Meet Tiger or Tiger meet?

[tiger]

Hello,

I guess its about time to introduce me here. It took me about three weeks to get an idea aboput this forum and all the knowledge buried in there. I am sure I just barely scrached the surface. Now, the good thing is, that I did not find anything that made mit abandon my plans  Bad thing, the plans got bigger now

Well, but lets start at the beginning. My name is hans and I live in Germany. I am literally fond of the F16 since school days. Back in the 1980's I started an F16 Radio control aircraft. I got really excited and even bought quite a few books on it. Sadly the thing never flew, though. Its unfinished balsa fuselage is sittings in my parents cellar and waiting for my retirement . From that the F-16 has been my favourite aircraft ever since. In the mean time I have gathered a bit of simulation and training background being an electrical engineer. Some time ago I even had the chance to fly a few F16 military tactical sims for a few minutes . 
Then, by chance I came across a few F16 Sim Parts. The time seemed to be right, so I decided to buy the lot and start the build of my own pit. So I started data mining and came across this site. From that the learning curve has been so much steeper. A big thanks already for the hundreds of hours this site is saving a newbie getting into the topic. 

In the last weeks I have collected quite a bit of stuff already. Now I have a wooden shell with some plastic outer lining, a Ribbs Stick, hotas throttle, a few panels and simped pedals. There is a collection of non backlighted panels plates and a few loose switches and gauges. I have no Aces, for the time being I found that a B737 pilot seat just fits fine... Its a bit weird but quite comfortable.  The highlight, however is: the original canopy. I guess thats the thing that really made the decision to start the project. It does not have a frame and the pit it not yet ready for it (sorry, my browser refused to upload the imgage). The whole area behind the seat is still missing yet. Also the dimensions for Panel and Glare shield are not Ok, so I have no valid reference for the canopy yet.

All the great pits in the forum inspired me to use real parts wherever I have the opportunity to get some and chance to affort them. I target for quality and attention to detail rather than the quick success. Its a bit like model railway: the way is the goal (does that make sense? - its a saying we have in Germany). I spent already quite a few hours in various corners of the forum and there is hardly any issue that has not been covered. Probably the only reason for me to actually start posting nagging dumb questions is that quite a bit of data seems to be lost in older posts. Extremly grateful I am for the new community plan project. I did not apply for Killins plans after reading the more recent thread history.

One of my major headaches at this time is to find out wether or not the stuff I already have is really ok. Currently my wooden frame does not match the measurements I found for the cockpit trainers, so that will be the first challenge to meet. Other than I am already looking for real aircraft parts in Europe. I already look forward to get access to the classifieds bids section, I had seen already some cool items. 

I am looking forward to a long (maybe a very long) but very interesting project and many inspiring discussions in the forum! Hopefully there will be also something valueable I would be able to bring back into the community. One of the cool things I saw was the idea to run the pit not with falcon, but with Xplane. Since I know my way around in Xplane a little I guess I will be taking a closer look into that.

Regards,
tiger

[sagrzmnky]

Welcome to the nut house. 

[JJ]

Welcome Tiger,, looking forward to the pics...

[Kukki]

Wellcome to the nuthouse Tiger, Look around and get inspired, this there is the best Viper place on the earth.

Wellcome mate

[Snowman]

Welcome tiger!

[AiRdAncE]

Welcome Tiger,

Hope you'll be able to post some pictures soon. We're all excited to see new pits even if they are just starting out!

[tiger]

just trying to upload a pic....

[Kukki]

wow man, you are starting hard with a canopy, hehe cool man. 

[AiRdAncE]

wow man, you are starting hard with a canopy, hehe cool man. 

That's awesome. I wonder how much a canopy distorts the image of the displays, whether any prism effect occurs...?

[tiger]

Hey, that did work! Weird, because I did not see the file in the post preview....

Anyway. thats more or less my starting point. You can see the view from behind the frame. There is a MFD pedestal with about the right sizes. The hull is too deep and too wide, and the glars is bit too high. I have a piece of glass for the HUD as well, but I could not fit it in the hull yet. This is a rare view now, since I just can't move around the canopy alone, so it sits and waits for the base to be ready for the canopy frame work.
Beautiful view though, I might be hanging it up on the wall for motivation

Thanks for the nice welcome!


@Kukki. I was always kind of very late. But when start doing things, doing them right ..

Tiger

[tiger]

That's awesome. I wonder how much a canopy distorts the image of the displays, whether any prism effect occurs...?

I am looking forward to see that as well. However, spacewise I will not be able to put a dome around it for viusual (like kimmel did) :-(-. Likely there will not be much in the main view direction, why should it be different that for the real guys, we are also looking out in the the real world - ok, its a small one with just a screen ahead, but still.

[tiger-31]

wow man, you are starting hard with a canopy, hehe cool man. 

Kukki, all tigers have a canopy .   I have one as well, just lightyears away of putting it on the pit...

By the way welcome Tiger.

 

[Kukki]

hehe cool, I like one too, but that must wait till I can get a clear replica and a replica canopyframe 

[tiger]

By the way welcome Tiger.

Thanks,
Looks like I should have been Tiger-32? :-D

[tiger-31]

By the way welcome Tiger.

Thanks,
Looks like I should have been Tiger-32? :-D

Or tiger-31/b