Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
Welcome to the newest episode of Gerrit's Diary.
Things are going forward in the terminal area.
There has been the most progress here, because
the detailing is almost done.
Only the terminals are left.
We hope we can show some progress next month.
And that means we are very close to the opening.
We have decided on the beginning of May as our opening date.
Here we have something new.
The displays for arrivals and departures that we've shown previously
have now been implemented and are working.
The display updates with every new landing.
There's some complicated technology behind it.
An internal Bus system is accessed by the main computer,
and a circuit board converts the data to a resolution for the mini-displays.
We've made a small mistake up here with the parking structure.
After we receive the cars, we unpack them,
make them look old and dirty, install lamps, before they are glued to the surface.
But the colour distribution by the manufacturers is not quite as it is in reality.
Outside the cars are often black, silver, dark anthracite-coloured.
We have partially tried to emulate how they look outside.
Viewed from a distance, it looks a lot more convincing than at the
parking structure, where we didn't pay much attention to the colour distribution.
It looks a bit like a box of M and Ms. We have over 1000 cars in here.
We'll have to see, if we leave it like that.
But those are exciting discoveries that one makes incidentally.
We are currently very busy with the little things.
The way to the charging station, eleven of them, almost cost us a month.
Small adjustments, triggering mechanical errors,
but it works great now.
We are hassling with calibration problems for the fingers to the terminals.
Sometimes it works perfectly, but sometimes the finger is too far or too close.
We've shelved it until the terminals are finished,
because the fingers are then connected to the terminal by a bridge.
I'm really looking forward to seeing the complete picture.
Another topic: I'm often asked if we'll build this airplane or another.
There are many wishes that we'd like to fulfill for your and our sake, but:
In the end, the terminal has to appear realistic.
The visitors are supposed to see an airport that really looks like one.
It would look strange if there were exotic planes everywhere.
That's why we have a special corner that we call Airport Days
to show some oldtimers and exotics, like the much requested Concord,
that we'll try to make fly.
But we can't fulfill many wishes because
the airport's overall appearance would suffer.
Here we have the new Antonov, it is complete.
Using this plane, I'd like to show you the progress of our cover,
and how long it takes until it drives flawlessly on the layout.
So this is our new Antonov An-124, by which I'd like to explain
what needs to be configured before it can fly.
It's not painted yet, in delivery condition, first test.
The lamps are missing, all of them have to be programmed
to make the lights flash in the original frequency.
The bow ramp and tailgate are not complete yet.
We'll use those for some neat scenarios at the cargo terminal.
But it's ready for it's first test.
To make the plane know later if it's going at the right speed,
I'm doing some tests with a medium charged battery using different
speed levels, because I'm teaching it some speed reference points
by which it is then able to calculate it's actual speed,
no matter how full the battery is.
After certain driving tests are complete, if it is able to take tight curves,
if it can cross all switches or if it derails,
after that is successfully completed, e.g. if stopping works,
then the plane is ready to approach the runway.
First I have to determine which radius the plane needs to make a turn.
The goal is to stand straight for the insertion of the poles.
I have two options: I may adjust how much space it needs
to make the turn and how far it pulls up to stand straight.
I'll start with a large radius.
I assumed: Big plane, large radius. But this was too much.
The plane is standing a bit off on the runway,
it has to be absolutely straight.
So I'll try a smaller radius.
Great, I like this one the best,
it's able to stand still directly after making the turn
and doesn't pull up to stand straight.
It looks good like this.
First position: Stand still, I'll enter that now.
The second step is to search for the plane, the system below
the layout is supposed to find the plane and insert the front pole.
The starting catapult has to find the plane to pick it up.
There is a transmitter inside the plane and a receiver here on the slide.
To make this process as safe and as fast as possible, I'll search for
the ideal spot for the catapult to start the search.
The space has to be this wide, because the plane might pull up further.
But it shouldn't start to search here because the searching is slow
to increase the chance of success.
I have found the perfect spot here,
so I can issue the order to make the machine search for the plane.
Airplane found! That's good news for me. Now I won't have to do further searching.
Except if the front pole doesn't fit.
I'll drive the front pole into the fuselage
to see if the plane moves while doing this.
No movement, that's a good sign.
I'll do another test by driving slowly with the slide
to see if the plane is taken along.
Looks good.
The next step: I have to see how far I have to extend the poles
to make them connect with top of the plane through the funnels.
I'll extend them a little and use the front pole first.
I can adjust them to 1/10th of a millimeter.
I saw some movement there, so I'll take out 2/10th of millimeter.
Same procedure is done with the rear pole.
Then I do a first visual assessment because I'm telling my software
it should try to lift the plane as even as possible.
