sim. I can tell you now that people who come to see what can be achieved in building a sim are simply in awe. That alone is worth the effort !




 

And this one:




 

Hope the videos work. Enjoy.

Mark S. and Mark C.

 

(Posted by Ron Rollo on 03-16-16)

Great videos Mark. Looks like Hong Kong. That was my first approach in the USN P3C flight sim back in 1989, prior to joining the Navy. By the way, your frame rates look great! Do you have your new computer specs posted anywhere? For running three projectors, it looks really smooth.

 

(Posted by Mark Speechley on 03-16-16)

Anyway the good news is that my main computer has not been changed for 2 years. The hardware at the bottom of my posts is still relevant. I just keep changing Affinity Mask / Hyperthreading etc to extract as much as I can.

 

Frame rates will still vary between 10 and 60. Throw in thick clouds and you are asking for trouble. Still P3d 2.5. I think P3D 3.2 will gain a few frames so looking forward to wiping out a week updating.

 

Flying into Kai Tak is a lot of fun as well as turning up the cross winds for Wellington in NZ. So many places to enjoy our sims. We will start adding more flying videos.

 

(Posted by Mark Speechley on 08-21-17)

Time to catch up with progress.......or temporary glitch.  This post is to give those whom are not quite up to my stage a little reminder to take care.

 

Think forward and aft movement i.e. elevator, of the yoke and the installation of the sliding potentiometer. Well I had mine wired correctly and wired to my Pokeys 57U card, as well as the aileron pot from the yoke head. Looking mechanically at the slide position when the yokes were in the resting position and then full forward and back it looked not perfect but close enough. Ticked that one off.

 

Fast forward to putting the whole sim back together. Well by this stage we fire up the software for the pokeys. Everything looks within range for and aft and in analogue setup. Any extremes with spiking at full forward and back was reduced with the mechanical stops to the forward and aft yoke movements. All good so far.

 

Fired up Prepar3D and ran into problems. The elevators were reversed. When I clicked on, in calibration, the reverse box, no change was elicited. OK delete Y axis in P3D and go into FSUIPC.Well just getting the yoke to be calibrated was all over the shop. Clicking on REVERSE in FSUIPC didn't help either !

 

So I remember that Alan had been asking a question years ago regarding the Pokey wiring and one of the answers to reverse was to swap the ground and power wires. You would think that would just give everything a neat reverse with aft and forward movement. Not so. Now the Pokeys has put the yoke center resting position as 3/4 of the way forward as seen in the analogue setup screen. That left a small range for the nose up and large range for nose down.

 

So to cut a long story to the chase. P3D was happy with the wire swap with regards to the correct elevator direction. FSUIPC was usable with regards to calibration, however, there is a smooth graded movement for nose down but nose up is neutral or full on. Flying is at least doable but landing is nigh impossible.

 

Mark C and I will try and rectify this in a few days with probably, hopefully, changing the rod length to the potentiometer to have it more centered in the neutral position. Very hard to get at with everything installed !

 

Learning tip is to get the potentiometer movement right, early and as accurate as possible before you are too far advanced and hope the software calibration will save you. Will keep you informed of the 'fix'.

 

(Posted by Ron Rollo on 08-21-17)

Hey Mark, I have been there too! If I can get it wrong I will before I get it right. Maybe this could be our new Hangar45 motto. "The place where you will get it wrong before you get it right!"

 

Anyway, the easiest solution would be to remove the pot, reverse it and then re-calibrate it. Easier said than done because it may be hard to get to right?

Updated photos of a nearly complete Lear45 simulator!!

Marks 58

 

Marks 64

 

Marks 65

 

Marks 62

 

Marks 59

 

Marks 61

More updates soon!

 

Hello everyone!  Mark S. and I are looking into an easy way to post and share videos of his weekly flights with his aircrew friends Mark Cooper and Peter Nicholas.  These guys are having a blast and what they are doing should be our ultimate goal!  After watching the video I realized that I am going to have to make a trip to Australia if I want to fly a Lear45 sim anytime soon! LOL

Check out this short video and tell me if they are having fun or not?

(If trying to view this video from your phone, you may have to download the video first)

 

Mark, what I did to be able to display the video here was upload it to my free Google Photo account, moved it to it's own folder so that other images and videos are not able to be viewed and saved the link back to it's location in Google Photo.  Then I took a screen shot of the opening of your video and used it as a photo.  I uploaded the screen shot photo to the Hangar45 media library and saved it's location.

Then I used the image link icon in the tool bar of the Edit Post window and saved the screen shot location.  Sizing the image to 450 pixels from left to right gives the photo it's perfect size for the forum.  Last but not least, I linked the https video link to the screen shot photo.  Free and easy once you do it a few times!

By the way, if the video was less than 64mb, I could save it in the Hangar45 media library.  The video is just a little over 69mb.  I am not sure what the limits are on Google Photo.

Looking forward to seeing some more videos and photos guys!

