What's the rarest or most unusual computer-related item do you own? [Tek 4132]

[geneb]

On Wed, 18 Jan 2017, Jon Elson wrote:

> Well, the aviation community is just INSANE over liability.  And, since the 
> outfit that makes the wing marker lights gets sued many times when a light 
> plane goes down, even though the cause was pilot error, engine failure, 
> instrument failure, running out of fuel, etc. they STILL get sued.
>
> So, I can imagine maybe some plane goes down, and they'd get sued because the 
> pilot trained on an uncertified simulator that was cobbled together after a 
> surplus purchase.
>
While I agree that aviation is fed on by lawyers, that wouldn't have been 
a reaons for Boeing's actions in this case.

The simulator would have had to have been re-certified by the FAA (and they 
might not have grandfathered it a 2nd time) in order for any pilot to have 
logged time in it.  No instructor pilot that's rated ATP or higher for 
that type would instruct on it without that certification.

>> It would be interesting to try if nothing else.  The LCD may not throw 
>> enough light out to make it readable in a WAC.  Not sure.
> It would work FINE!  His sim was a box, so you were in quite dark conditions. 
> Some LCDs can actually get pretty bright, and his CRT was not unusually 
> bright.  So, I'm sure it would work fine.  These are SMALL mirrors, not for 
> the giant wall-size displays, and direct-view.
> So, the CRT is facing up, the mirror above it, and you just look into the 
> mirror through about a 2' x 2' aperture.  Perfect for a home simulator.

If there's only one mirror, he's missing most of it then.  A Wide Angle 
Collimator (what they call the "single channel" displays) has a 
partially-reflective first surface mirror at a 45 degree angle (the beam 
splitter) and a special curved mirror directly in front of it.  The 
display is positioned above the beam splitter.  The light path goes down 
from the crt, is reflected off the beam splitter into the mirror and then 
straight at the viewpoint for the user (passing through the beam splitter 
again).  That process robs 50-75% of the light that goes into it from the 
CRT.  That's why WACs are really only good for night time visuals.

Here's an example of what a four channel WAC looks like:
http://flightweb.simpits.org/BehindTheScenes/737sim_page4.html

Take a look at the "Go Collimated or Go Home" link in my sig.  I designed 
a 737-sized one of those for a friend.  He built it and uses it with 
FlightGear.

g.

-- 
Proud owner of F-15C 80-0007
http://www.f15sim.com - The only one of its kind.
http://www.diy-cockpits.org/coll - Go Collimated or Go Home.
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