Delta Virtual Airlines Water Cooler - "Freestyle" design full scale flight deck for multiple airframes & aircraft

Delta Virtual Airlines Water Cooler | Cockpit Builders | "Freestyle" design full scale flight deck for multiple airframes & aircraft

DVA4788
Chief Pilot, L-1011-100
OLP

Joined on August 02 2007
50 State Club
Everett Century Club
Online Double Century Club
Quatercentenary Club
DVA Fifteen-Year Anniversary

"Fly it like a Samsonite Gorilla!!"
Wichita, KS

471 legs, 884.0 hours
220 legs, 398.1 hours online
459 legs, 859.5 hours ACARS
2 legs, 5.2 hours event

Posted onPost created on August 06 2018 14:22 ET by Jon Michael Prenovost

Here is my rig I've been working on for the past 18+ months now. I still have quite a long way to go in finishing it, but the dream is slowly becoming reality. I'm on vacation at the moment working on it it right now, trying to get the seats & yokes installed, more photos coming soon.

Jon Michael Prenovost (DVA4788)

DVA10323
Chief Pilot, B727-200
OLP

Joined on November 26 2011
50 State Club
Globetrotter
Tin Dispatcher
Tri-Jet Triumph
US Capital Club
Online Seven Century Club
US Mountaineer Club
DVA Ten-Year Anniversary
Flying Colonel
Everett Millennium Club

"GPS, we don't need no GPS"
Gulfport, MS

1,598 legs, 1,463.1 hours
742 legs, 686.0 hours online
1,590 legs, 1,455.6 hours ACARS
41 legs, 58.7 hours event
327 legs dispatched, 343.5 hours

Posted onPost created on August 07 2018 08:11 ET by Kevin Lundy

Wow, very impressive!

Kevin Lundy

Chief Pilot, B727-200

DVA11021
Captain, B757-200
OLP

Joined on September 13 2012
B757 100 Club
Everett 250 Club
Triple Century Club
Online Triple Century Club
DVA Five-Year Anniversary

Milford, NH

375 legs, 620.5 hours
365 legs, 604.5 hours online
374 legs, 618.9 hours ACARS
21 legs, 51.4 hours event

Posted onPost created on August 07 2018 09:01 ET by Sean Zarella

insane ! first time seeing your pit ! nice Job !

Sean Zarella (DVA11021)

DVA2887
Senior Captain, A320
OLP, 737-ATP, VFRADV

Joined on January 30 2006
50 State Club
Globetrotter
Tri-Jet Triumph
US Coastal Club
Millennium Club
DVA Fifteen-Year Anniversary
US Mountaineer Club
Toulouse 250 Club
Online Eight Century

Charlotte, NC

1,287 legs, 1,796.9 hours
841 legs, 1,048.5 hours online
1,269 legs, 1,774.9 hours ACARS
31 legs, 49.6 hours event
3 legs dispatched, 2.5 hours

Posted onPost created on August 07 2018 09:11 ET by Andrew Vane

Very cool. Does the gap between screens in the middle of your view get on your nerves? This is why I never considered dual screens for the front.

Andrew Vane (DVA2887)

Posted onPost created on August 07 2018 20:29 ET by Jon Michael Prenovost

Andrew that is a VERY GOOD QUESTION!! The answer to that is both yes & no... In flight it doesn't bother me at all, however...on the ground it is ANNOYING!! During taxi and especially takeoff or landing, it is really bothersome. The center line will disappear during take off roll, assuming you keep center, and during approach as well, clear up past MM in allot of cases, the runway will disappear for long periods behind it if your established on the ILS. You can change the zoom within the sim obviously, however that is not a true fix to this problem. I wanted to install a single monitor/TV, 4K at that, but the size, weight, and cost of such a unit that size was a serious issue unto itself. Bare in mind I'm running a pair of 40" 1080p Vizio TVs' for the outside visuals, that gives me 73+ inches of windshield across, the two of them only weight about 14 lbs a piece, where as a single 4K TV at that width punches holes through 70+ lbs in most cases depending on design & manufacturer, not withstanding the fact that a single TV of that size will be allot taller than my pair of 40" units. The visuals are out of aspect (so to speak) in the sense that I have more viewing width than I have height, but the images are synced and all the sim platforms do and excellent job keeping that "dual image" in proper viewing aspect. This one question you have asked represents the only major gaff I've had in my design & concept for this rig. I didn't see this coming (no pun intended) when it came to these issues. I may...in the future consider going to a single projector, and redo the front end of the rig to account for this, but until I can find a suitable 1080p projector at a decent price that idea is off the table. Also, just to put things in perspective, I originally planned on going triple 40" TV across the front, and after a bit of research & testing decided against it. It got rid of the "bar" in the middle of the windshield, but then relocated it directly in front of your field of vision as you looked directly ahead, and then repeated itself on the 1st Officer's side as well obviously. I also found that running a triple wide configuration was both hard on your peripheral vision (assuming you mount them in line across the front of the sim, like I had planned to) and it's HARD on your graphics card!! I'm running a GTX-1080Ti with two matched GTX-1060's underneath it. The GTX-1080Ti handles ONLY the outside visuals, the two GTX-1060's handle all of the hardwired monitors within the instrument panel. As it stands right now, running dual monitors I can keep the GTX-1080Ti's temps down around 45-58C under heavy load, even with complex weather, payware aircraft & scenery. Going 3 wide and the temps spike and I can't keep it south of 63-65C at idle!! So running dual works well for the lifespan of the graphics card, but that bar in the middle does bite a bit. And just as a final side note, those two GTX-1060's have 4 monitors each plugged into them, and no matter what they are doing or what I throw at them, idle or under load, they hum along at 48-50C which proved to be a nice surpise in the end...

