Simulator

For those that have an interest, I have put together these few pages of pictures to help show the ever changing process of building this helicopter simulator. The Bell 206BII JetRanger flight deck was salvaged from a roll over accident that had caused some damage to the helicopter's front left side. All of the original flight controls, gauges, instrument panel, doors, seats, and windscreens had already been removed before I acquired the front section of the JetRanger helicopter. The floor pan had also been removed, so 3/4" plywood was used for the base and floor, and to stiffen the flight deck at the back. I fabricated a few aluminum panels for the inner and outer bottom door sills and repaired the left side damage somewhat with fiberglass cloth and resin.

The flight deck is now sitting on an experimental motion platform. This platform base will allow movement in three directions (pitch, roll, and yaw) and will take it's direction from the attitude of the computer generated aircraft in FSX. For now, the scenery is displayed on a 47" HDTV. I want to have the scenery display moving with the flight deck once the motion platform is completed. Eventually the plan is to enclose the TV (or multiple monitors) to the flight deck, and with the doors on the simulator you won't be able to see out.

A lot of time has past since this webpage was first started and I have continued to refine the flight controls and computer related components. The simulator is used for testing new flight simulator software and hardware, and as a result, I've been able to incorporate my dual-control flight controllers as you will see in the photos below. It's a big step toward the realization of a full fledged Bell 206 training simulator. These days most of my "simulator time" has gone into building flight controls for other simulator builders, which has left little time for my own. Below is a breakdown and description of some of the components that make up the simulator, beginning with the flight controls. Hopefully some of this will be of some use to someone just starting out and looking for ideas.

The main collective incorporates a twist grip throttle and a spring loaded mechanical idle release button. The throttle grip has a detent position that interacts with the idle release button for realistic simulated Bell 206 startup and shutdown procedures. Accurate turbine engine starts are made possible in FSX with the Dodosim 206 FSX software add-on from Dodosim Flight Simulations. The collective switch head has working starter, governor RPM, and landing light switches. The Dodosim 206 FSX, along with FSUIPC4, allows for the dual landing light switch to operate the dual landing lights correctly.

The secondary collective lever with throttle grip is connected to the main collective with a 1 1/4" O.D. Aluminum tube and a 5/16" plated steel rod with adjustable spherical rod ends for the throttle linkage.

The two cyclic sticks are connected by a 1 5/16" O.D. aluminum tube on the pitch axis and a 3/8" plated steel connecting rod with spherical rod ends for the roll axis.

The cyclic base is fabricated from 6061-T6 aluminum and is secured to the floor under the seat enclosure. The base incorporates ball bearings on each axis for strength and smoothness. This controller is now using two Honeywell SS495A1 Hall effect sensors for axis control. The two Hall effect sensors and the two switches on each cyclic grip are wired to a Plasma-Lite V2 USB controller.

See this page for more info on Hall effect sensors

This cyclic controller is a "weight-balanced system", there are no springs used for a centering effect, which means the controller grips will stay where you put them. The picture above shows the adjustable sliding counterweight.

More information on single and dual control cyclic controllers can be found here.

The pedal sets shown here are made from 6061-T6 aluminum. With this design, I've tried to incorporate a heavy duty pedal set which keeps the "helicopter type" pedal action, and also protect the moving parts and electronics. Inside the pedal housing a cog belt drive system for the potentiometer utilizes about 350 degrees of rotation out of the total 360 degrees available, which makes for very smooth and deliberate tail rotor control. The two pedal sets are connected together with a 5/16" plated steel rod with spherical rod ends.

The Bell 206 instrument panel is simple and compact which makes it easy to display all of the gauges from a single 20" LCD monitor.

The panel overlay allows the computer generated gauges and instruments from the 20" LCD monitor (4:3 aspect ratio) to show through.

