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I have had a life times technical experience starting in the 50's with "radio". This was back in the valve (tube). As I
remember things, the term electronics came into general use after this period .. possibly with the introduction of
the transistor in, if memory serves me correctly, in the late 50's.
Some of that above experience was related to radio equipment in the aviation field.
I also built a 50 foot steel hulled yacht which I sailed around the Pacific for a number of years. A couple of years were
spent in Papua New Guinea waters where I worked for the local Posts and Telegraphs Department .. mainly installing radio
equipment in various out stations. I ended up in Port Vila in (now) Vanuatu where I established a radio/electronics/
electrical repairs/sales business. After renting a shop for a short period, I went ahead a built (over a period of years)
my own large 2 story premises. I did most of the marine radio, radar etc. in the country. Also, some work for the domestic
airlines.
During this period and while visiting Australia, I started my private pilots training at Goulburn, NSW. I completed around
20 hours before having to return to home in Port Vila. I stayed there 18 years, sold up, and returned to Australia to
retire. However, I first decided to build a large house on a 100 acre property, near Sarina, Qld., I had previously
purchased.
There, I got seriously involved in amateur (ham) radio, once again. One aspect of this was direction finding where hams build
and hide hidden transmitters. They also build and use the necessary receiving equipment to locate those hidden transmitters.
Things were quite serious with international competitions being held. Some of us travelled to China and NZ to compete.
I built the hidden transmitting equipment (12 transmitters) for an International event in Townsville.
There was a problem around that time with authorities locating, particualarly in the close vicinity, of activated emergency
beacons (EPIRB'S and ELT'S). I could see the possibility of adapting the receive equipment that I was using on the ham radio
bands to use on 121.5 MHz and thus assist in locating those beacons. Thus, I was out of retirement, designing and building
direction finding equipment for that application, plus others which became apparent over time.
Computers were a part of my life and I came across early versions of Microsoft's Flight Sim. programme, as I am sure many
others did. I "played" with it from time to time and even got to the stage of flying circuits in the default Cessna 172 at
the default Meigs airfield .. just using the keyboard. A fair amount of practice was necessary, and I remember trying it
again some year or two later and found I had "lost the touch".
I became interested in travelling via a motorhome (RV), sold up and travelled Australia for a couple of years. I visited an
old ham radio friend on the Gold Coast, Qld. From conversations with him over a long period of time, I knew he was heavily
involved with the construction of a simulated aircraft cockpit. This proved extremely interesting to me. He had built, over
a period of 10 years, an Airbus A320 cockpit. 8 computers were used to run it, and 3 overhead projectors provided the very
realistic scenery. He took me for a couple of "flights" and answered my many questions.
Recently, I have been in the Bundaberg district with our motorhome, spending a lot of time at a friends place to the west.
This had given me time and opportunity to further investigate Flight Sim. I am somewhat limited with:
a) a slow mobile phone connection to the web.
b) space in the motorhome to add much around my built in PC.
Never the less, I have downloaded some FS related info from the web, dabbled more with the FS programme, built up a set of
rudder pedals/brakes which I have managed to interface with my 2002 version of FS. With the IO card that interfaces the
rudder pedals/brakes, I also added a few press buttons which I have programmed to do various things, also 2 potentiometers
which currently are programmed to act as separate throttles on a twin engine aircraft. I have mainly been "flying" a 737.
Where I will go from here is a question mark. I have an urge to build up a small console to contain levers for those
throttles, together with under carriage, flap, spoilers levers and elevator trim wheel. I also have ideas pertaining to a
set of radios and also autopilot.
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