One of my long-term projects is to build a simple moon landing computer simulator. Such simulation -or game –  can be found in very early computers. A funny version for your browser can be found here http://moonlander.seb.ly/ (I like the vector display imitation instead of raster display). This project if for a book and the goal is to drive airplane instruments to provide the flight parameter to the player (vertical speed, altimeter, Machmeter, etc.). Of course, one can argue that these gauges are not really appropriate for the moon landing. True. But it is or fun. Since I’ve picked up most of the instruments from one of my favorite wide-body airliners, the Lockheed L-1011 (Tristar), I’ve learned the hard way that this is not modern avionics running out of 28 VDV, Just to power these instruments, I need 115 VAC @ 400Hz. Yeah, I have to play with some inverter here.

As you can imagine, the project is really not progressing quickly… So when I was looking for a clock, I was happy to find the Molnija АЧС-1 K Russian cockpit chronometer. It is a mechanical chronograph and the only power it may require is for the heating (rated 27 VDC). So really easy to play with it. For now, I am using the opportunity to share some pics and vid of the watch. It is a pretty roust one – certainly not a Jaeger-Lecoultre –, but works like a charm, fully rewound it can run up to two days and has basic time features such as flight time (ВРЕМЯ ПОЛЕТА) and chronometer (СЕК). All the controls are done via two multi-function knobs. The movement has 26 rubies and supposed to be operational @ +-60 degrees Celsius & 2g. Overall, it is a nice clock with very low maintenance.

Pin