Framing The Main/Pedestal Areas
Once you have your pedestal built and ready to go the next stage in construction should be framing in behind. This includes building the support structure that holds the Glare/Main panel parts in place as well as creating the shelf for your PFD/ND Monitor setup.
This pic shows the wood construction that will reside in behind the Pedestal/ECAM Panel area. The angles are important to have correct as the whole main panel will follow these lines. The top portion is also angled to accomodate the Glare Panel assembly once added.
The yellow circle is there to show how a second piece of wood is added on the outboard sides of these structures. Main purpose is to give you a groove to place the shelf unit that will support the PFD/ND monitor. The FO side would be the same and the shelves would extend all the way over to the Sidestick assembly areas.
Once the basic structure is in place you can slide the ped back up in front of it to recheck all your alignments. These two components are the foundation for the entire sim so be cautious as you proceed. At this point you can start checking your ECAM Panel (hopefully a beautifully manufactured A320 Project Version, sorry! Had to plug the new kits!) up against the structure. Fixing the ECAM panel to the support pieces can be done in many ways. Joe was suggesting that we use Velcro. this makes alot of sense in that it makes the ECAM Panel easily removable for any changes that are required. "Dummy" screws can be installed to make it look "Hard Mounted".
Look closely at the left side of the ECAM Panel and you can see that we left room for the Main Instrument Panel to slide up next to the ECAM Panel. This wil make sure that we have a proper fit as we work left and right with the other panel parts.
If you follow all the steps then you should be able to have this setup with proper support in behind. This is pretty much the stage that we are at as on April 24/2000. Hopefully this helps all of you in your planning and construction. PC
NB: For an excellent view on this make a point of checking our friend Peter Dickenmann's A340 Page. He is at this stage of construction and the results are excellent. (Link on the link page)