Grey's Blog

Trains not Planes

2006-09-17T13:04:00.000-05:00

Recently, we visited the Illinois Railway Museum in Union, IL. Its the largest railway museum in the US and has trains from all era's of railroading. If your interested in trains, you could easily spend the whole day there. I made a gallery of pics from the visit.

Dual Linked Yokes and Rudders for Sale

2006-08-15T23:06:00.000-05:00

One of our recent additions to the cockpit was a used PFC Jetliner Yoke and PFC rudders for the copilot to match the PFC setup for the pilots side. With that addition came some soul searching and we have decided to part with the linked yokes and rudders that came with the CPT. We have no way of getting them into our basement intact, and even if we did, we don't have the clearance to install them. As it is, we have less than an inch of clearance from the highest point of the sim to the ceiling. We could conceivably disassemble them, but that would be a shame since in addition to being linked together, they are already wired to be easily intefaced to a PC and with a little work, they could probably be made to work with the autopilot to move the yokes and rudders as motors and interfaces are already in place for this purpose. Email me at wigrey@gmail.com if you are interested in them. Here are some more pics of the yokes and rudders:

http://picasaweb.google.com/wigrey/YokeAndRudders

Update August 2006

2006-08-15T22:59:00.000-05:00

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

2006-08-15T21:52:00.000-05:00

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

2006-08-15T21:46:00.000-05:00

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

2006-08-15T21:38:00.000-05:00

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

2006-08-15T21:33:00.000-05:00

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

2006-08-15T21:23:00.000-05:00

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

2006-08-15T21:19:00.000-05:00

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

2006-08-15T21:14:00.000-05:00

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

2006-08-15T21:05:00.000-05:00

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

2006-08-15T20:59:00.000-05:00

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

2006-08-15T20:49:00.000-05:00

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

2006-08-15T20:45:00.000-05:00

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

New Flight Attendant Seat

2006-08-15T20:40:00.000-05:00

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

2006-08-15T20:19:00.000-05:00

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

2006-08-15T20:13:00.000-05:00

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

2006-08-15T20:08:00.000-05:00

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

2006-08-15T20:03:00.000-05:00

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

2006-08-15T19:54:00.000-05:00

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

2006-08-15T19:45:00.000-05:00

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

2006-08-15T19:34:00.000-05:00

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

2005-03-01T23:00:00.000-06:00

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

2005-03-01T22:23:00.000-06:00

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.

2005-03-01T22:19:00.000-06:00

Maui-Driving:A shot of the northwestern coast of Maui.

2005-03-01T22:09:00.000-06:00

Maui - Driving:Beach near the fish pond on the west side of the island.

2005-03-01T22:08:00.000-06:00

Maui-Driving:Looking back toward our inn from the north.

2005-03-01T22:06:00.000-06:00

Maui-Iao Valley:Me in the parking lot with some more of the valley behind me.

2005-03-01T22:05:00.000-06:00

Maui-Iao Valley:One of the mountains that forms the walls of the valley.

2005-03-01T22:02:00.000-06:00

Maui-Iao Valley:The 2500 foot high needle and neighboring mountain.

2005-03-01T22:01:00.000-06:00

Maui-Iao Valley:A dried out octopus in the ceremony area.

2005-03-01T21:48:00.000-06:00

Maui-Iao Valley:A coconut tree with the valley in the background.

2005-03-01T21:47:00.000-06:00

Maui-Iao Valley:A close-up of the ceremony area.

2005-03-01T21:44:00.000-06:00

Maui-Iao Valley:A feral cat was wondering the grounds. THere were several more in the parking lot area.

2005-03-01T21:43:00.000-06:00

Maui-Iao Valley:Some trees in the ceremony area.

2005-03-01T21:32:00.000-06:00

Maui-Iao Valley:The rushing water of one of the streams.

2005-03-01T21:25:00.001-06:00

Maui-Iao Valley:A view of the needle from the ceremony area.

2005-03-01T21:25:00.000-06:00

Maui-Iao Valley:Low clouds in the valley.

2005-03-01T21:24:00.000-06:00

Maui-Iao Valley:A small falls.

2005-03-01T21:23:00.001-06:00

Maui-Iao Valley:By the ceremony area.

2005-03-01T21:23:00.000-06:00

Maui-Iao Valley:A valley and stream

2005-02-28T21:58:00.000-06:00

A view up a palm tree in the valley.

