I owe Wendle a beer!

[Michael Carter]

I owe Wendle at ASI Avionics Specialists in Memphis, Tennessee a few rounds of suds.

Since I'm on vacation this week I'm getting in a few hours in the sim and doing a little light work on it.

This moring I wired the APD to the auto pilot and a few other indicators. When I got around to the flight director, I was going to wire up the lightplate into the 5VDC buss. I couldn't figure out the pinouts for the lightplate.

I fooled with the Fluke for an hour trying every pin on the connector (31 pins), but not in the right combination.

I called these folks on a whim because they're close to home and folks in the South are generally friendlier than anywhere else.

I gave him the full part number and he rushed off to find the Collins manual for this piece. About two minutes later he rattled off, "pins 24 and 25 for the lightplate".

I thanked him very much for his help (and I'm not even a customer) and then told him what I was working on. I sent him a couple of recent shots of the sim.

He wrote back and told me he has 22 years experience with nearly every piece of equipment in my simulator and that if I needed anything else to call the company and ask for him.

I though that was right nice of him. :-D

[Trevor Hale]

Wow, Thats great.

One of those people that you want to keep in your back pocket when everything else fails. I wouldn't call him for every little thing, but Great Job.

Trev

[Tomlin]

Cool, this is just like the day I called Learjet in Wichita and asked for the Paint Shop. Not only did the guy answer, but he went and found the Gray used for all the parts inside!

Nice of you to sing praises for your 'connection'. Too bad he most likely wouldnt ever see it here. Lots of great folks out there willing to help.

[Michael Carter]

He really saved me a lot of time. This is what it looked like when I called him.

http://i63.photobucket.com/albums/h146/boeing722/727Maintenance.jpg

I didn't want to be working on this all day, I'm going to make a flight later tonight.

[Tomlin]

Hey Mike

Quite a while back you described the process you used to make your wood parts look like plastic and/or metal. Can you point me to the thread where you did that, or give a quick idea on making wood looking really nice when finished? Cant seem to locate it myself. I will check the FDS forum too just incase that's where it was.

[Michael Carter]

I don't remember now which one it was either.

All you need to do is go to the auto parts store and pick up a big fat tube of red body glaze.

Keep filling and sanding the wood grain untill there is no grain left to see or feel. Spray a light guide coat of primer to check for missed low spots. I use Krylon Rust-Tough green etching primer as it dries very fast.

Use two to three coats of final primer sanding with 400 between coats and a final wet sand of 600 grit.

After you paint it you'll never know it's wood.

A word of caution when working with thin veneer plywood: Don't fill and sand so much that you start going through the top layer of veneer.

[Tomlin]

Excellent- thanks Mike