King Air Populated Panels (B200 and C90)

All of our populated panels (King Air as well as other types of aircraft) are now supplied with mounting plates that have all of the hardware fitted and which is supplied actually pre-fitted to the panel itself, effectively making each panel a modular unit. This hopefully means that installation is much quicker and easier, as it's no longer necessary to individually mark and cut out the hardware holes in the main instrument panel and have them all line up. All that's required is a large cut-out in the MIP with some tabs left in the appropriate places for the main mounting holes.

King Air B200 First Officer's Left Panel

With a typical populated panel like this, we would normally supply a dummy gauge with artwork etc. that would be fitted into the hole, although if a gauge from another supplier is to be used then we can simply make the appropriately sized hole and deduct the price of our gauge accordingly.

We've recently updated the knobs that we supply with these panels too, which can be seen below.

Below is a close-up shot of the Cabin Temp Mode knob.

King Air C90 Captain's Left Panel

Because the mounting of the hinge and the gang switch cover can be quite a difficult operation, we now completely fit this at the time of assembly.

And as with all of our panels, they can be supplied with the warm white lighting as shown in the previous photos (which mimics the glow of incandescent bulbs) or the cool-white lighting shown in the photograph below.

King Air C90 Captain's Right Panel

This panel is supplied fitted with one of our standard landing gear levers, which is fitted directly to the rear of the panel. Depending on how the main instrument panel is constructed, the landing gear lever (as well as every other piece of hardware that's fitted to the mounting plate) can be readily removed and installed however you wish.

The gear indicator comes pre-fitted with a pushbutton in behind it (for Lamp Test function if desired) as well as a wired set of green LEDs which can be easily hooked up to whichever interface system is intended to be used.

The two-way header that's shown here is labeled with 12V, although we can organise the backlighting for either 5V or 12V supply.

The red illumination in the handle of the landing gear lever is supplied as standard and is designed to be indicate when the gear is in transition. We often use our own 64INS and 64OUT interface boards to control this operation, as well as the appropriate lighting of the NOSE, LEFT and RIGHT indicators on the gear button (as shown below), which all come on individually and at separate times. The timing of these is a function of the way that we have things set up in our configuration files. 

Using our construction plans

Back in 2008/09 we helped one of our good friends build some of the parts for his Super King Air 200 simulator - a short video of which is here - and it is from these plans that our own King Air Construction Drawings originate.

Apart from the King Air C90 simulator that we built back in 2011 - which was based on these documents but with some minor alterations made to accommodate various requirements asked for by our customer - it's not very often that we actually get to use the plans ourselves.

Recently however, the opportunity to assemble both an Overhead module and a Fuel Panel module presented itself, so we took a few photos while we had the chance to do so. Hopefully seeing what these look like after they've been constructed will help any builders who are using these same plans better envisage what the end-result is likely to be.

Please bear in mind that some of the construction panels have only been temporarily screwed together for the sake of transporting the modules as entire units to our customer. Whatever could be safely glued and screwed has been, although these modules have been left unfinished as they'll be taken apart again when received and tidied up with sanding, counter-sinking of screws, painting etc.

Firstly, the King Air C90 Overhead module:

And now for the King Air Fuel module ... (we've previously supplied the Fuel Circuit Breaker Panel to our customer, so the panel you see here is simply a blank one that we've used to ensure the correct fit) ...

These modules have also been fitted with our latest backlit panels, which we'll discuss more in a future post.

Something else that we've done in relation to these plans is to design a glareshield unit that can be easily shipped. Shown in the photo below, it requires a bit of assembly work of course, but it's a good start and comes with the three separate sections and their connecting blocks, the engraved annunciators, PCBs with pre-fitted and correctly coloured LEDs, a connection PCB, and the necessary cables.

Fibreglass King Air Yokeheads

Below are a few of shots of the King Air B200 yokeheads that we recently supplied to a local customer. The moulds themselves were taken from a real yokehead, and as is painfully obvious in these photos, they are clearly shown here in their raw form. We sell them in this rough state because we've found that a lot of builders would prefer to spend the time wiring the yokeheads themselves in order to save the money that's involved with us offering a complete, fully-wired set of parts (funds that can no doubt be spent elsewhere!) ...

An example of the detail achieved during production.

As we've already completed a set of these during the construction of the C90 simulator, below are also some photographs and explanations of our techniques and reasons, which might help anybody who's chosen to use a similar method. This is by no means the only way of dong things, of course!

First, the pieces themselves. As you can see, there are eight separate pieces that make up a pair: 2 x front sections, 2 x back sections, 2 x upper yokehead mounting, 2 x lower yokehead mounting. All of these individual parts are hollow, meaning that the larger main sections especially are still a little fragile at this stage. This can be remedied by filling certain sections of the yokeheads with a filling material later.

These yokehead mountings may also be filled, a rocker switch for the trim fitted, and two switches (for the AP Disconnect and the Push to Talk ) can then also be installed and wired.

The above photograph - from our previous King Air C90 build - shows where we've applied the filling compound. This is done in order to strengthen the entire head and also enables various holes to be readily drilled and tapped as necessary. 

Having arrived in the same condition as the first few photos, the entire unit has now been sanded to within an inch of its life, wired, and fitted together. You might also notice the aluminium plate that's now fitted inside the base of the unit; this provides greater stability and allows for the yokehead to be fitted very securely to the stem of the yoke.

The view from the back: prior to the wires being connected from the top section to the base, after which the entire unit is connected.

And the (almost) finished product - prior to fitting the timer in the pilot's side, the aluminium plate in the first officer's, and fitting the final mountings etc. ...

King Air Motorised Trim Unit

After having already sold a few of these motorised trim units over the past year or so - but never having had the time to actually get the product properly up on our website - these will finally be available through our site in the next week or so. (Oops, it was added quicker than I thought ... Link here)

This unit was originally designed for the King Air C90 simulator that we built for a flight school last year, although the entire throttle quadrant that we developed in doing so was based around the dimensions used in our King Air B200 construction drawings. [Note: We don't offer the TQ dimensions themselves as the originals were based around a particular product from a 3rd party that was a one-off design. We are, however, in the process of organising a basic King Air Throttle Kit, which will consist of various, unassembled aluminium levers, acrylic plates, knobs, etc.]

Anyway, back on topic, our complete Operational Elevator Trim Unit is supplied pre-assembled and consists of the following components:

• Trim Wheel (unpainted)
• Trim Dial (printed/laminated scale supplied)
• Gears and Belts
• Motor and Mount
• Motor Control System Circuit Board
• Pot to connect to your joystick controller
• Push-rod to connect trim dial to pot
• Physical stops to prevent over-travel

The mechanics of the unit is assembled on a shaped side-plate, and a corresponding side-plate for the other side is also supplied. These can then be screwed to the outer sections of your throttle console/pedestal, where they will then form the correct curve for the rest of your throttle lever assembly.

All you need to do is connect 12Volts DC to the control system as well as connect three wires to the centre-biased rocker switch in your yoke. The rocker switch will then control the forward and backward motion of the trim wheel. The geared down trim dial is connected via a pushrod to the pot (mounted on its own bracket), which will be wired to your joystick controller. (This will need to be set up in FSUIPC as the Elevator Trim input)

The trim wheel can be manually operated as well, as the motor torque has been purposely kept low so to allow it to readily stall.

Below is a short video from our YouTube channel showing the motorised trim actually in operation ...