F-111 or bust

[sira66]

Hi folks,

I have begun work constructing an F-111 crew module simulator. Lots of work to go and many hours of frustration ahead but I know it will be worth it. After spending 7 years in Australia working on these aircraft, I thought it would be a nice tribute to build one of my own.
Wish me luck! :)

[MudPuppy]

That is some good looking construction on the shell for your cockpit. Nice work!
Derek

[Tony Hill]

Fantastic start...looking forward to seeing more.


Darryl

[No Longer Active]

That is some excellent work you hade done there!

Bet you cant wait to start priming it and bringing it to life!

Top work fella!

Keep us posted!

Alex

[BlackWidow]

Fantastic work

Cant wait to see more of this sim

[dc6driver]

Hi Sira66,

Your crew module looks great. who's F-111 software will you be using?
I look forward to seeing any updates to the project.
I was a Crew Chief on the E and F models a very long time ago so I'm partial to the Aardvark for sure.

Fritz

[Ronson2k9]

What do they call that one? 'Whispering Death' The Aardvark is fav of mine too. Almost took the place of the F-14 tomcat in carrier operations. It was just a little to big for the ops though but it's ground hugging radar system makes up for that in many ways.

Can't wait to see more of this one you have going. Your off to a great start. Love the detail and fine looking module (sculpting). Great work.. Keep it up.

[dc6driver]

I don't think the F-111 was ever named. Whispering Death like you mentioned was used in Vietnam, but over time the Aardvark is what stuck.

[sira66]

Thanks for all the feed back guys/girls I realy appreciate it. Fritz here in Australia the F-111 has been affectionately known as the "Pig" as it gets down amounst the roots, so to speak. We purchased the F-111's back in the 70's and have been flying them since then using both the RF-111C and F-111G models.I believe the G models use to be be A models. They came from the US from the Bone yard. These aircraft, the G's where our "Bone yard wranglers". Refer 6SQN RAAF for history on web.

I have been using the Alphasim F-111 aircraft on my computer and will more then likely use it on the module when finished, unless I find a better option.

As I am new to the building of simulators I will start off simple and intergrate basic functions for now and hopefully the module will evolve into something better and more professional.

Thanks for all your feed back keep it coming.

cheers

[turbopropdriver]

Nice one. Always like to see another military sim. :)

[tpbal]

nice one

I've only ever seen one F-111 sim built before this - a guy in Newcastle did it years ago and has resold it. His links are hidden away on www.achive.org...

If you can get a US military export permit I know a guy who has a couple of F-111 capsules for sale in the USA... They were quite cheap but it broke my heart when I found out I couldn't get one.. sob sob.

You might like to drop by viperpits.org as the guys there are doing great stuff on military style cockpit interfaces
T

[sira66]

Continued on with the Cockpit a little more and a bit more on the seat and arm rest area.
I even got the cockpit monitors running with a PC installed under the dashboard area. I running a Pentium 4 motherboard with a Radeon HD2600 Pro video card. This computer has FSUIPC4.0 and WideFS installed ready for instruments to be run on it.
NOW FOR THE QUESTION:

How the **** do I do that?

Im orginizing another computer for the Display and projectors and another as a Master computer. On going project.

Can someone please help me out as to how to start designing and laying out instruments for this cockpit..... please!!!!!!!!
What do I need to start with ?

Attached is a photo of the current cockpit.

Regards

SIRA66

[BlackWidow]

sira66,

Your F111 simpit looks awesome. As for the gauges there a a few programs you can try the first one is FSXpand (http://cockpitsolutions.com/) then there is Project Magenta (http://www.projectmagenta.com/) and a freeware made by Peix Software (http://www.peixsoft.com/) Im sure there are others but this will get you started PM (Project Magenta) and FSXPand both allow you to use the software in a demo mode.

[Mike.Powell]

Can someone please help me out as to how to start designing and laying out instruments for this cockpit..... please!!!!!!!!


There are some very good tutorials on how to create instruments here: http://www.fs2x.com/

You'll also want to know how the panel configuration files are constructed. The Microsoft Flight Simulator SDK is a good info source. For FS9: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/555857 For FSX (ESP): http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc526956.aspx

[jmig]

Welcome to the military fighter cockpit sub group. It is good to see another member. Maybe one day we will be big enough to be an actual group. :)

There is no perfect solution for the the military gauges. If you want to go the 'steam gauge" way. Flight Illusions has F-16 gauges that will work for the basic six. Good luck on the 5" ADI & HSI.

If you use monitors and a program to produce gauges, I have found FsXPand to be a good economical program. Gert has a good program and it is adaptable. It too has few "fighter" gauges. However, he has a SKD and a gauge edit program that will allow you to modify gauges or create your own.

Lastly, provided you use only one computer, you can make up 2D panels in FSX and drag them to your monitors. I don't think this will give you two monitors with the same gauges, however.

I hope this helps,

[sira66]

Thanks will try these options and see what I come up with.

