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[Mission_bug]

Hello guys, I know it has been a while but just a quick update.

This thing has given me no end of troubles, whatever I tried it seemed I could not get the main flight controls
working for the ailerons and elevators, bits yes but not all.

Eventually I managed to get one column and the steering wheel moving:





Folowing that I was able to get a column attached to the first on the other side as well but whatever I tried
the wheel would only work on one or the other not two wheels at the same time.

I moved things upside down, inside out, left and right and in any conceivable way and even with changes of
java and trying components from various aircraft I just could not do it!

Eventually out of sheer desperation I tried any cockpit that had a normal hier file to see if any would work with
the java I had, things like the ANT-4, Otter, C-47 etcetera but the columns would act like the arms on a pinball
table with the pivot on the first one and the wheels would not turn. Finally, I added in the cockpit from Molva's
AN-2 and by Crikey! It works. The steering wheels turn, the columns go back and forth and the pedals work and
those in a way more like on a Cessna I think! In between football and the course I am doing the last few days were
spent then trying to rotate the Cessna cockpit parts to fit the orientation of the new cockpit and it has proved
problematical but I am getting there I think, his cockpit uses the Ju-52 and Mosquito cockpits hidden and so I spent
a lot of time just trying to identify and deactivate what I did not need before adding the Cessna bodywork and that
is where I left it last night due to pain in the arms and neck.



There is a considerable amount of messing still to do to get the Cessna meshes for the interior to actually fit
where I need them to but at least I now have something to go with and at least I feel some hope now:



Anyway, that is as good as things stand at the moment.



Why I have had so much grief with the model I know not, I am, or at least should be by now, used to how
IL-2 and its models torment the mind. Thankfully thanks to Molva's work there is now hope at least.

I will firstly try and replace the existing colums and wheels with those from the Cessna, failing that I will hide
what is already working and attach things to them, all bluff and bulshit, smoke and mirrors but what should a
guy do when all else fails.  : 

If any of you have tried this and got things working already then please save me further torment and say so
before I get too far down that rabbit hole again.

Take care and be safe.

Wishing you all the very best, Pete.

[ZtheE]

Excellent progress Pete! The Antonov yoke almost fits 

[Mission_bug]

Excellent progress Pete! The Antonov yoke almost fits 

Bespoke, we make your Cessna to order with special fittings in your choice of design and colour, this is 'Golden Age'.

My good friend Alex said he would give me a hand with this and so it might be a good time to send it his way, he is much better at all this cockpit tinkering than me, he truly is the 'Hier Master', his numerous franken creations can testify to that title I think.

Take care and be safe.

Wishing you all the very best, Pete.

[Mission_bug]

Hello again, just a quick note on what is going on.

Okay, so I managed to swap out certain parts from the what you saw previously with the Cessna steering and pedals
and deactivate a lot of things we might not need but some are still visible as you can see in the images, I also took
the main body parts that everything is attached to and hacked them apart in gmax to just leave a few faces so that
when it is opened up in Sknil some of the clutter is removed to aid orienting things better.

The steering turns and the pedals swing having been set in place instead of the previous bits from the AN-2:








The steering wheels are still attached to the column that goes back and forward so at the moment just to
block the gap I inserted the poles for each wheel but they go up and down at the moment:





I need to find a way to make these and/or the hidden columns they are attached to go forward and backward
if I can but how?

For the moment I am thinking maybe it might be possible to use some java for a sliding cockpit hood to the
parts I have and see what happens but for now I do not have the time to experiment because I am ongoing
with a course online so what you see today is just a bit of tidy up of the mess I made so far.

Our good friend Alex, he of the Master Franken Guild, has asked to take a look at the mess I made so far hence
the tidy up tonight to show where I am up to, he is the master of all this spookey black magic so he might be
able to make a few suggestions on how best to go forward with it.

Take care and be safe.

Wishing you all the very best, Pete.

[Piotrek1]

nicely done , things are getting better and better by the day,
I wish you patience and good luck with your further work,

Best Regards,
Piotr

[ZtheE]

Good work Pete 

[Mission_bug]

Hello guys, progress is slow but just a quickie.


