Author: spit40

What a very pleasant surprise to receive a platinum award from PC Pilot in their latest September/October 2021 issue. Editor Derek Davies gave our Spitfire MkIX flight controls a thorough going over for a number of weeks, not just flying with the controls but also assembling from kit form.

You’ll need to read the issue for full details but Derek was very complimentary about the feel of the stick, especially flown with the Flying Iron Simulations Spitfire MkIX. The overall score he awarded was 96% which is very rewarding, especially after the hundreds of hours that went into designing these parts.

A big thank you to Reuben Tighe at www.simkitsupplies.com too. My own printer has been flat out prototyping new controls so Reuben kindly printed the parts that we sent to Derek and sponsored the cost of the hardware components.

This is what Derek had to say about these flight controls in summary.

The flaps lever, compatible with either the Spitfire MkIX or Spitfire Mk1A is finally released today. For such a small flight control this has taken a long time to get released and it isn’t for lack of effort. Several entirely new mechanisms and systems needed to be developed and not just for the lever itself but also the mounting system and the universal hub.

This flap lever uses one of the smallest bearings I’ve ever worked with and that brought its own set of engineering challenges. The inner diameter is just 2mm! It also uses some new switches which we haven’t worked with in this project before. It all comes together in a very compact new plugin component which has been named the mClick6700. It is expected to come in very handy on all kinds of controls.

• Flap levers
• Gear levers
• Fuel selectors
• Cowl flaps / radiator levers
• etc etc

Instrument Panel Mounting System

Another major development which I’ve been prototyping for over a year is the instrument panel mounting system. Something simple and easily adjustable was needed that could be fitted to a desk very quickly. The clamp system was the major hurdle as most things I tried (from microphone or camera desk clamps to masonry L-Bolts) were too clumsy, expensive or had extra bits that got in the way. Finally I discovered a clamp used by jewellers when making fine cuts with a fret saw. It led to the development of this clamp system, which supports not just the Spitfire flaps lever but all manner of radio/nav equipment, starter/magneto buttons and much more.

Universal Hub Upgrade

These flaps levers also prompted me to finalise the full specification of the Universal Hub Version One. Some planning ahead was needed and you’ll see that the design accomodates a second engine input which will support the Mosquito FB as well as landing gear and radiator flaps. It will also support a range of other aircraft, whether warbirds or GA. For those aircraft that don’t have weapons on the flight stick and quadrant we will gain access to some unused buttons that can be remapped and used via the MISC1 and MISC2 inputs. Possibilities are nav equipment or fuel selectors.

We are very proud to announce our second major collaboration with Aeroplane Heaven. Work has already started on a set of replica flight controls for the iconic warbird the Mustang P-51D. Aeroplane Heaven have kindly shared CAD directly from the team developing their P-51D for Microsoft Flight Simulator and we will be working from these resources to bring you pefectly matching flight controls for this maginficent aeroplane.

Freeware – for the community by the community

These are controls for the flight sim community by the flight sim community. Development is by a small team of simmers and as usual all flight controls are available on a freeware basis. The designs and instructions will be freely available for you to 3D print and assemble yourself. The other option will be available to purchase via our recommended parts supplier simkitsupplies.com who can introduce you to trusted and quality checked 3rd party printers from within the flight sim community who can print parts for you.

Standard Connections

All flight controls will be compatible with the AuthentiKit Universal Hub and quick release system allowing rapid switching between P-51D controls, Spitfire MkIX, Spitfire Mk1A and other warbirds and GA as they become supported.

The controls which we intend to include in this set will include the following as minimum.

• Flight stick
• Throttle Quadrant
• Trim Wheels
• Flaps
• Landing Gear

Target release date is before the close of 2021 for the first flight controls although it is not certain everything will be complete by year end. Good progress is already being made on the trim wheels assembly as shown in the picture.

The Recommended Selling Price (RSP) scheme represents a huge step forward for the great many people who do not have 3D printers and may wish to get their hands on some AuthentiKit.

