www.strandedduckling.com

My A-10A Thunderbolt II “Warthog” cockpit flightsimulator building site

Ongoing tasks:

Hi there and thanks for your visit

This site is about my looooong time project of pit building and flightsim. The target is a A-10A Thunderbolt II (or a “Warthog”) cockpit.

The pit is planned to be a look-alike of the real thing with a “few” deviation, both in apperance and functionality to integrate with the sim software. Main goal is compability with Lock-On (Eagle Dynamics) and MS Flighsim (2004 due to avalible add-on for the Hog). A you will see, there are several deviations from the real stuff due to software, cash and mostly my abilities.

One major issue is how to get track of information about the Hog and its systems. My design is based on what I can access in form of documentation and with best effort creating the rest. There bound to be errors here and IF you can contribute with info (without stepping over the legal red line), I’ll be very greatful. You’ll find a page “Quiz Wiz” with the major current bullets.

Information found here is (as far as I know) avalible in non-classified form. All “artwork” me by me are free to use in any private, non-profit and non-business situations. Acquire my permission BEFORE using them for other reasons. See Contact-page

- This site is maintained with only best effort, good grammar and spelling are such (best) effort, you might find some bloops here and there but please ignore that. If you find some info that truly is wrong or shouldn’t be here at all, drop me a note with an explanation and I’ll do my best to correct the error. (see “contact”-page)

Activities:

2011-08-07:CMSP - Counter Measure Set Control Quad. A “few” things could be better but it works though :-)

2011-03-31: ‘Modified’ TM warthog throttle to frame and drilled leftside frame to fasten the Quads

2011-03-20: added some pics of A-10A instrument panel dimensions

2011-02-03: Warning Quad finally ready.

2010-12-17: Added a few pics of Comm panel and update of Base,Light pan.

2010-12-01: Added a few pics of interior of real ILS quad

2010-10-30: RL impact on building severe but here is my version of the AAP quad. Auxilary Avionics Panel.

2010-08-29: Right side panels starting to come together. EW (still white) at the bottom waits for a VFD before assembled

2010-08-01: Working on several of right side quads (EGI,TACAN,ILS,EMWU,COMP and Warning panels) and PCBs for these. Not much to show yet. Have been joggling the idea of switching over to the C model due to upcoming SIM from DCS, Either stay with current setup and add a “free” leftside MFD or remake the inst panel again :-/ 

2010-06-19: Finally, after years of waiting, I got a room dedicated for the Pit. Couldn’t resist putting some of the pieces together even if nothing is interconnected yet. Still a long road ahead :-)

2010-04-08: SAS Quad and its Solenoid held (in one pos) toggle switches hocked up to IOCard and tested.

2010-04-01: Once again stumbled into much of real life. IFF panel finished. At least until fully tested :-)

2010-03-18: Added pic of real ILS and OXY panel to QuadRef page.

2010-02-23: Verif of the Quads against leftpanel frame, Throttle quad and top leftmost missing

2010-02-14: Update TACAN QuadRef with some new pics of the real panel

2010-02-06. Panel making tutorial added, Download tutorial.pdf file

2010-01-30. “Tape” quad. CTVS/AVTR head made.

2010-01-22. Eagle CAD file and pic for UHF Quad added under QuadRef section

2010-01-20. COMM2 panel “ready”, connected to COMM1 and tested

2010-01-08. INFO For you who download the panels I made from “QuadRef”. Notice that the printout may differ from “true” size when printed. Orginal size of baseplate width of are 5” 3/4 (or 146.05 mm) You may need to adjust for that. There are some other considerations also, check QuadRef heaf for more info.

2010-01-04: UHF Quad, ARC-164. Not the most beautiful work but it will do :-)

2009-12-26: Finally :-) Got the COMM panel interfaced and tested.Pin numbering is a hell when mirrored ROFL . Added some more pics to the COMM panels Quad ref. Merry Christmas to all of you out there

2009-11-03: COMM panel, I/F boards and knobs missing still. Semitransparent film over 7segm digits also await I/F boards.

2009-10-27: ThrustMasters MFD arrived. Fits like a glove. See Instrument panel pics...

2009-10-22: Instrument panel and some others back from cutter finally. Need some polishing before presentable. Added some pics of the EngineInstrument panel under that subsection.

2009-09-16: Been while since last update. Front instrument panel reworked and sent to cutter. PCB made to leftside qauds 7 Segm displays.

2009-06-14: FUEL Quad for leftside inner panel

2009-06-05: KY58 ready (beside the knobs and interface boards :-) Working on COMM panels. .Started on the Fuel panel

2009-05-10: Intercom, Stall, Antenna, LASTE, and TV panel made. Leftmost row of quadrant panelheads (allmost) ready. Knobs, I/O cards etc still missing.

2009-05-07. Emergency Flight Quadrant. Missing Hatswitch

2009-05-05. AUX LGT Quad made. Still remain to be cut to fit lower angle of left side frame (that will take some time before started :-)

2009-04-27. SAS Quad made. Missing PCB

2009-04-25. Baseplates painted, some of lightpanels cut. 

2009-04-01. Just fetched a batch of sidepanel baseplates from lasercut

2009-03-31. Added pic of prototype layout of weapon panel.

2009-03-29. Prototype layout for frontpanel instrument gauges panel. To be Air-core based.

2009-03-14. Removed some reference pics that shouldn’t have been there. Sorry for that.

Sent most of side panelheads to be cut. Rework on front panel ongoing. Work on a air-core based engine instrument panel begun

2009-02-07. Caution/warning quad update. Reworking front instrument panel ongoing.

2009-02-04. Front instrument panel checked versus real gauges etc and found “not” perfect”. Start adjusting measurements to fit real world. Added pics from the check (before changes).

2009-01-26. Added CDU panel info.

2009-01-24. Added this frame and updated the link-page

2009-01-23: Added more of right side panel graphics

2009-01-21: Added leftside panel graphics