Maui - Sunsets

2005-02-21T22:39:00.000-06:00

We stayed at a smaller inn in the town of Kihei instead of a large resot to save money. The inn only had 12 rooms, but they were recently renovated and they all had kitchenettes so we we did not have to eat out every meal. The inn was located across the street from the beach and afforded a great view of the sun setting in the west. I'm not sure which of the following pics are my favorites. They are all spectalular. Dave did a grat job in capturing them. I'm didn't add any descriptions because I wouldn't know what to say.

2005-02-21T22:38:00.002-06:00

Maui-Sunset

2005-02-21T22:38:00.001-06:00

Maui-Sunset

2005-02-21T22:38:00.000-06:00

Maui-Palm trees in twilight

2005-02-21T22:37:00.003-06:00

Maui-Sunset

2005-02-21T22:37:00.002-06:00

Maui-Sunset

2005-02-21T22:37:00.001-06:00

Maui-Sunset

2005-02-21T22:37:00.000-06:00

Maui-Sunset

2005-02-21T22:36:00.004-06:00

Maui-Sunset

2005-02-21T22:36:00.003-06:00

Maui-Sunset

2005-02-21T22:36:00.002-06:00

Maui-Sunset

2005-02-21T22:36:00.001-06:00

Maui-Sunset

2005-02-21T22:36:00.000-06:00

Maui-Sunset

2005-02-21T22:35:00.002-06:00

Maui-Moon

2005-02-21T22:35:00.001-06:00

Maui-Sunset

2005-02-21T22:35:00.000-06:00

Maui-Sunset

Maui - Whale Watching Trip

2005-02-21T22:19:00.000-06:00

From November through April, humpback whales migrate can be seen swimming around the island of Maui. The whales spend their summers in Alaska feeding, then they come to Hawaii to give birth, raise they newborn calves and mate for next season. A baby humpback takes 11 months to gestate and will weight 4 tousand pounds at birth. Adults can weight as much as 85000 pounds. Its amazing to think about, especially when you consider they eat fish and plankton no bigger than a pencil eraser.

We had a nice sunny afternoon for our whale watching trip. We went with an excursion from the Pacific Whale Foundation, which has been studying the Hawaiian humpbacks for over 25 years. February is peak whale season and there were times when he could se several of them at once. Regulations prohibit coming within 100 yards of a whale by any means, so our pictures don't do justice to the experience.

2005-02-21T22:18:00.000-06:00

Maui-Whale Trip:Here is a picture of a sister ship to the vessel we were in. The Pacific Whale Foundation is a non-profit research institute that also conducts whale and dolphin tours for the general public.

2005-02-21T22:15:00.000-06:00

Maui-Whale Trip:The whales were quite active the day we went out. Here you can see that there were 4 around our boat at once.

2005-02-21T22:14:00.000-06:00

Maui-Whale Trip:Here, one whale is diving while the other is doing a 'spy hop', that is he's raising his head up out of the water enough to check us out.

2005-02-21T22:12:00.000-06:00

Maui-Whale Trip:The waters around Maui are in a whale sancuary. Boats may not apporach within 100 yards of a whale, so its hard to get good closeups of the whales.

2005-02-21T22:10:00.000-06:00

Maui-Whale Trip:A humpback surfacing to breathe. They exhale so fast that the 'blow' is just a few ounces of water atomized by the pressure.

2005-02-21T22:08:00.000-06:00

Maui-Whale Trip:Looking north towards the road to Lahaina.

2005-02-21T22:05:00.000-06:00

Maui-Whale Trip:Here are two of about a half a dozen sea turtles that were feeding as we passed by.

2005-02-21T22:03:00.000-06:00

Maui-Whale Trip:A closer shot of one of the turtles.

2005-02-21T21:57:00.000-06:00

Maui-Whale Trip:The sea turtles didn't seem to mind being so close to the boat.

Day Trip to the Big Island

2005-02-21T19:51:00.000-06:00

We decided to take a day trip to the Big Island to see the volcanes. We left Maui early in the morning and flew to Hilo on a small prop commuter flight. It was a pretty full day. The tour was with Polynesian Adventures. We visited Volcanos National Park, Rainbow Falls in Hilo, an orchid farm and a macademia nut factory. It made for a long day, but it was worth it. The pictures of the lava fields and craters don't do them justice, but here's some to try to give you a sense of them anyway.

2005-02-21T18:23:00.000-06:00

Big Island:We spent the day touring the Bis Island in a 'deluxe motor coach' with 25 of our closest friends. lol. It was worth it, though, because we saw a lot of great stuff.

2005-02-21T18:22:00.000-06:00

Big Island:Our first stop on the Big Island was Rainbow Falls in Hilo.

