Yoke
I bought this on Ebay. This is a good site to look for used aviation stuff and very cheap. This yoke is from an aero commander. The good thing of this yoke is that it contains 2 switches, the bad thing that it needs some repair.
I removed the plastic coverage, sanded and cleaned it and put a alu plate for the openening. At the rear side you see a 5 cm alu tube that fitted exactly. That tube is needed to connect the yoke with the colum.
Four pieces of plywood wil be connected to form the colum.
I put a part of a garden hose with a connector around the alu tube after it enters the colum. It keeps the 2 parts connected very good and it is a very simple construction. You also see the horizontal bar. This will block the aileron movement after about 45 degrees in both directions.
In the alu tube is a wooden rod with a hole in the end to accept the aileronpot. The pot is on a alubar connected to the yoke. It is completely on the left. The body of the pot is in a opening I made in the wooden backside of the yoke to build it more compact. The opening will be covered with a metal cap.
First I experimented with gassprings. The disadvantage was when you would get your hands of the yoke it would stay wherever it was when you let it loose. With normal springs I feel resistance and it turns back to the middle position when loosened. Ofcourse in real the position of the yoke is always where the elevator is. In fact you even see the yoke move when the aircraft starts climbing via input to the FMC or MCP.
With gassprings the yoke would still be in takeof position at decision height where I would switch of the AP. Now it is in the centered position, not real but more real then gassprings. Building an autoyoke is unfortunately beyond my capabilities. On this picture you see the connection between the yoke and the elevator pot. It is the same technique as used in the throttle.
I was not satisfied with the first color. Now I use E4.15.25 (Flexa Ambiance).
