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I was having issues mounting my Alpha on my glass desk. I could mount it, but the clamps would get in the way of my keyboard and tray , it was quite annoying. So while I waited for my Bravo to come in, I thought of a solution. Maybe someone will read this and use a similar method, as mine did have some room for improvement. However, this is what I did.
1. I decided to use a 1" x 12" sheet of wood(I used oak and painted it first with spray paint days before), and cut it to the size of my desk. Keep in mind 1x12 is actually 3/4" x 11-1/4" in the real world...
2 I then mounted my clamps from the Alpha control on the sides of the desk and wood. This may need to be changed in your cockpit, however it worked great for me. This means I can disconnect my yoke and quadrant with 2 clamps very easily. This has been very sturdy over 3 weeks of testing with no movement.
Left side mount:
Right side mount:
Here is a view from the top:
3. Next I had to drill holes into the Alpha mount so I could get screws in it to mount it to the wood. This was not an easy choice, and I chose wrong, but it worked okay for me barely. If I were to do this again, I would have chosen to drill holes into the center of where the clamps go. Since the clamps will not be there while the mount is screwed into the wood, there is no reason why not. It made it a little more difficult on where I placed the screws.
The Bravo mount has pre-drilled holes, so if both of your mounts have pre-drilled holes, you can skip this step. This will likely be the case in the future, and Honeycomb has hinted they may sell accessories such as the the pre-drilled mount, if you don't have it.
Here is what I mean between the two:
Also, you must look carefully on the backside of where you want to drill. Not to drill through any pads and such:
4. Drilling These holes were very difficult. The plastic is super hard and durable. I made it through with some patience. I held half of it over the edge with my marked spots, two out, then did the other two. You will have to drill them out to at least the width of the screw. The plastic is very tough and you will likely find problems if you are trying to drill it a little small like you normally would with wood.
Here is the finished result(from the bottom side):
5. I then tested to see where I wanted to put the yoke and quadrant, as well as how close together I wanted them. I elected to keep them roughly an inch or more apart from each other because when the rolling to the right, the top of the yoke tip can get very close the the quadrant. I might fill in that gap later with some custom switches in the future.
Picture shows how close it is when touching:
6. While testing where I wanted them, I attached the mounting plate to the bottom of the yoke and quadrant properly, and used the extra clamps(from the Bravo) on the Alpha and Bravo(one each), so when I made my decision on where to place them, I could clamp them down easily so they don't move.
One clamp holding it firmly to desk:
7. After very carefully taking the yoke and throttle off where I wanted them(so the mount doesn't move) I then used a pencil and marked throw the drill holes on the wood so I knew where to pre-drill into the wood for the screws to go in nice and easy.
8. After marking all 8 hole locations, I got my drill and used a proper bit to pre-drill the holes into the wood. In my case, I used a 1/8 inch I believe. I then got a piece of tape and taped up the bit to where I wanted to stop(as I didn't want to go all the way through the wood).
Tape and screw:
Just to be sure I was drilling in the right spot I started all the holes just a little bit while the mounts were still on. This is what it looks like after I started each one and took the mounts off:
9. Once I drilled my holes to the desired depth, I then screwed my bravo mount to the sheet of wood. I used #10 x 3/4" screws. #10=the width/thickness, 3/4"= the length/depth.
I used these screws to do it:
Everything worked great for the Bravo mounting with those pre-drilled holes, however, the Alpha would not be so easy...
Bravo mount screwed in:
The screws are flush, as this angle is hard to see. The mount is solidly in place.
A closer look:
10. The Alpha mount required some fine tuning with the drill, however after some extra drilling and cleaning of edges, it was ready for screws. I ended up running into a big problem here, and the screws were not long enough. Since I stripped the wood hole a bit, I ended up going back to the hardware store and got some #12 x 1" screws If I didn't strip the wood out, #10 x 3/4" screws would have been fine for this.
Alpha mount on:
Since it is impossible to make the screws flush, when mounting it caused some problems trying to get the alpha yoke on. But with some determination, it made it on. It seemed like it was mostly these front screws that caused the problem when putting the yoke on. This is where I would recommend moving these to where the clamp goes.
Front left screw of Alpha mount:
11. The last step is simply(hopefully) putting the Bravo and Alpha on and then screwing down the back of them so they stay solidly on to the mount and don't move around.
This is how it turned out:
Like I said previously, everything has been working great and so far I have no complaints!