2005-02-21T18:21:00.000-06:00

Big Island:A side falls at Rainbow Falls.

2005-02-21T18:20:00.000-06:00

Big Island:The river just before Rainbow Falls in Hilo.

2005-02-21T18:19:00.000-06:00

Big Island:The Kilauea Iki crater in Volcanoes National park erupted in 1985 with 2000 foot high fountains of lava.

2005-02-21T18:18:00.000-06:00

Big Island:A closeup of the Kilauea Iki Crater.

2005-02-21T18:17:00.000-06:00

Big Island:A view for the ranger station near the active lava flow.

2005-02-21T18:16:00.000-06:00

Big Island:Here is a land bridge created by erosion. There were signs warning to stay away from the edge of the lava flow except in designated spots since the ocean will undermine the lava shelf and cause collapses.

2005-02-21T18:14:00.000-06:00

Big Island:Here is the end of the smooth paved road on the way to the active lava flow.

2005-02-21T18:13:00.000-06:00

Big Island:Part of the lava flow we were traversing.

2005-02-21T18:12:00.001-06:00

Big Island:Dave poses in front of some lava.

2005-02-21T18:12:00.000-06:00

Big Island:Halfway along the trek from the end of the road to the active lava, we came across this sign. I wonder if the lava flow obeyed the speed limit?

2005-02-21T18:10:00.000-06:00

Big Island:Close up of some of the lava. Some of the lava had a metallic shine to it.

2005-02-21T18:09:00.000-06:00

Big Island:Here is where the lava was flowing into the ocean that day. In the foreground is a black sand beach.

2005-02-21T18:08:00.000-06:00

Big Island:Me in front of the the active lava flow. During the day, the lava just appears to be moving grey rock. At night, you can see the molten red color.

2005-02-21T18:07:00.000-06:00

Big Island:Some lava that is already starting to host new growth along the Chain of Craters Road inside the park.

2005-02-21T18:05:00.000-06:00

Big Island:The Volcano House has been around in one form or another since the 1850's. The current Volcano House has lodging, a restaurant and information center right inside the park.

2005-02-21T18:03:00.000-06:00

Big Island:Many steam vents can be seen from the Volcano House.

2005-02-21T18:02:00.001-06:00

Big Island:A view from the Volcano House.

2005-02-21T18:02:00.000-06:00

Big Island:Some native ferns by the volcano house. Alien species are a big problem on all the inhabited Hawaiian islands.

2005-02-21T18:00:00.000-06:00

Big Island:Steam vents just outside theVolcano House.

2005-02-21T17:59:00.000-06:00

Big Island:The Kilauea caldera was a sea of molten lava when Mark Twain visited it.

2005-02-21T17:58:00.000-06:00

Big Island:A view of the Kilauea Caldera. A crater is called a caldera if it is 1 mile or bigger in any direction.

2005-02-21T17:56:00.000-06:00

Big Island:We stopped at the Jagger museum on the edge of the Kilauea Caldera. Here they have a display of siesmographs of volcanic events.

2005-02-21T17:53:00.000-06:00

Big Island:The Thurston lava tube. All the islands have lava tubes formed by eruptions. This one was about 400' long.

2005-02-21T17:52:00.001-06:00

Big Island:More Orchids.

2005-02-21T17:52:00.000-06:00

Big Island:Orchid Closeup. Of course, everything was available for purchase.

2005-02-21T17:51:00.000-06:00

Big Island:Orchid closeup.

Maui - ATV Tour

2005-02-21T13:38:00.000-06:00

While on Maui, we took a tour of the slopes of Haleakala, the 10,000 foot high inactive volcano that is the higher peak on the island. The tour company uses a ranch that is 20,ooo acres and has 3500 head of cattle. The trails we rode are the ones that the ranch hands use day to day. We did see some ranch hands and a lot of cattle during our trip. Even though we didn't go that fast or stray from the fairly easy to navigate trails, the tour was one of the highlights of our time on Maui because of the scenery and the peace and quiet of the mountains.

2005-02-21T13:37:00.000-06:00

Maui-ATV Trip:The Maui ATV tour has permission to use the trails on a 20000 acre cattle ranch.

2005-02-21T13:36:00.000-06:00

Maui-ATV Trip:This is what I really wanted to drive - a Polaris Ranger like mine at home. I did get to ride mine the day after we got home, but it was to plow out our driveway, not climb a mountain. One of our tourguides used it to transport drinks and a snack. They also can transport children under 16 in it since they aren't allowed on the ATV's.