I managed to change some code and reorient what I named the mesh as 'Rods', essentialy what in the real
aircraft the steering wheels would attach to, these now go forward and backwards:



The steering wheels are still attached to the hidden column but the intention is to try and attach the steering
wheels onto the rods so we can move the ailerons and the elevators:



I am still short of time so for now I will leave my ideas for the above on one side and try to get the throttle
and mixture leavers attached and working from the dash as per the photograph from Will earlier in the thread.


Take care and be safe.

Wishing you all the very best, Pete.

[Mission_bug]

Hello again guys, the cockpit is finally coming close to what we want.

Here is an update for you to test, please use this instead of the earlier trial I uploaded:

Link removed by me 16th April 2023, new one below.

There is a second cockpit folder in this package, I forgot to remove when sending to Alex but
I had a nightmare trying to get this link to go to MediaFire so rather than mess around again to
upload another test we might as well just use what I sent to Alex.

So, what will you find? Firstly, Alex managed to hide much of what we do not need at the moment
so, things do not look as chaotic as the earlier images, cheers Alex, really appreciated.




The steering wheels are now attached to the rods that come out of the dash and these move forward and
backward and steer.

The pedals now also slide back and forward along two sets of more rods under the floor. I intend to make some
channels to replicate what is in photographs that real ones would slide within, at the moment they seem to in
the air so to speak not attached to anything, but that is for another day.

The Throttle lever is on the dash and also moves in and out, however, I have not been able to get the mixture
lever to work yet.

The rudder did not work externally when I picked this up but does now.

The cockpit glass was improved.

You will still see little bits of things that need to be hidden/removed but for now please just use as is and report
back if anything is troublesome, there is a lot of tweaking to do, somethings like slight offsets in the steering rods
might have to remain though.

I took the instrument panel into Photoshop and tried to remove any painted-on dial arms/needles whatever you call
them but the instruments still need to be set up correctly, a fiddly job that hopefully you guys or Alex can do!



I will remove the earlier link so this is the one to use for now.

Take care and be safe.

Wishing you all the very best, Pete.

[Piotrek1]

Amazing work, Thank you very much Pete ,
You can even see creases on the leather material of the seat upholstery .
Best regards,
Piotrek

[Mission_bug]

Amazing work, Thank you very much Pete ,
You can even see creases on the leather material of the seat upholstery .
Best regards,
Piotrek

Glad you approve Piotrek.

Alex posted me a update today, he has made adjustments to the pointers superimposed over the instrument panel texture, besides
that I added some 3d to show where the pedal mechanism comes up through the floor to make the pedals move although I have not
tried to replicate that mechanism, just a bit of smoke and mirrors.

MediaFire link:

Link removed by me on 21st April 2023 see new link further on.

Please use instead of the last download as I incorporated the alterations by both of us so this is now the folder
to use.








This is not quite finished as I need to add a trim wheel to the dash and possibly do further work on the instruments,
however, for now it is as it is as I am not sure if or when any further work will be done so you guys might as well
have our cumulative efforts so far to test and play with.

The java is in the upload for those who might want to tinker further as are the entries for the Filelist as I gave this
a new FM but that still needs to be developed for the Cessna as it is just a placeholder at the moment.

There are things hidden that need to be taken from the folder eventually but for now I left tham there and Alex
did a tidy up and hid some of the little bits that were visible, once we know for sure it is done or whatever I will
most likely remove any access stuff but for the moment there might be a use for it so it is better to leave in place.


This is now somewhere near to what was requested in that it now has an appropriate cockpit and much of it moves
as it should but it is not complete as such, nor was it intended to be so, please use as is and report back anything
you feel is important.

We have only developed the cockpit for these updates, there was no intention to go any further than that so we have
not even taken a look at the model overall in regards to damage model etc so that remains as it was.


Thanks very much to Alex for his help with this, really apppreciated.


Wishing you all the very best, Pete.

[Piotrek1]

Thank you both for updating and improving this cool aircraft , Your work is much appreciated .
Best Regards,
Piotrek

[ZtheE]

Thank you Pete and Alex for your good work