This way I can see if my work is somewhat correct.
And also the other way around: When lowering
the plane, it has to be set down smoothly, or else something isn't right.
So: Set down smoothly.
Not quite perfect yet, there's still room for improvement.
The take-off would look good but the landing would be too rough.
But of course it can be rough sometimes.
The Antonov can now be programmed for take-off.
We never had this type of plane before, so I can't
orientate towards other planes, but I try to avoid that anyway.
I watch some Youtube videos first, to find out the right angle of attack, etc.
While looking for take-off sequences I found this picture.
There is an aircraft tug. We asked ourselves,
if this plane can be pushed. It can!
But because it's so flat our normal Pushbackers are not suitable.
We are building a flat aircraft tug, that is able to push it.
We have also built a new tractor for our A 380,
because our Goldhofer isn't capable of pushing an A 380.
It's completed and in operation. I believe the work has paid off.
After watching some take-offs, the programming may begin.
A small remark:
A small plane has a funnel in front of and behind the main landing gear.
The lifting of the nose is done by such a movement.
Both poles have to move. One goes up, one goes down.
A large plane has its centre of gravity in a way, that
both funnels are in front of the main landing gear.
There, the take-off is done by lifting both poles.
The one in the front a little more than the rear one.
Just this aspect lead to the wish to not let the software do every detail,
and all I'd have to do is to enter a few parameters.
It's better to go for a little trial and error,
to enter basic parameters like the starting and landing speed,
while entering the exact navigation of the poles manually.
This is the chronological navigation of the poles.
I'll enter some test variables and tell the system to start
at this point and I'll see if the take-off goes as planned.
Let's see.
The rear pole came up a little early.
I'll enter a drastic readjustment of 400 Milliseconds.
The rear pole comes up too late, but we're getting there.
I took out 100 Milliseconds. I'm pretty sure now.
There was a slight jerk that I'll have to eliminate.
That brings us to the cover.
It's technically ready on both sides, it's just being optimised now.
To make the airplane pass through the cover,
it has to be calibrated before we can see a correct take-off.
For this purpose I'll drive it to the window.
Every plane has to be calibrated for the cover in a way that, if
there's a negative pitch, which means that the nose points downwards,
the tail fin doesn't hit the cover on the upper side.
Now I'll look how far all the points go and enter them into the software,
so an emergency stop occurs, if this pitch is exceeded.
I'll do this for both sides, enter the values
and I'm ready for a first test flight.
We have here a so-called linear drive, that lifts
the whole window with an overhead control to the other side.
Thanks for the great tip on tagebuch.miniatur-wunderland.de,
to fix the roller blinds to the window, not to the floor.
That way, the picture that will be on here later won't move along with it.
Thank you very much for the tip, we have implemented it.
The housing of it all is still missing. We are trying to
surround this machine with curved lines,
to make it blend with the scenery.
Here is a first attempt at covering the window.
It's a very careful solution with very soft strips,
to avoid entanglement with the plane.
The next tests will be done with a very soft curtain or paper.
Fog won't work because of our air conditioning and
the plane would generate so much wind, that the fog would reach the layout.
Also, we would have to lift the fog machines with the window.
We'll start thinking about it after everything runs smoothly,
but now we are looking for this kind of solution.
After the maiden flight, the landing is still left and many, many details.
Finding the sound files, timing and assigning them,
when the pilot increases thrust while taxiing, how does that sound?
Things that aren't really interesting for a picture but have to be done.
We can now show the engines of the A 350 while turning.
They also have to be built and adjusted.
Finally, the machine gets this painting because
- I don't know how to pronounce it in Russian -
Volga-Dnepr will become the paintwork.
Then I have to find the flight destinations, configure the flight plan
and then sometime the machine is ready for operation.
With the setting of the opening date, the final preparations have begun.
And that means, we have to place three to four thousand
non-movable cars here.
It may look like an aiport but something is missing: The detailing.
Here is an example.
It looks great as a static picture.
But we have to find a compromise for every luggage cart and every figure.
It looks good as a static picture. But when a plane pulls up
it seems unrealistic if there are cars already waiting here.
We can't put anything in the way of the driving cars.
We need a lot of space for driving cars to pass by.
It will always be a compromise,
but we try to find the best compromise for every detail.
That's it for this episode.
In the next two months I'll have to program two big projects:
The touch-and-go-landing, if something goes wrong,
and the fire department operation.
The fire department will become a special episode of Gerrit's Diary.
What is the fire department doing, how does it look, which types of operation?
And using this example we'll built a complete fire engine
and explain how a car-system car is built.
Thank you for watching, I'm looking forward to next time. Bye!