All of the pages from caggius.wordpress.com should now have been ported to this google site.
If any of the links are broken then check back on the old site at - caggius.wordpress.com and let me know !
Attention all SEO Companies
I am NOT interested in promoting this website on Google so do not waste your time eMailing me any proposals.
Hi I am Bob,
that is me with my wife and daughter sitting on the wing of a Mk9 Spitfire after a brief, and very expensive, but thoroughly enjoyable flight back in 2015. If you are keen enough you can watch some highlights of the flight on YouTube.
In 2017 I originally created this site to host a Blog to document my First MTP Fusion Operation (Big Toe Fusion) as I could not find any personal opinions/experiences of the operation when trying to make my mind up on what to do.
Back in late 2018 - I started toying with the idea of building a Mark 9 Spitfire Cockpit Instrument Panel for the X Plane Flight Simulator. For me this was more about the journey, learning new skills and keeping myself entertained in retirement, rather than actually reaching the end point of a working system as fast as I could.
So I started buying WW2 Instruments initially planning to modify what are basically pressure driven analogue displays to ones that have some electronics driving motors moving needles.
Finding that I would need to manufacture some pretty unique parts, and given that I do not have precision metalworking machinery or skills, the simplest solution for me was to learn CAD modelling and buy the cheapest 3D printer that I could at the time, an ANet A8 kit for £99 off of eBay.
The A8 has been a great learning vehicle for 3D printing, but it is also a great distraction as I continuously keep fiddling with it to "improve" the print quality. It has had major rebuilds in the winter of 2019 and again in the winter of 2020.
For similar reasons to the MTP I decided to document my 3D Printer upgrades, so I added this to the site. I long ago learnt that I communicate better with beginners when I put things down on paper and from personal experience most video tutorials I watched assumes that you already know something or they simply gloss over details - so I have tried to document every step to help others.
In 2019 – I joined the AirCorps library to gain access to a full set of mechanical drawings for a Mark 9 Spitfire and in particular the cockpit.
Further progress was then hampered by an unplanned shoulder operation that took nearly a year to recover from. But whilst recovering I was still able to work on designing some of the switchgear and also some generic 3D printed instruments. These can be used with printed dial faces to cheaply replace many of the gauges.
So far I have designs for a working vertical linear gauge for the Oil and Fuel Pressure, a 2.5″ ring/dial gauge which can be used for the Oil and Radiator Temperature, and Engine Boost gauges, a variant for the Nose Up Down Trim gauge, plus a 2.5″ Voltmeter style gauge.
During 2020 the 1st COVID interlude - I found the time to complete an initial pass at the Chassis Indicator and I went back to developing the electronics hardware and software to drive the instruments.
Progress has been a lot slower than I had originally planned but then I am fitting it in between recovering from injuries, meeting family commitments and when permitted to, by the UK mis-government, trying to play some Golf whilst I am still fit enough to do so….
September 2020 My thanks to Peter at www.simplyspitfire.com for kindly measuring the Oil Pressure gauge on their replica Spitfire and getting me out of a hole.
During the Winter of 2020/21 the 2nd COVID interlude - I prototyped the Control Column Spade Grip, with a working Brake Lever and Hall effect sensor, Parking Brake, dual Canon/Gun Switch (with the bottom ARM switch), and a Point-of-View analogue hat hidden in the Camera Switch.
During this period I also ran across Authentikit.org a UK based group who are working on a free to use 3D printed set of controls for a MK9 Spitfire primarily intended for use when using VR Headsets. They already have a pretty accurate 3D model for the Spade Grip, Throttle and Trim Wheel, so for now I have parked my own controls development and I may, at a later date, use or re-mix theirs for my own use.
With the opening up of Golf Courses again in the UK my focus has been elsewhere and my attention has wandered a little from the simulator....
Some Questions and Answers
Q. Why Caggius ?
A. I don't really know - you would have to have a seance with my old Latin teacher (way back in '69) as he gave me that nickname.
Q. How can I contact you ?
A. If you really want to contact me then you can use caggius@gmail.com - but please don't expect an instant answer as I do not check it daily ! The odd note of thanks that I do receive are very much appreciated as it makes it all worthwhile.