The black gauge face rings are sections of 2" I.D. and 3" I.D. ABS plastic pipe turned on a lathe and glued to the panel with a two-part epoxy. Push button momentary switches have been installed for the TOT light test and warning horn mute. The push button switches are mounted in contoured aluminum rings that have been turned on the lathe to accommodate the length of the switch. These switches are important functioning switches used in the "by the book" startup and shutdown procedures for a 206 helicopter. The panel has working rotational knobs for the Reality XP altimeter, attitude indicator, and directional gyro instruments. The rotary switches are from GoFlight and are wired to a GoFlight remote RP48 USB interface. A red safety latched toggle switch is used to control the main fuel valve

The instrument panel overlay is made from 1/8" thick Masonite and the connecting wires to the switches are strands of ribbon cable that have been hot glued to the back of the board to keep them in place. The rotary and button switches are recessed and "flush" with the surface on the back of the board. The monitor's LCD screen was stripped of all plastic parts, (stand, back, and front bezel) so that the panel overlay would fit as close as possible. Essentially the depth of the wire is the space between the panel and the monitor, about 1/16 of an inch. Although not shown in this photo, 1/16" thick self adhesive foam pads were placed on the back of the overlay panel near the push buttons in order to provide more cushioning and protect the LCD screen.

The JetRanger type annunciator warning panel has 20 caution lights and a momentary push button switch to test the lights.

More information on the construction of the annunciator panel can be found here.

7" LCD GPS screen, GPS Switch Panel (GoFlight RP48), GoFlight Push Buttons (GF-P8), GoFlight Radios (GF-166)

This GPS screen is actually a portable 7" DVD player that has a "video in" jack feature. The GPS LCD screen is connected to a second video adapter in the sims computer and displays the FSX GPS gauge panel. The GPS functions are controlled with the GoFlight RP48 push buttons and rotary switches that are just below the screen.

Center console mounted switches for hydraulics, anti-icing, and caution light brightness control.

All of the switches needed for startup and flight of the 206 helicopter are operational and function like the real thing. In this case, the circuit breakers will not actually trip (as there is not enough current in the line), but they do act as standard "on-off" switches. For example, the overhead hydraulic circuit breaker is "in line" with the main hydraulic switch, so pulling this breaker gives the same results as flipping the hydraulic switch to the "off" position. This is made possible in FSX by using the Dodosim 206 FSX helicopter software, and FSUIPC4. Having a breaker "in line" with a circuit will let you do proper emergency procedures for a system failure of that circuit, an important feature for real world helicopter training.

This Plasma-Lite V2 and Ace-4X expansion card handles all of the overhead switch and circuit breaker inputs.

The two David Clark H10-13H helicopter headsets are linked to a Flight Sound X-H helicopter USB sound adapter.

Keyboard and Input Devices

Although it is not specifically needed for flight operations, from time to time a keyboard is necessary to make changes to the computer. Finding a spot in such a confined space is challenging. I solved my problem with a hinged drop down shelf with the keyboard attached.

The shelf is mounted to the center column between the seats. When not needed, it just folds up and out of the way.

To the right of the main instrument panel is a shelf for the mouse which is only needed for making changes to Windows XP and the FSX configuration. To the right of the mouse pad is a ten button USB controller used to toggle panel windows, pause the flight, reset a flight, zoom in or out, and change views. In front of the button pad is a stand alone hat switch for panning of individual views.

This is the partly completed experimental motion base that now resides under the simulator.

With the motion platform installed, the simulator is now sitting at about the height of the "high skid" equipped JetRanger.

More details and pictures on the building of the motion control base can be found here.

The real Bell 206 right side door (shown on the right) was salvaged from another wrecked 206. The door was damaged and had to be repaired and painted to match the existing paint. A 1/8" white Masonite panel was used to replace the broken window.

Due to the curves involved, the left side door was fabricated with a piece of 1/8" hard Masonite, bent and glued to oak hardwood strips. A homemade sliding door latch and fabricated Bell type hinges keeps the door in place.

The doors are easy to put on and take off by removing the two hinge pins.

Instructor Station

Portable instructor station is networked to the main flight computer and can be used to remotely setup aircraft to a specific region or airport, control weather environment, execute timed system failures, as well as input " instant failures" for emergency training procedures.

The simulator has all the functioning real buttons and switches needed for a realistic 206 turbine engine start and warm-up, complete with realistic associated sounds, accurate flight characteristics, and shutdown procedures. The simulator can now be used effectively for Bell 206 turbine transition training, as well as general familiarization with helicopter flight and procedures. For the most part this has been made possible by the DodoSim 206 FSX helicopter simulator software from Dodosim Flight Simulation. (www.dodosim.com)