Regards

SIRA66



Welcome to the military fighter cockpit sub group. It is good to see another member. Maybe one day we will be big enough to be an actual group. :)

There is no perfect solution for the the military gauges. If you want to go the 'steam gauge" way. Flight Illusions has F-16 gauges that will work for the basic six. Good luck on the 5" ADI & HSI.

If you use monitors and a program to produce gauges, I have found FsXPand to be a good economical program. Gert has a good program and it is adaptable. It too has few "fighter" gauges. However, he has a SKD and a gauge edit program that will allow you to modify gauges or create your own.

Lastly, provided you use only one computer, you can make up 2D panels in FSX and drag them to your monitors. I don't think this will give you two monitors with the same gauges, however.

I hope this helps,

[baw536]

Good to hear that the F-111 is alive and well.

I worked on F-111E's for 7 years at RAF Upper Heyford in the UK, I used to be a Master Crew Chief on 68-030, 79 TFW Tigers

I have many stores to tell from the years gone by. I'm not sure but does anyone remember a panel on the top of the jet called 3410? It was at the very top or spine of the aircraft and if you swapped the panel for another it wouldn't fit correctly.

Thanks

Steven Higa

Oxford England

[sira66]

Panel 3410 is the Main Egress Chute panel I believe and yes it is a pain in the proverbial butt.
Australia has now come to the end of its long relationship with the ever loved F-111. Sad to see them go :(

Great to see, that on this forum Im hearing from both RAF and USAF guys about there ties to this ole girl.

Keep e'm coming

Regards

SIRA66

[dc6driver]

I remember stress panels up top and never drop tools down the louvers.:shock:

Fritz

[sira66]

And constantly breaking -10 torque screws on panels 1101,1102,1201 and 1202.

Ahh the joys of an F-111.:rolleyes:

[sira66]

Been some time since last report on progress but here is a snap shot of step 4,118,775 of 20 million. I have started to split the cockpit up a bit more and started on the back lighting of upper panel's. Still no idea on how to get instruments to show on screens. I have installed FSUIPC7 and WideFS on both computers and have them talking to each other, but I have no idea on how to utilise Alphasim F-111 gauges.

I have set up the module with 2 computers the master and one slave. The Master has FSX, WideFS, FSUIPC7 and the Slave has WideFS and FSUIPC7. This is where the story ends so far.
:roll:

[Glenn Weston]

Hi Sirra66,

Congrats on some great work on your pit, you have chosen an aircraft that is an all time favourite of mine.

I was very close to going down the F-111 path but it is almost imposible to get dimensons here in Australia, particularly military stuff, unless of coarse you work with the actual aircraft & unfortunately I don't, so I stuck to a genereic F-18/F-16 style pit, there was alot of info for me to go by at www.viperpit.org, I still plan to do a rear seat with my sim, haven't seen it done yet so it might be a first.

Military sim building seems to be a lonely world at times & you will have to make sacrifices unfortunately.
There is not very much you can buy off the shelf software or hardware wise, as you may already know.

With the instrumentation about the easist thing I have found to do is Use a Program Called FSPanel Studio.
This is basically a MS-Flightsim panel creator/editor, therefore you can create custom panel layouts & resize instruments from different aircraft in your library to your liking, I think this will do the trick for you.

Have a look through my building log & you will see on my centre screen on my main panel a custom layout that I created, a generic 6 pack of steam guages plus some other bits.

You should be able to pull instruments out of your existing F-111 that you fly in FS, however please keep in mind some developers of FS aircraft models copy protect their instrument panels & you cant take them out of the model.
Try downloading some freeware F-111's & see what instruments you can steal out of them.

Once you have created custom panels you can drag the panels to your panel monitors, you will have to setup multiple screens on your main FS PC if you haven't already done so.

Good luck with the build, I look forward to seeing more of your work..... Please setup a log in the Cockpit update section & post photo's in the gallery so we can see your progress.

My Log can be found here.......
http://www.mycockpit.org/forums/showthread.php/16159-Glenn-s-Generic-Fighter-Pit?highlight=

Hope that helps, Cheers Glenn

[sira66]

Hi Glenn

Thanks for the infomation on instrumentation, I will purchase FS Panel Studio and see what I can do. I may even contact Alphasim and see if I can utilise their instruments as well.
I will continue to post as I go.
Good luck with your efforts too, I will heep and eye on it as well.

Kind Regards

SIRA66



Hi Sirra66,

Congrats on some great work on your pit, you have chosen an aircraft that is an all time favourite of mine.

I was very close to going down the F-111 path but it is almost imposible to get dimensons here in Australia, particularly military stuff, unless of coarse you work with the actual aircraft & unfortunately I don't, so I stuck to a genereic F-18/F-16 style pit, there was alot of info for me to go by at www.viperpit.org, I still plan to do a rear seat with my sim, haven't seen it done yet so it might be a first.