We have established a worldwide network of AuthentiKit community members who have 3D printing capability and have agreed to print AuthentiKit parts for others to an agreed fixed price and quality standard. That quality standard includes a warranty.

See our Recommended Selling Price page for more.

Everything you need in one box (almost!)

If you love tinkering and building projects then this probably doesn’t interest you but for most people the ideal would be a single box with everything in it so you can just sit down and assemble your throttle quadrant, trim wheels, flight stick etc. Well we’ve got pretty close. The process of getting hold of some AuthentiKit is now as simple as this.

• Choose the kit you want
• Follow the link through to SimKitSupplies.com where you can order the hardware kit, including the tools you will need, for direct delivery anywhere in the world. This is Box #1
• The price for the 3D parts kit is shown on the same page along with with a request form. Fill that out and you’ll be contacted by a quality checked printer in your local area who will confirm their P&P terms and answer any questions before you place your order with them. They will ship the 3D parts to you. This is Box #2

The hardware kit also contains the tools you will need so once you have both boxes, all you need is a kitchen table and a spare Sunday afternoon. If you’d be happy to assemble an Airfix kit you should enjoy these projects too!

I’m delighted to finally be able to announce the AuthentiKit collaboration with Aeroplane Heaven. Working with Baz Bromley on the finer details of the Spitfire Mk1A throttle quadrant has been great fun. These guys have so much knowledge and passion for their aircraft and the final solution we came up with for the Boost Cutout implementation was extremely rewarding. The throttle quadrant, elevator and rudder trim wheels are available for download as of today.

For such a simple device, trim wheels can be the source of a surprising amount of frustration in flight simulation. The ideal of course is that you rotate your trim wheel a certain number of degrees and the wheel in the simulator mirrors that amount exactly producing the desired amount of trim. In practice it is almost never like that as the simulator has to cope with being mapped to a variety of devices all of which generate pulses or clicks at varying rates

• a key press and whatever auto repeat speed kicks in
• a hardware trim wheel which has a variable number of clicks per revolution
• a mouse scroll wheel which also has a variable number of clicks per turn

Since Microsoft Flight Simulator’s launch there have been a number of iterations in how they handle trim wheel rotation speed and it is easy to finds support threads on the MSFS forum expressing frustration about this issue.

In one test with the Spitfire MkIX we found that you needed up to twenty rotations of the trim wheel to achieve a full nose up trim!

An issue for all hardware manufacturers

This is a problem for all manufacturers of trim hardware, such as Flight Velocity, who had to rewrite their software to achieve a reliable solutions for customers.

We’re hitting this problem too particularly with the elevator trim wheel (the rudder trim wheel seems to work well for some reason) so we have a project underway at present that should provide a solution not only for AuthentiKit but for anyone making trim wheels for Microsoft Flight Simulator. Our aim is to provide a number of algorithms to give people flexibility to match the physical hardware to the sim as precisely as possible – after all we’re passionate about things being authentic and feeling right !

• Apply a multiplier so that each real click of the hardware encoder sends a multiple of clicks to the sim which could be fine tuned to the aircraft
• A two speed option – slow and fine or fast. The software detects when the wheel is being moved quicker and automatically applies a speed up multiplier
• Simulating an axis – the wheel can be calibrated so that you choose how many rotations/pulses of the wheel equate to a full range between 0 and 100%

Free and open to the community

Our intention is not to limit this software to AuthentiKit products, after all AuthentiKit is very much a freeware open solution and actually uses very simplistic technologies. We will make this software available for free download to anyone who may find it useful whether they use a commercial hardware trim wheel or a self-built home cockpit.

Today Big Radials released their P-40B Tomahawk for Microsoft Flight Simulator. This is a very exciting day for AuthentiKit because their download also comes with replica flight controls created directly from their CAD files for a really authentic peripherals option when you are flying their feisty looking warbird.

The first control available is an elevator and rudder trim wheel set, soon to be followed by a throttle quadrant and coming later on will be a replica flight stick. These controls use the same Universal Hub as we created for the Spitfire MkIX controls which is a great cost saving as the hub contains the expensive part of the system.