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 a home based helicopter simulator. The Bell 206B JetRanger cockpit was salvaged from an accident that had caused some damage to the helicopter's front left side. All the flight controls, gauges, instrument panel, doors, seats, and windscreens had already been removed before I acquired the cockpit. The floor pan had also been removed, so 3/4" plywood was used for the base and floor, and to stiffen the cockpit 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.

A lot of time has past since this site was first started and I have continued to "refine" the flight controls and computer related components. The simulator is also used for testing new flightsim software and hardware, and as a result, I have been able to incorporate some of the prototypes of my new flight controls as you will see in the photos below. With the release of the DodoSim 206 FSX the simulator has been updated to reflect the new capabilities of this new software. The simulator is now sitting on an experimental motion platform that I hope to complete in the near future as time allows.

These days most of my simulator time has gone into building controls for other simulator builders, which leaves little time for my own. Some of the things in the works for this simulator include a new main instrument panel overlay with rotary knobs for the altimeter and nav instruments, and push button switches located in their proper position on the panel. The center windscreen divider has been removed to allow for a new wide screen scenery visual system which will be totally enclosed to the cockpit. The idea is to block out the local surroundings and allow the scenery display to move with the cockpit, now that it is mounted on the motion platform.

This collective was the first "all aluminum" prototype for the collectives that I have been making for other simulator builders.

I'm still using my original collective base which uses plastic gears to increase potentiometer arc travel. This base is simply a couple of 3/16" thick angle iron pieces and a 1/2" bolt, with a little welding thrown in. The gears are "recycled" from an old printer. The potentiometer is mounted to a swing arm and the spring keeps the gears meshed without any noticeable backlash. The black knob is used for the collective friction adjustment.

This used real Bell 206 cyclic grip and stick from another 206 helicopter was "recycled" into this project.

The cyclic controller is fabricated from 6061-T6 aluminum and is secured to the floor under the seat base.

This cyclic controller uses two precision potentiometers for pitch and roll axis control. The potentiometers are driven with a small timing pulley, 1/4" wide cog type timing belt, and a 4" aluminum drive disc. By using the belt and pulley setup the relatively short throw of the cyclic control stick is converted to significantly more arc travel of the potentiometer, resulting in a smoother and more sensitive controller with no backlash. The potentiometers and the two cyclic grip switches are wired directly to a Plasma-Lite V2 USB controller interface to the computer.

This cyclic controller is a "weight-balanced system", there are no springs used for a centering effect, which means the controller grip will stay where you put it. There is a friction brake that can be used for standard 206 checklist procedures. It can be set for no friction or completely lock the controller by turning the black knob just in front of the seat base. A little friction also helps give the control a slight resistance as if the stick was hooked to actual control rod linkages.

The pedals shown here are made from 6061-T6 aluminum and were the first "self-contained" (potentiometer and drive) prototype. 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. More information and details on the latest pedals can be found here.

The standard Bell 206B instrument panels are simple and compact. This makes it easy to display on a single LCD monitor.

Some of the buttons and switches on a real JetRanger used for startup and flight are located on the main instrument panel. Since I am using a LCD monitor for my gauges and instrument panel, and not a real panel, I tried to position the main fuel valve switch, warning horn mute button, caution light test button, and TOT light test button to locations near their original respective locations on a real panel. (The real buttons and switches located above and below the LCD main instrument panel)

These are working switches, wired to a Plasma-Lite controller, and are important functioning switches used in the "by the book" startup and shutdown procedures for a 206 helicopter.

It's possible to change from the general flight panel (above) to this IFR panel (below) with the touch of a single button.

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

This working GPS LCD screen is from a portable 7" DVD player with a "video in" jack feature. The GPS screen is connected to a second video adaptor 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.

This is made possible by using the Dodosim 206 FSX helicopter software, and a registered copy of FSUIPC4.

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

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

With the motion platform installed the cockpit 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 "recycled" computer power supply in the above photo (upper left) runs two 12 volt vibrating motors. Imitated vibration really adds to the "realism factor". One small electric motor (mounted to, and under the seat) starts when fuel is introduced and ignited, this is triggered by the throttle twist grip detent position and a microswitch in the collective switch head. Another slightly larger vibrating motor on the cockpit roof starts when you raise the collective to induce pitch, and this one is triggered by another microswitch at the base of the collective. You can just see the white push button in the center of the left hole, in the front of the seat base, which controls that power supply. There are times when I'm testing new software or controls, when I do not need or want the vibration, hence the override switch.

The next three photos show the "new" doors that have been fitted. The doors are used when operating the simulator with a projector and screen. Blocking out the side windows helps keep the operator focussed forward on the screen, which helps with the total immersion of operating and "flying" the aircraft. The doors are easy to put on and take off by removing the two hinge pins.

The real Bell 206 right side door (shown on the right in the two photos) was salvaged from another wrecked 206. The door was damaged and had to be repaired and painted to match the cockpit. 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 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.

All of my "homemade" controls (cyclic, pedals, and collective) were mounted at a desk until the cockpit came along. Since I've acquired the JetRanger cockpit, the simulator now has all the functioning real buttons and switches needed for a realistic 206 turbine engine start and warmup, complete with realistic associated sounds, accurate flight characteristics, and shutdown procedures. The simulator can now be used effectively for 206 turbine transition training and IFR flight training as well as general familiarization with helicopter flight and procedures. For the most part this has been made possible by the advanced 206 helicopter simulator software from Dodosim Flight Simulation. (www.dodosim.com)