Grey's Blog

Update August 2006

Wow, its been over a year since our last update. Here are some pics and highlights of what we've been up to over the last several months.

Ready for takeoff at LAX

Here's a view of the outside view screen. Right now to test our new Matrox TripleHead2Go setup, we've using a couple cheap white shower curtains as screen material. They're great because they've got grommets, which makes it easy to shoot a couple 1 in screws into the floor joists and the screen around rapidly as we fine tune. So far we are pleased with the TH2GO vs running Wideview on 3 PC's. having the weather and AI traffic perfectly synched is great.

Rear View Mirror

Here's a look at the image being projected by the three Dell 2300MP's from the back, just to give you an idea of the picure size (15ft x 4') and quality. Once we've got the real rear projection screen reworked, we'll fine tune the alignment of the three screens.

EFB

Although we have an airline pilot friend that keeps us stocked with approach plates, we have been experimenting with an old tablet PC as an Electronic Flight bag. Right now it just has a jeppesen flight planning service on it, but we intend to add FS Earth from the same deleloper who created Wideview as a moving map function as well.

Pimp My Cockpit

Here's a view from the back of the cockpit out the nose. We've recently converted the overhead lights from 28V incandescant to 12V LED. The LED's were intended modding car tail lights. its amazing how many parts made to pimp out PC's and cars can be converted to economical cockpit parts.

View from the Co-Pilot's Seat

Here is the view from the co-pilot's seat towards the pilot seat. Right now we are testing the Project Magenta chronometer function out on the lower EICAS. We will probably use a spare 5.6in LCD mounted behind the MIP where the pilot chronometer is.

Pilot's View

Here is the pilot's view of our current setup. On the co-pilot's seat is a Toshiba TabletPC we are using as an Electronic Flight Bag (EFB). We subsribe to an online Jeppesen mapping and route planning service.

Main Instrument Panel

Here is a view of theMIP from the Instructor Station. The FMC stand houses an Engravity CDU, a 12in LCD monitor, and a FDS CDU with a 5.6in LCD mounted to it. The MCP is from GoFlight and will be replaced shortly.

Converted 2nd officer's Station

We have converted the 2nd officer's station into an Instructor's station. I'm going to add another LCD monitor onto the station so that i can have two copies of the Instructor Station running with different view. I also use this station to configure and troubleshoot all the other PC's in the sim using RAdmin, so the extra screen real estate will come in handy.

New Pilot Seat

We have obtained the pilot, co-pilot and 2nd officer's seats out of a B727 that last saw service with FedEx. The seats replace the old combination DC-6 base/Office Depot chairs that we had inthe cockpit before.

Pedestal

For now, we have 4 GoFlight radios and 1 pushbutton madule as well as a mini keyboard on the 727 style pedestal. Eventually, we will upgrade to Boeing style radios. Due to clearance limitations inthe pedestal, they will probably be Flight Illusion's as their radios are very shallow. Because of how the armatures for the throttle quadrant run into the pedestal area, we will probably keep the 727/early 737 style pedestal form factor. On the nearer term todo list is to frame around the FMC stand.

Instructor Station Seat

Along with the 727 pilot and co-pilot seats, we picked up a 2nd Officer's seat as well.

New Flight Attendant Seat

Here's an ebay find. Its a flight attendant's seat from an old L-1011. We snapped this particular one up because we were looking for a flight attendant seat and this one's cushions were a goof match for the FedEx blue on the other seats in the cockpit.

Flight Attendant Seat Closed

Here's what the new (to us at least) flight attendant seat looks like closed. It takes up a minimal amount of space and is suprisingly comfy. We've stategically placed it next to the fridge so that whoever sits there during flights can act as stewardess. With the compartment underneath the seat, we finally have a place to stow our flight safety demonstrator kit.

A Bug's Eye View

Here's the view a bug would have right before it impacted the pilot side window. You can see bits of all four new seats and the back wall of the simulator, as well as the fridge.

Pardon Our Dust

Here is a view of the sim as it appears from the outside during a flight. You can see into where the Instructor Station is located. You can also see that the sim is getting a bit dusty up top. I've got to find a way to dust the hard to reach places. I think they make Swiffers now that extend.

Outside Looking In

Here's a shot from the outside of the cockpit into the interior. With the new screen arrangement, you see more of the sim from the outside. Once we took down the side screens I was struck again by how big the sim is.

Back of the Simulator

In order to reduce clutter around the nose of the cockpit, we've chosen to rack all but the master FS2004 PC near the rear of the simulator. We use long VGA cables to drive the displays within the cockpit.

Project Magenta PC's

The PC's we use for the Project Magenta glass cockpit suite are lower end Dell PC's we've picked up over the course of a couple years. As we have it configured now, 1 PC drives the two pilot displays, 1 PC drives the upper EICAS display, 1 runs the two co-pilot displays, 1 runs the CDU software which drives the FDS and Engravity CDU's, 1 runs the lower EICAS, and 1 runs the Instructor station. Most of them we got in on deals that included monitors we used in the cockpit. A great place to watch for Dell PC deals is: http://www.techbargains.com/

Tower of Power

We've obtained a couple of server racks from the State of Wisconsin surplus center. They have lots of computer gear coming through all the time, plus some wacky things like UW cheerleader outfits and endoscopy machines. Check it out at: http://www.bussvc.wisc.edu/swap/swap.html

LA and Hawaii Vacation

We are back from our trip to California and Hawaii. Here was our itinerary:

From Feb 3-7, 2005 we were in Palm Springs. While we were there, we visited a Native American owned park that featured hiking trails and bridle trails. Being inexperienced hikers, we opted for a 1 mile hike up and down the Andreas Canyon which is on the San Andreas fault line. Other highlights of our time in Palm Springs were visiting the Aerial Tram and the Palm Springs Air Museum.

From Feb 7-16, 2005 we were in Maui, HI. We were actually supposed to come back to the LA area on Feb 14, but were having so much fun, we opted to stay a couple extra days. We did a fair amount of just taking it easy while there, but we did manage to see a bunch of cool things as well. We went to the Maui Ocean Center aquarium where they have some awesome displays of fish native to Hawaii's shores. We did a humpback whale watch with the Pacific Whale Foundation which is a non-profit whale research organization. We also did a day trip to the Big Island to visit Hawaii Volcanoes National park. We also did a lot of driving to just take in the beauty of the island.

From Feb 16-Feb 19, 2005 we were in the LA area and hung out with our friends Scott and Rebecca. We visited Disneyland and their newer California Adventures park. We also visited a couple 'adult' Disneylands. (For us anyway.) At Alteon, a subsidiary of Boeing, we got to fly two full motion flight simulators, a B717 and a MD-11. Later that day, we went up to Universal City's Citywalk and visited a NASCAR simulator racing center. Then is was back to Cottage Grove to rest up from our vacation.

Maui - Iao Valley

Here ars some pics we took while exploring the Iao valley. The valley is a little north of the Kahuli ariport. Four streams meet in the valley and its most unique feature is a 2500 foot high cinder cone - the Iao Needle. At the confluence of the streams, there was a native Hawaiian ceremonial grounds. The valley was beautiful. It was a pleasant relaxing visit. Very peaceful and tranquil. Its a nice way to get away from the more crowded beach areas.