Steve and Ron worked all afternoon on the shelves and the rudder pedals. Steve has the Captain side pedals working from a mechanical standpoint. Next my Father In Law will setup the pedals for joystick input on the computer. Looking forward to that. Ron has two of the three monitors in place here in this shot. We are actually pretty close to the painting stage now and I am looking forward to seeing how Steve does on the Pedestal and sidesticks. I will have to find some nice looking carpet for the floor.

Here is a shot of myself looking at the main instrument panel over the monitor. This is from the Standard kit. I am using that to size things then I will use my NOVA series panels. (Color on these latest shots is really bad, sorry!) One of the things Ron and I spoke about was trying to make sure that we left access to the monitor controls. On the real A320 there is a "Shelf" unit just below the PFD/ND display. We will make a "Dummy" version of one to cover the lower section of the monitor. We are also talking about adding a keyboard below the PFD/ND on the FO side for Squawkbox (On Line ATC) as well as running our software prior to EPIC.

Ron and Steve spent the afternoon working on the flightdeck. Ron focused on the monitor shelves and has them in place and ready to go. He used 3/4" thick plywood. This is a key are to watch as monitors really do weigh alot. Soon we will all be looking at LCD Flat Panel monitors I am sure. 15" versions have dropped in price and 17"s will follow. That will help so much.

This is a shot of the sidestick after Steve cut the Sidestick Top section. Feels great in place. Don't mind the blue color, Steve is painting the Sidestick and Pedestal sections shortly.

Forward looking shot shoiwng the sidestick in place as well as the angled Monitor shelf. With our current setup we should be able to add a fake shelf unit and not see anything out of scale.

Shot of the overhead with Black AML caps in place. These will be engraved soon and available to other builders as well.

 

Allow me to introduce one of the best Sim builders on the planet. Ron Wiens. I have had the good fortune of meeting him last year and we have stayed in touch to the point that we are now working on several Sim Building related projects. Ron is truly a great "Thinker" and brings so much well thought out discussion into this project. I am looking forward to seeing the results of some of our work together. More on that soon!

 

Ron wanted a shot of the way we were laying out the Overhead framing and this one captured it quite well. As you can see I am making plans for the complete Circuit Breaker section aft of the Main Overhead Section. For those of you builders wanting the ultimate in realism keep an eye on the page and I will show that section soon. The woodworking above is courtesy of Ron E. Serious handiwork from Ron, thank you!

I get numerous emailers from builders saying: "Light them up!" So I did. Ron and I were checking out the setup and I threw some light behind two of the panels. You'll have to picture it with Switches in there as well. These are all painted panels as well. No problem there. Steve and I are adding green sections in next and that wil look great once done. All of the NOVA panels will light up this way with the plexi backing panels in place.

Close up shot of a B777 Glare piece. Not painted on the reverse yet. This is from the sample I did up last week. Production starts on B777 Nova kits this coming week. More pics to follow. The entire Glare section of the B777 NOVA series is set for MIYAMA and AML type switches. We recently found a supplier for both types. We are also going to be showing our Engraved Caps on the page in a week or so. I have to do my set up and several other builders wanted Caps for there Sims. Honeywell Caps with engraving done will run a few dollars each. They take time to do so if you need them please give me some lead time. Our advice right now is to use "Caps" in place of real AML switches. If there is no functionality attached to a specific switch then simply place a properly engraved cap in its place. This will look correct and later can have a real AML switch added in.