Refurbishment of my DC-3 Throttle Quadrant

I was recently given a DC-3 Throttle Quadrant by Basler Turbo Conversions in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. I was up there earlier this year for the Airshow and spoke with the Basler people about them trying to get me one of these Throttle quadrants. At the same time, I was showing these folks my DC-3 Simulator software package and they were not only impressed but, very interested in it. Some months later, I received an Email from Basler's Pat Keesler who had informed me he had such a quadrant for me and would exchange it for a copy of the DC-3 flight simualtion software program that I have authored.

The Throttle quadrant was taken from an old Canadian Air Force C-47 and it arrived at my house needing much work to get it into prestine condition. The quadrant was spray painted Black, was burnt in some areas and needed some new parts that were missing from it. This was a project for me. It smelled of old grease, was full of oil, dirty, rusted and even had cob webs and spiders within it. Attached to it were all the wiring and cables too. My first job was to take away all the wiring and cables. Then it needed de-greasing and cleaning and the rust cleaning away. I also had to strip all the old paint away from it. Most of this was done at my local car wash, were I could use a high pressure water sprays and rinses etc. Once cleaned I realized there were many parts that needed replacing and I phoned a DC-3 parts company (Tradewinds Aircraft Supply) and ordered all the original lever knobs, plates and the needed decals for it. These folks were exceptionally nice people to deal with and they shipped the parts to me overnight via UPS. Some parts were taken from a DC-3 of there own.

Below is a photogragh gallery from the time I received it from Basler, through the refurbishment process and to how it looks today. The refurbishment took a full three weeks to accomplish. My next project will be to mount it and have it working with my own DC-3 simulator set up using both Microsoft's Flight Simualtor 98 and my own "DC-3" Flight Simulation program. I already have a DC-3 yoke (again from Basler) that I use with the DC-3 simulator program. A friend I have in Canada will be helping me set it up through my PC using an Epic card that will enable the quadrant to work with the 'DC-3' Flight Simulation program and my PC. This will be a Winter project for me. For now, take a look at the photo gallery and the refurbishment process. My sincere thanks to Basler Aviation and Tradewinds Aircraft Supply for helping make this all possible.

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