AMSTERDAM
The simbuilder meeting in EHAM the past weekend is over. And what a weekend it was! What a meeting! Almost 90 persons joined up from all over the world to share the wealth of two full days of knowledge and showcase.
The meeting started with Peter Cos of Flightdeck Solutions (www.flightdecksolutions.com) greeting everybody and handing out presents to the participants. He also gave a long presentation of the current state of FDS, and briefed us on the future path and plans for FDS. Cos demonstrated the new Elite series panels, which has a double plexi backer and a new kind of front, made of solid white acrylic and top engraving. These panels really knocked the socks out of the group and it was really exciting to share. One of the most important news coming out from Peter Cos, was also the fact that Peter now is working full time with FDS, something that sounds promising for all cockpit builders.
The first day proceeded with Marc Teichtahl giving a presentation on FSUIPC logics and networking. Marc explained the basics of FSUIPC and how to work the module for cockpit construction. Moving on towards network issues, Teichtahls approach was somewhat intentionally provocative since he´s experience is that TCP/IP is not a good protocol, suitable for cockpit construction. Teichtahl rather preffered the old IPX/SPX protocol and also gave a short brief on some of the upcoming newer network protocols. With copper on the horizon, the future is looking really promising for network dependant systems like ours...
One of the real high lights the first day was the presentation given by the german A320 Systems guys, known as the Home Cockpit Software Developer Team (www.hcsdt.com/). These guys have succesfully managed to reproduce almost all of the vital systems within the Airbus, and created a failure module of their own. In the presentation the attending group was invited to a virtual flight from Munich to Frankfurt, a flight that started out pretty normal but when "mr. Murphy" suddenly appeared in the cabin, the whole aircraft started to fail... The complexity in this work is really impressive, and for us Boeing builders we can only hope that some day these guys might hook up on our part of aviation.
Second day started with Christian Sander giving a lecture on lighting issues in cockpit construction. Christian went through all possible sorts of lighting and how to use them. He shared the pros and cons on bulbs, hallogens, rope lights, refrigerator lights, LED´s etcetera, and gave us many useful tips on how to assemble and make good use of these lights. During the presentation Christian really stressed the safety issues, giving us many warnings on heat and fire, electricity and shock. Building a lighted cockpit is a delicate matter, and all builders should make safety the number one priority, according to Christian.
During breaks, lunches, dinners and evenings, the simbuilders was invited to test, try, look and feel the many products being on showcase. One of the most popular and well investigated items was the "analogous" instruments on display by Sim-Instruments (www.sim-instruments.com). These instruments provide one of the most radical approaches to cockpit construction, since they now make it possible to actually build classic aircraft that require analogous instruments. During day two, Sim-Instruments gave a good presentation of their hardware and announced the Cessna and 737 series instruments as available for purchase. In future Sim-Instruments will provide for other series aircraft instruments, as well as standby instruments for glass cockpits. Judging by the reception from the group, it looks like the Sim-Instruments are going to be one of the real "must-haves" in cockpit construction.
Sunday afternoon also saw Enrico Schiratti of Project Magenta (www.projectmagenta.com) as one of the speakers. Enrico shared some of latest developments within Magenta, of which the upcoming overhead panels look most interesting. Enrico is working on a complete new set of software that simulates systems, and which is somewhat generic and user-dependant. The general idea is to offer cockpit builders an easy drag-and-drop environment, in which the simbuilder easily can create and reproduce the specific overhead panel of his aircraft type of choice. Rather than offering off the shelves 747 or A320 overheads, Project Magenta is going to offer us a tool to create our own overheads.
The Simbuilder meeting in Amsterdam ended with a nice presentation made by John McIlvenna, an A320 first officer with a large US-based airline. Johns input was the observers, giving the group his impressions of cockpit construction and relating these to the real world. John was extremely impressed by the collective work and efforts by the cockpit builder community, an effort he in many cases values as superior to the Flight Training Devices of the real airlines... John also made some ellaborations on automation and systems, most noteably a presentation of the new "Mac Due" as he called the new upcoming Airbus MCDU.
To sum up the simbuilder meeting in EHAM, it was a real wealth of information. It was the showcase of the year! And it was all given in a very friendly and generous atmosphere. Start planning next years event in Your agendas!
Patric Moreau
Claes Heijbel
