I am new to this forum, so let me introduce myself.   I am a retired C-130 pilot, with 30 years combined active and Reserve, and a little over 6,000 hrs, a rather nominal amount among my peers.

I have been retired since 2004, and have started a volunteer gig at The National Museum of World War II Aviation in Colorado Springs.  One of my duties there is to provide “flight instruction” to patrons of the museum, and in particular to youngsters.  The vehicle for this is a retired Navy N3N open cockpit biplane primary pilot trainer that has had all the external covering removed so as to reveal the inner workings of the flight controls, which are still operational.

In 2017 a team of engineering students from University of Colorado, Colorado Springs took on a project to attach sensors to the flight controls as well as the throttle and mixture controls.  The control movements were then fed into an Arduino board which in turn feeds our Prepar3D program.  The results are displayed on a large monitor mounted in front of the cockpit. The student pilot sits in the cockpit and “flies” a real airplane.

The result is a remarkable experience, one that is enjoyed by the kids as well as adults and is the highlight of many folk’s visit to the museum. I get kicks out of flying it myself at quiet times.

The engineering students provided a binder of information about how they went about putting this all together, but was somewhat lacking in details of some aspects of how they did things in P3D.  I did some searching in the forum to see if I could dig up some old threads, but came up empty.

So, have I come to the right place for this?  Thank you in advance for your thoughts.

reb

I keep telling myself I should get over there and see that museum.  I've been down to the Weisbrod museum in Pueblo a few times.

I'm a retired C-141/C-20/C-37 pilot myself, fairly well-versed in both the software and hardware end of things as a result of 25+ years simming and 40+ years as a ham radio electronics geek.

And...I'm local.

Send me a PM.

Cheers

 

Hello Reb

Welcome to the forums.

I’m sure Bob and many guys here will chime in and help.

Sooner or later I will visit that Museum.

 

Edited February 8, 20206 yr by RamonB

Sounds like you're in the right place to me judging by Bob's reply.

I bet you get tired of telling people that N3N is not a Stearman! 😄

Fond memories of a diner in Colorado Springs in a KC-97 transformed into a restaurant, near the airport. But, darn it, I missed the museum !

Sounds like a fantastic simulator!

There's a home cockpit builders forum here at Avsim that may be of assistance?

The Air Force Museum in Dayton Ohio has recently started a program like yours. The Experimental Aircraft association has started one also. You might want to contact these two outfits to compare notes.

I had the reply notification checked, but didn't get any, so checked in just now.  Thank you all for the replies.

 

Yeah, I tell them it used to be yellow, but it's not a Steerman and point to the large poster on the wall. 

 

The Airplane Restaurant is just down the road from the museum.

 

I used to be stationed at Wright-Patterson AFB and have been to that museum dozens of times.  I have actually flown the C-130 on display there when it was flying with the test wing at WPAFB.  I belonged to EAA many years ago when I had the ambition to build a BD-5 kit. Luckily, I never got all the parts.  I would have killed myself in it.

 

I've lately been assisting the A&P mechanic with his work on maintaining these gems.    So I guess I also went from breaking them to (helping) fixing them. 

 

You can visit their web site by Googling WWII Aviation Museum.  Not sure if rules all me including the link.

 

https://www.worldwariiaviation.org/     link added by vgbaron

 

PM coming to W6KD

Edited February 10, 20206 yr by vgbaron
add link to museum

I would love an opportunity to assist.  Pm me.