Thank you for reading this long guide with many many large pictures. If this is your first time visiting msflights.net, please consider joining us for group flights. All the information is on the main page and most of them are around the weekend. We are a friendly and casual group of virtual and real world pilots.
1. I decided to use a 1" x 12" sheet of wood(I used oak and painted it first with spray paint days before), and cut it to the size of my desk. Keep in mind 1x12 is actually 3/4" x 11-1/4" in the real world...
2 I then mounted my clamps from the Alpha control on the sides of the desk and wood. This may need to be changed in your cockpit, however it worked great for me. This means I can disconnect my yoke and quadrant with 2 clamps very easily. This has been very sturdy over 3 weeks of testing with no movement.
Left side mount:
Right side mount:
Here is a view from the top:
3. Next I had to drill holes into the Alpha mount so I could get screws in it to mount it to the wood. This was not an easy choice, and I chose wrong, but it worked okay for me barely. If I were to do this again, I would have chosen to drill holes into the center of where the clamps go. Since the clamps will not be there while the mount is screwed into the wood, there is no reason why not. It made it a little more difficult on where I placed the screws.
The Bravo mount has pre-drilled holes, so if both of your mounts have pre-drilled holes, you can skip this step. This will likely be the case in the future, and Honeycomb has hinted they may sell accessories such as the the pre-drilled mount, if you don't have it.
Here is what I mean between the two:
Also, you must look carefully on the backside of where you want to drill. Not to drill through any pads and such:
4. Drilling These holes were very difficult. The plastic is super hard and durable. I made it through with some patience. I held half of it over the edge with my marked spots, two out, then did the other two. You will have to drill them out to at least the width of the screw. The plastic is very tough and you will likely find problems if you are trying to drill it a little small like you normally would with wood.
Here is the finished result(from the bottom side):
5. I then tested to see where I wanted to put the yoke and quadrant, as well as how close together I wanted them. I elected to keep them roughly an inch or more apart from each other because when the rolling to the right, the top of the yoke tip can get very close the the quadrant. I might fill in that gap later with some custom switches in the future.
Picture shows how close it is when touching:
6. While testing where I wanted them, I attached the mounting plate to the bottom of the yoke and quadrant properly, and used the extra clamps(from the Bravo) on the Alpha and Bravo(one each), so when I made my decision on where to place them, I could clamp them down easily so they don't move.
One clamp holding it firmly to desk:
7. After very carefully taking the yoke and throttle off where I wanted them(so the mount doesn't move) I then used a pencil and marked throw the drill holes on the wood so I knew where to pre-drill into the wood for the screws to go in nice and easy.
8. After marking all 8 hole locations, I got my drill and used a proper bit to pre-drill the holes into the wood. In my case, I used a 1/8 inch I believe. I then got a piece of tape and taped up the bit to where I wanted to stop(as I didn't want to go all the way through the wood).
Tape and screw:
Just to be sure I was drilling in the right spot I started all the holes just a little bit while the mounts were still on. This is what it looks like after I started each one and took the mounts off:
9. Once I drilled my holes to the desired depth, I then screwed my bravo mount to the sheet of wood. I used #10 x 3/4" screws. #10=the width/thickness, 3/4"= the length/depth.
I used these screws to do it:
Everything worked great for the Bravo mounting with those pre-drilled holes, however, the Alpha would not be so easy...
Bravo mount screwed in:
The screws are flush, as this angle is hard to see. The mount is solidly in place.
A closer look:
10. The Alpha mount required some fine tuning with the drill, however after some extra drilling and cleaning of edges, it was ready for screws. I ended up running into a big problem here, and the screws were not long enough. Since I stripped the wood hole a bit, I ended up going back to the hardware store and got some #12 x 1" screws If I didn't strip the wood out, #10 x 3/4" screws would have been fine for this.
Alpha mount on:
Since it is impossible to make the screws flush, when mounting it caused some problems trying to get the alpha yoke on. But with some determination, it made it on. It seemed like it was mostly these front screws that caused the problem when putting the yoke on. This is where I would recommend moving these to where the clamp goes.
Front left screw of Alpha mount:
11. The last step is simply(hopefully) putting the Bravo and Alpha on and then screwing down the back of them so they stay solidly on to the mount and don't move around.
This is how it turned out:
Like I said previously, everything has been working great and so far I have no complaints!
Thank you for reading this long guide with many many large pictures. If this is your first time visiting msflights.net, please consider joining us for group flights. All the information is on the main page and most of them are around the weekend. We are a friendly and casual group of virtual and real world pilots.
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