Well... finally bit the bullet and attacked the ceiling. Wasn't looking forward to this but it wasn't as hard as I imagined. It is challenging though because everything on the frame and panels meet here so its the last chance to get a good finish. But it sure makes a difference to the overall feel of the sim and the level of immersion.

This is a close-up of the top-of-window trim, looking forward. I used corflute for these and covered in vinyl.

Test-fit of the main ceiling panels. This is corflute again (this stuff used to be our front projections screen - lol). It's easy to cut, bends fine, is light, and reasonably strong (but not load bearing at all).

First test-fit in place. We'll be covering this in motor-trim felt (i.e. same as car interior roof linings). Plus there are various speaker grills, vents and finishing touches to be added yet.

Backlighting is now going in the overhead panels. We are using cold-cathode tubes which run off 12 volt (computer power supply). They run cool and put out an amazingly bright, white light. In these shots it's a little dim because the back covers are not on the overheads - these are painted white and will reflect light back down into the panels to increase the light level and distribute it more evenly.

Close-up - sorry about the blurry!

Been a while... but we're still here plugging away. The weather has been horrible lately - very cold - so working outside or in the garage has been off-and-on and in short bursts. We aren't doing things right now that make exciting photos. But don't worry - more on the way in the next few weeks.

Things we're working on right now are:

• Improving framerates
• Improving the quality of the side visual displays
• Mapping all the overhead switches and LEDs and testing/configuring them in SIOC and PMsystems ... almost there now.
• Diagnosing and fixing some annoying minor system faults
• Planning for World Flight 2007 !

In the past few weeks we've had a number of commercial pilots fly the sim and alot of visitors to come have a look. Feedback has been encouraging and the pilots have given us useful feedback and some things to improve.

Woo-hoo! Overheads are up and connected, and going. Once they were up and the lights came on we kinda got obsessed. Spent the next day going bananas on PM systems, SIOC code, and mapping all the switches and annunicators. By the next day we had most of it working. There are a few dud switches and lights to replace, a few logic issues to sort, and gauges to wire up yet ... but we're thrilled with the result so far.

Thanks to Brad Heller for his 737 overhead SIOC code too - saved us much time.

A wider view, showing the 220 degree visuals as well (improved again from 180).