Version 3 (2008)
What is it?
It’s based on a crazy design found on the web which is still online after 20+ years. It’s like sitting in big bathtub that can pitch forward and backwards or roll side to side.
Pitch and roll motion are “actuated” by a lever mechanism connected the joystick. That means, you, the pilot actually drove the axes around. No motors. Pull up and it tilts you back. Roll left and it rolls you left, etc.
The original design from the link above had a joystick below the seat to “measure” the motion you put in. It was connected to the bottom of the seat via bungy cables and the joystick moved as the seat pitched and rolled. Not correlated to the right dynamics at all, but amusing.
Minor Upgrade
That was too insane for me. Instead, I installed potentiometers on the pivots. Pitch and roll angles were then read by the potentiometers and fed directly into the x and y axis analog inputs of a USB board ripped from a joystick. Still not correlated to the dynamics correctly, but at least a bit more reliable.
No Motors
Really, no motors. No dynamic model or electronics driving pitch and roll motion. No calculations based on accelerations or gravity feeding PIDs and actuators. Instead, essentially a big sit-in joystick you muscled around yourself. This is so backwards and wrong, but it was definitely amusing and everybody smiled while flying it.
Retired
Anyhow, it had way too many pinch points. It creaked a lot. Getting in and out was ridiculous.
Decommissioned and dismantled within a year.
