If there’s one thing, I’m good at it is postponing and delaying projects. In an attempt to avoid this for the next year I’ve made a plan for 2023 and I’m absolutely sure that by the end of the first month the pain will be obsolete because I’m delayed once again. Anyway this is what I am planning to do in 2023.

The plan is both a list of what to do, but also a list of what not to do at this point. I got many projects that I can start on, so the list and plan will hopefully be a help to finish one project before commencing on the next one

January + February

January and February is going to be about the main instrument panel. A project I thought would be just a quick rewiring of the MIP now is a complete rebuild that is taking for ever. I had a deadline at New Year and I didn’t meet that deadline so now I have set a new deadline for the end of February. Hopefully by then the Main Instrument Panel will be finished.

March

I bought a yoke last week from Agronn. It is metal cast and has a tremendous feel to it.

Of course I want to mounted as fast as possible, but I have to stick to the plan and finish my MIP panel before beginning a new project.

It is only the yoke, so I need to make a column. And then mount both yoke and column in the cockpit. It will be a “light”Quick and dirty” project – which means I just need to get make it work. Nothing fancy.

I’ve got the dual linked yokes on the plan for the autumn. That is why this first attempt just is Quick’n’dirty.

April

April is fire panel. I have three OEM fire handles laying around and have had them laying around for a long time. Now it is about time to get them installed in the cockpit. It requires a metal bracket because the force is used when pulling and turning the handles will break plastic at one point.

Interfacing is fairly easy. I have bought a 24 V power supply and with a few relays and I’m good to go.

May + June

May and June is the overhead. I bought a SimWorld overhead about a year ago and there are a few things that I want to upgrade and a few things that is missing.

I want to change the gages from servos to stepper motors and need to design housing with micro switches. The micro switches calibrates the gauge every time it reaches zero. With out this there is a risk of the gauge / values drifting over time.

I also need 7-segment displays in the overhead. At this point there are none. For that I plan to get PCBs from SimBay. They have PCBs for 7-segment displays and Arduino setup that fits the different parts of the Overhead (Elev display, IRS and altitude). That should save me many hours of wiring and mounting.

Furthermore, the engine panel in the AFT overhead needs re-built. It lacks the annunciators so I have to make them somehow.

July

July in summer time for cool drinks in the garden, and who knows, perhaps a bit of woodwork with some side walls. They are rather old at this point and due for an upgrade.

August + September

August is half a year away. At this point I plan to take a look at the dual linked yokes from 737diysim. That’s gonna take a long time in 3-D printing and building, but hopefully by the end of September, I will have a structure ready.

October

In order to get the yoke into the cockpit, I need to remove the back walls. The current walls are okay. But I would like to make them as a separate part of the cockpit so they can be detached from the cockpit if necessary. Further more they need to go at this point because I need to get the yoke structure into the cockpit.

November + December

Find November I hope I’m able to interface the yokes in the cockpit. And then it’s time to tighten up all the loose ends from this year. Who knows by the end of this year, they might be new projects in the pipeline that allows me to postpone and delay my current plans.

Other ideas

I have also considered the following project that could delay everything else:

• MSFS.
  I am on an old version of Prepar3D. If it aint broken – don’t fix it. But MSFS just looks sooooo gooooood!
  There are two problems with this plan.
  The first one is new hardware. If I change to MSFS I need to upgrade some of my hardware as well. However the software I used for warping the curved screen image is hardware locked. A change in hardware means a new license for the warping software. So what seems like a small change in software requires a lot of extra work and money spent
  Second problem is Prosim737 that doesn’t work flawless with MSFS yet. I know ProSim is working on this. But MSFS is still in development so for Prosim it is like among at a moving target.
• New visuals – 3x 75″ TVs
  At this point, I have three projectors at a 180° curve screen. It is a nice set up but to be honest the detail the level of detail is that great I’m having problems reading taxi signs. If I am able to fint 75 inch TVs at a good offer I might buy 3 and use them instead of the projectors. The 75″ TVs are wider than the Main Instrument Panel it self so they should be suitable.
  Getting TVs also eliminate the problem mentioned above with warping software.
• Throttle
  If at some point a used throttle comes up for sale at a reasonable price I might buy it. Current throttle is home build. It works. But lacks the looks.