L-1011 Trainer Installation: Simulator Power Controls

L-1011 Trainer Installation - Power  Controls

The last few days we have been working on some of the less exciting, yet very important, components such as the simulator power control. You can see the primary power elements in the image above. The power controls from left to right are:

1. Main Power - this controls power to the flight simulator. The rocker switch is not only an ON-OFF switch but also a breaker that will drip at 15A. 
2. Computer/Visual - this switch controls the power ON-OFF state for the computers and video projects that are part of the L-1011 simulator. 
3. External Power - simulates external power being supplied to the aircraft. This external power would be either power supplied from a source at the gate or from a start cart. External power to the aircraft would be supplied via a ground connected cable. Switching this rocker switch to ON will illuminate the green AVAIL light on the Second Officer's console. 
4. Cooling System - activates the cooling system for the flight simulator. 

Below is an image of the entire control unit that houses the power controls and the computers.

L-1011 Trainer - Power Control and Computer Rack

L-1011 Trainer Installation: Simulation Computers

L-1011 Trainer - Simulation Computers

Installed the two Apple Mac Pro computers into the simulator rack today. These two systems form the base for the flight simulator and will be driving both the ARINC 429 as well as the InterBus I/O elements. There are two additional computers to come that will be mostly driving the visual components  (projectors) of the simulator.

L-1011 Trainer Installation: Fuel Flow and Engine Fuel Used Installation

L-1011 Fuel Flow and Fuel Used Installation

The Engine Fuel Consumption indicator in the L-1011 cockpit consists of two instruments for each engine. The "Fuel Used" instrument located on the Second Officers lower console and the "Fuel Flow" (FF) instrument located on the main instrument panel. There is one of these instrument combinations for each engine.

The Fuel Used indicator receives signals from the fuel flow meter installed as part of the engine fuel flow system. The signals received from the sensors are then routed through the Fuel Used instrument to the Fuel Flow instrument shown on the left in the image above.
Below is a short video showing the Engine 1, 2 and 3 indicators installed into the L-1011 trainer.

L-1011 Trainer Installation: COM Radio Power-Up

L-1011 COM Radio Power-Up

After almost a month away from the L-1011, due to work constraints and other museum projects, it is finally time to get back into it. Today we powered up the first few elements of the aft electronics panel on located just aft of the throttle quadrant. To be exact, we powered up the 3 VHF/HF COM radio combinations.

L-1011 COM Radio Without Backlight

The radio faces operate of 3 difference 24VDC sources. The VHF1 radio receives power from the BATTERY bus, the VHF 2 radio uses the GROUND SERVICE bus and the VHF3 radio receives power from the NO.2 RADIO BUS. I have extensively blogged about these Gables Engineering devices before and you can find more info on them when you search for Gables Radio Heads here on the blog.

Below is an image of the radio face under low light conditions with back plate and display illumination.

L-1011 COM Radio With Backlight

These radio faces are ARINC 429 devices and will be controlled by ARINC 429 interface.