Jon Michael Prenovost (DVA4788)

Posted onPost created on August 08 2018 08:30 ET by Sean Zarella

Early on in my sim build. I only had 3 displays to work with. used 2 top for external and one bottom for compact mip. In order to mitigate the bezel so i could see center line. I put my sim into windowed mode and shrunk the window width wise from the left which would offset the center the distance it shrank. I used this until new technology allowed me for more displays.

Posted onPost created on August 08 2018 08:48 ET by Andrew Vane

Thanks for the very detailed response. I would probably go to 3 monitor setup. I am coveting a 1060ti card for the future too. it was on my radar before I started planning a 25th anniversary trip with my wife out west which will be the focus of any available money I have for the next 6-7 months. smile

I am always thinking about the future of my cockpit though.

Love the PVC piping. Makes for a decent solid choice for building something around your cockpit. Once I get the 1060 I will start to look at similar sized monitors so I can have one in the middle and one on each side.

A friend told me about some plug-in USB thing that can take multiple monitors but I woudl rather the GPU handle the load, not my CPU.

Andrew Vane (DVA2887)

Posted onPost created on August 08 2018 09:23 ET by Sean Zarella

that usb pug in is the Matrox dual and triple head 2 go. It actually takes off the hit of your GPU and does all the processing for you. It send data to the GPU as one display. not 3. I had the dualhead2go for my bottom displays but after a year the first one stopped working, Ordered a used one and it died about 6 months later. The dualhead2go uses 2 displays with no bezel adjustment the triplehead2go uses 3 displays and has bezel adjustment. the company is called MATROX

Sean Zarella (DVA11021)

Posted onPost created on August 16 2018 06:42 ET by Jon Michael Prenovost

Sean NICE TRICK on the window resizing!! I'm going to put that to use when I'm flying by myself!! Thanks for that!!

I got burned on a Matrox dualhead2go when I didn't realize it DIDN'T have the bezel correction, pretty useless for my purposes without it!! Disappointed to hear you had two of them go "toaster" on you Sean... Matrox is a Canadian company, and they have a very solid reputation, not to mention they have been around for decades!! They darn near "wrote the book" on commercial graphics cards & commercial displays for businesses and corporations. The triplehead2go's have been showing up in sim builds around the world for years, and tend to be the weapon of choice when pumping a triple pack of projectors for outside visuals. So hearing you had two units go down on you is both shocking and disappointing, glad mine didn't make it into the build in the end!!

Andrew a GTX-1060 and above can handle up to 4 monitors on their own, which is why I went the direction I did in the end with my GTX-1080Ti handling the outside visuals. I have to say though, a GTX-1060 with even three monitors, even at 1080p each, is going to warm up the card quite quickly, and keep it stoked up, especially with complex weather, just something to keep in mind.

Jon Michael Prenovost (DVA4788)

Posted onPost created on August 16 2018 09:06 ET by Andrew Vane

Thanks for the responses. I will have to plan to crank up my AC.

Andrew Vane (DVA2887)

DVA12504
Captain, A330-300
OLP

Joined on November 30 2014
50 State Club
US Mountaineer Club
US Coastal Club
Toulouse 250 Club
DVA Ten-Year Anniversary
Online Six Century Club
Millennium Club
Globetrotter

Montréal, QC Canada

1,128 legs, 2,554.8 hours
676 legs, 1,552.9 hours online
1,125 legs, 2,547.5 hours ACARS
22 legs, 46.5 hours event

Posted onPost created on September 22 2018 17:22 ET by Miguel Torres

Very nice...

Miguel Torres (DVA12504)

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