Military sim building seems to be a lonely world at times & you will have to make sacrifices unfortunately.
There is not very much you can buy off the shelf software or hardware wise, as you may already know.

With the instrumentation about the easist thing I have found to do is Use a Program Called FSPanel Studio.
This is basically a MS-Flightsim panel creator/editor, therefore you can create custom panel layouts & resize instruments from different aircraft in your library to your liking, I think this will do the trick for you.

Have a look through my building log & you will see on my centre screen on my main panel a custom layout that I created, a generic 6 pack of steam guages plus some other bits.

You should be able to pull instruments out of your existing F-111 that you fly in FS, however please keep in mind some developers of FS aircraft models copy protect their instrument panels & you cant take them out of the model.
Try downloading some freeware F-111's & see what instruments you can steal out of them.

Once you have created custom panels you can drag the panels to your panel monitors, you will have to setup multiple screens on your main FS PC if you haven't already done so.

Good luck with the build, I look forward to seeing more of your work..... Please setup a log in the Cockpit update section & post photo's in the gallery so we can see your progress.

My Log can be found here.......
http://www.mycockpit.org/forums/showthread.php/16159-Glenn-s-Generic-Fighter-Pit?highlight=

Hope that helps, Cheers Glenn

[jmig]

SIRA66 - Be aware that FSPS mostly works only on 2D panels. You won't be able to drag any panels created with this program on to another computer's monitor. To do this you must use something like Project Magenta (PM) or FSXpand, which is what I use.

I wish some would develop a program that works through sim-connect to allow you to build custom panels and run them on a second computer which is connected to the MSFS computer. FSXpand will allow you to customize their gauges, provided you are willing to experiment. However, they do not have two critical gauges in the database, i.e., nozzle positions and G-meter.

As for using Alphsim gauges in your own custom panel. So long as you don't distribute these gauges to anyone else you should be able to do so. I know that the general consesus on flight sim forum boards is, "go for it." I have swaped gauges in 2D panels from one aircraft to another. For instance, in doing some testing on a F-5 air file, I had two sets of engine gauges running from two different developers. One engine ran one set of gauge and the other engine a different set. The Panel.cfg file tells the aircraft where to find the gauges.

3D panels are a different breed. Many are modeled with gauges. In these cases you can't swap gauges bacause they are build into the aircraft files. This is why FSPS can't work with most of them.

As a military sim builder, I will be happy to help, if I can. Just let me know if you have any questions.

[twisted8]

I wish some would develop a program that works through sim-connect to allow you to build custom panels and run them on a second computer which is connected to the MSFS computer.
I believe that's doable without extra software. Just simconnect and a custom gague. Your missing gauges nozzle positions and G-meter are those variables built-in into MSFS or maybe something that can be calculated of other MSFS variables ?

[jmig]

I believe that's doable without extra software. Just simconnect and a custom gague. Your missing gauges nozzle positions and G-meter are those variables built-in into MSFS or maybe something that can be calculated of other MSFS variables ?

The G-meter does have an offset. FSUIPC has it listed. The nozzles don't. The FS9 & FSX nozzle gauges use the RPMs for their settings, which is not completely accurate. I have modified my xml gagues to more truly reflect the way they work in fighters.

[twisted8]

Ah ok I see what you mean. But then you want those gauges on a networked PC? I've been playing around making my own C++ gauges, havent tried making them networked but that would be a good project. Since you have the formula for the nozzle gauge it should be doable based on the RPMs. I could give it a try if you want.

[sira66]

Hi Glenn,

Well I purchased FS Panel Studio and followed the instructions as detailed in the package. However, once I installed the new panel into my Aircraft folder I lost all 2d panels and the new one I made. I do however still get the virtual cockpit. Any ideas!!!!

SIRA66

[Glenn Weston]

FSPS basically just edits your panel.cfg file, re-install the original aircraft & it should restore your original panel.cfg & you will get everything back as normal, make a backup copy of the panel.cfg before making changes for quick recovery, not sure what you have done there but you should be able to get back to square 1 easily.

Cheers Glenn

[jmig]

The 2D gauges will be the first ones listed in the panel cfg just below the [Views]. They will be named [Window00], [Window01], etc. The VC panel are below them and are named [Vcockpit01]...the gauges will have a ! in front of their name.

You can only have ONE panel.cft file in the Panel folder. Make sure the cfg you are using is the panel.cfg. Also, male sure it has a cfg extension and not txt.

Hope this helps.

[sira66]

THanks for the heads up, it was weird that I couldnt even get the basic 2d panels to display. Lets see how this goes.

Cheers

SIRA66


The 2D gauges will be the first ones listed in the panel cfg just below the [Views]. They will be named [Window00], [Window01], etc. The VC panel are below them and are named [Vcockpit01]...the gauges will have a ! in front of their name.

You can only have ONE panel.cft file in the Panel folder. Make sure the cfg you are using is the panel.cfg. Also, male sure it has a cfg extension and not txt.

Hope this helps.