 

UPDATE:  This video is a short slide show of the construction of the shell leading up to near completion!

NOTE:  This video is stored within the Hangar45 media library because it is only 27mb

This is FANTASTIC!

I wonder if we can take it one step further and have a skype session while you guys fly? Lower 48 will supply beverages and snacks.

Thanks Maciej for words of encouragement.

My Learjet has a call sign of Pacifica765 in P3D (v4.4). Most Wednesday fortnight's, I try and get one or both of my aircrew together for a mission. Now that I have an almost fully functioning ( within P3D limitation )   simulator with extensive software, it is pure joy to put the crew through some challenging flying duties.

We hope to start to video document, and then edit for brevity, these missions to share with all the forum members just to show you the reason why you are putting in the hard yards in the building process.Just last night after the wife went to bed at 10pm, I went out to the shed for a bit of software maintenance only to find that I kept going and undertook a trial future mission.

Imagine this. Here we are in Australia with the hottest January on record. Here you guys in the U.S. with freezing blizzards, colder than the Arctic. So what do us Learjet sim pilots do ? Fire up SkyForce by REX and check the Live weather option. Next fire up P3D and start at KORD, Chicago ( you guys not flying yet have to get used to the ICAO codes). Last night it was a brisk -15 C. Set the FMS on the CDU to fly me to KOSH, Oshkosh Wisconsin. Off I went, bust through the cloud at around 10,000 ft, kick back just sit back and enjoy the view and deal with ATC as required. As you get closer contact KOSH approach, confirm the runway and dial in the ILS. Get the glideslope and fly straight in, everything white the whole trip, but very easy landing.

Now that I have confirmed that trip I will have my crew fly to KOSH in a roundabout route on the date of the real airshow, with some variable extreme weather ( coz we can !).

The point I am trying to make is, THIS is why you are building, because I am living the dream and you will too. I made a point of flying all the way along, whilst I was building, to keep me focussed and now, whilst the software and hardware maintenance never ends, I can go out to the shed and forget all my worries and visit anywhere on the planet.

I hope to have a video up in the next few weeks. If anyone has any ideas for a flight or just want to see what the scenery looks like in their area, add a line to this thread and I'll put it in the list.

Cheers all

Mark S.

Awesome videos Mark!  Have you guys tried VOXATC for your ATC?  I've used it for several years now and while it can have a few glitches from time to time it does add the ability to actually use a headset and mic to talk to ATC.

Looking forward to some more videos!

 

Hi Shane,

I haven't used VOXATC but I have just downloaded Radar Contact as it is now free. You can downloaded it here

http://www.jdtllc.com/

You can also download an updated voicepack from AVSIM. I haven't had a chance to install it at all, but I'll certainly pass an opinion on when I have given it a trial.

As a matter of fact I am up to the stage of using voice commands to simulate ATC so I'll certainly consider VOXATC.

We'll have a shot at the flying videos, so hopefully we'll do the Lear community proud and confirm why we all made the right choice of plane to build.

Cheers

Mark Speechley, Mark Cooper and Peter Nicholas

Sim1

 

Uploaded files:
  • You need to login to have access to uploads.

Hi all,

Well as promised here is the first video of our latest mission.

Mark Cooper, Peter Nicholas and I, approximately every 2 weeks, undertake a mission around the world. Not only to enjoy the many places the world has to offer but to showcase our wonderful hobby and simulator.

This mission was from Sicily to Malta. I particularly chose this as Malta photoscenery is a free download if you look for it and Sicily is fairly close. The boys took off from Palermo airport and flew to NAS Sigonella with a northerly deviation enroute to overfly Mt Etna. Please take note of the 'special' guests who also arrived at the same time at Sigonella.

Once the Lear arrived at Sigonella they were to pick up 4 VIP's and head to Malta International airport as their destination. The twist was that intelligence had a potential terrorist threat which required an altitude no greater than 500' AGL whilst flying above ground in Sicily. There was the potential for fighter escort over Sicily, which did eventuate with 2 fighters on station.

Fortunately the crew of 'Pacifica 765' did land safely at Malta and all passengers disembarked.

A great time was had by all, except the throttle quadrant, which finally gave up the ghost. Not bad since it had about 5 years of flogging especially around the bush strips in Papua New Guinea. Fortunately it's replacement is on it's way from the states as I type, so won't be long and we'll be back in the air again.

For any sharp eyed members, you will notice the Left windscreen is missing, only because we are doing maintenance on the FGC wiring and did not want to keep taking it on and off until it was completed.

I hope this link works, If not keep checking and it'll be rectified soon. The program I used was by Corel but was their quick program which loaded everything out of sync. Next time I will use the full program Corel Videostudio 2018.

I hope you like it and get inspiration to keep going with your sim building. If anyone has any ideas for a mission that will take about 90 min, please add to the thread. Also any questions about the hardware or software then just ask.

Regards Mark S, Mark C. and Peter N




Page 1 of 2Next