Simfest 2001

My SIM experts came to town again! Another week of OUTSTANDING fun and progress! These guys are amazing. Ted Deller and Matt Ford were the first to arrive. Matt was here for only a few days, but helped get the instrument panel building started, a push I really needed to begin an overwhelming process. Ted dismantled all 470+ circuit breakers, then proceeded to strip and paint all the CB panels! It was messy work, but he sure did a great job! He then spent several hours programming my LED sign so that it will display flight status when the sim is running. His special touches sure spruce up things! Ted was here for the entire week. He helped with many other tasks too, such as sanding and priming the radome, installing insulation, installing the ventilation blower and duct work, and more programming. But his most monumental contribution was the BRILLIANT idea of constructing my instrument panels to FOLD DOWN! Superb!

Matt Wietlispach arrived Thursday night late. Then, like a whirlwind, Friday he began blazing through the process of wiring the complete cockpit main bus infrastructure! In three days he succeeded at completing ninety percent of the entire electrical system! This man is amazing. Immaculate work at lightning speed. Five power supplies, three main busses with 5v, 12v, and 28v DC (Sw BAT, GEN 1, GEN 2), Korry light test circuit, LCD monitor power circuit, all the dome lighting, chart lights, complete main control box with circuit breakers and emergency power shutoff, remote GEN bus switching, remote SW Bat switching, and many other misc circuits. Matt has made this retired cockpit come alive again!

Below are a few pictures of the fun. I want to publicly thank Ted Deller, Matt Ford, and Matt Wietlispach for another amazing leap forward in my pursuit of realism...

Ted programming the LED sign: