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Builder Interview: “Loophole” on the Akers-Barnes Cockpit

PitBuilderMag.com is proud to have the opportunity to speak with Michael “Loophole” Barnes, co-designer of the now famous Akers-Barnes Portable Cockpit (or “ABC”) which is, if our research is correct, having its 10^th anniversary this year.  For the uninitiated, the ABC design is built from flat plywood or MDF, and slots together to form a highly flexible home cockpit platform.  It's a fitting first interview for PBM, as the ABC is often the first thing built when starting a new cockpit project.  On with the interview.

Some early ABCs, around the start of the century

PBM: G’day Michael, and thanks for agreeing to answer our questions.  To begin, could you introduce yourself and tell us a bit about the origins of the ABC?

Allen Pawley, photographed at the Avalon Airshow in his precursor to the ABC pit.

LOOPHOLE:  The original inspiration for the ABC was a sim-cockpit that Peter Akers and I saw at the Avalon International Airshow, back in 1999 (I think).  That was the first year that we organised a flight-sim display at the airshow.  It was a collaboration between four clubs, from Brisbane, Newcastle, Sydney and Melbourne.  We were all flying Su-27 Flanker at the time, and several groups brought sim-cockpits with them.  The Newcastle guys had some impressive units, but they were huge – they needed a trailer to bring them.  One of the Sydney guys – Allen Pawley – had a much neater unit that could be disassembled for transport.  It was Allen’s design that was the inspiration for the ABC.

PBM: So from the initial inspiration to your design - can you describe the principles, key features and construction process of the ABC?  What do you think are the best parts of the design?

LOOPHOLE: There were four criteria that we had for the ABC design:

• Approximate the layout of a jet-fighter cockpit
• Easy to make
• Quick and easy to assemble and disassemble
• Fit in a two-seater MG

The latter criteria was dictated by the fact that Peter had just bought himself a classic MG soft-top!

Can a cockpit fit in this? You bet it can!

The original Allen Pawley cockpit was held together with screws and bolts.  Starting with its basic layout as an inspiration, we made cardboard models, and worked out a way to build the whole thing jigsaw-fashion, out of nothing but flat ply and one length of dowel.  This made it easy to make – just cut the shapes out of a ply sheet, and it’s done – and easy to assemble and disassemble – the pieces just slot together.  However, it was still going to be too big to fit in Peter’s MG.  Also, it was too narrow to fit a set of Thrustmaster rudder pedals.  That was when we came up with the idea of separating the seat and the console unit.  That brought a bunch of benefits – the console could be made wider to fit the pedals; the individual pieces were smaller, so the disassembled unit would fit in Peter’s MG, and the distance to the console could be adjusted to suit the individual, just by sliding the two halves.

Akers... and Barnes. Hence the name.

Before we built the first one, we made a full-sized cardboard replica, and sat in it using phone books as the seat, to get the heights and sizes right.  We then built ABC #1 in Peter’s garage, and I am still using it to this day!

PBM: Two blokes in a garage - the story of many great inventions!  Anything that you’d change, in hindsight?

Flexibility: Ed's ABC, modified to take a homebuilt ACESII ejection seat.

LOOPHOLE: A great thing about the ABC design is how flexible it is.  It is really easy to vary the design to suit your own needs.  It has been quite amazing to see the variations and ideas that people around the world have come up with.  Some have fitted car seats.  Others have added centre consoles and centre-mounted joysticks.  Some prefer a higher position, and have raised the height of the whole unit.  It is just a matter of tweaking the shapes before cutting them out.

We did add a few things to the original design.  Particularly, the original design didn’t have lugs on the side-strakes, so they tended to tip if you leant on the outer edges.  We also added slots and pieces to provide a keyboard shelf, and a shelf to clamp a steering wheel if you wanted to use the cockpit for driving games.

I also found the seat a bit hard, and replaced the seat base with a stack of foam blocks that the back-piece just slots into.  That variation hasn’t made it into the plans on our website.

PBM: The flexibility is certainly something that attracted me to the design for my own 2nd generation cockpit, given that I had an ACESII ejection seat to fit in it.  I must say that the modular design made it very easy to modify.

Onto the plans: they are free to download, but you do request that builders request a free “license” of sorts via email to construct a copy.  How many requests have you had, and what would you estimate is the total number of ABCs out in the world?

LOOPHOLE: We did the “license” thing because we wanted to retain the copyright to produce the design commercially, but still be able to allow people to use the design to build their own.  I did look at commercial production, and several entrepreneurs contacted me about doing likewise, but in the end the production and shipping costs make the price unreasonable, so it was not a viable proposition.  It would take something like an Ikea to bring the manufacturing and distribution costs down to a reasonable level.  Regardless, I would always want to keep the plans available for individuals to use for free.

It is hard to say how many ABCs have been built around the world.  Just based on the people who have emailed us, I estimate it to be in the hundreds.

ABCs at the Oz Flight Sim Expo 2007

PBM: Any tips for readers that are about to build their own ABC?  What tools are required?

LOOPHOLE: We built the original ABCs using a ruler, a circular saw, a jig saw, a rasp and some sandpaper, so it doesn’t require much.  (Pro Tip: the heavier a jigsaw is, the better the result - Ed) I did get a couple laser-cut (there is a CNC file included with the plans), and they were sweet – absolutely perfect joins.

Hints for builders?

• The plans are based on a specific wood thickness.  If you use a different thickness, you might need to adjust the positions and width of the slots.
• Cut the shapes with some margin.  When you paint the pieces, the slots get tighter.  When assembled, the units are self-supporting, so you can make the slots quite loose and sloppy.  That makes it much easier to assemble and disassemble, but doesn’t affect stability when assembled.  The key pieces are the top and front panel of the console; the slots there are deliberately slightly off-position, as the pressure acts to lock the rest in place.
• If you make customisations, build a scale cardboard model first, to make sure you adjusted all the interlocking pieces correctly. (Balsa or CAD also work well - Ed)
• If you don’t like woodwork, look for a friendly neighbourhood engineering firm with a laser cutter, and convince them to do a little one-off job for you.
  

  And it fits together just like Lego.

PBM: Good advice Michael!  With so many ABCs out there, and many of them having been extensively altered, have you seen any particularly impressive modifications?

LOOPHOLE: I recall looking at photos of the Lowland Tiger Meet in Europe, and seeing many cockpits there that seem to be ABCs or based on the ABC.  The ones that really impressed me had been kitted out with complete instrumentation setups.  It must have had some impact on the portability, but the result looked like a full-on professional simulator!

PBM: Heh, I know from experience that portability is inversely proportional to bells and whistles

Although the ABC was originally conceived as a flight simulation platform, it’s very applicable to racing and mech pits as well.  Have you considered modifications to the design to tailor it to other applications, or to improve on the original?

LOOPHOLE: It doesn’t seem to have needed any changes for any of the applications we have seen.  The only shortcoming we have not been able to find a good solution for is a comfortable place for the mouse, so the pit is not so good if you like to indulge in occasional first-person shooter or RTS in between simulations.

The Brisbane-based 62nd Fighting Falcons

PBM: True enough, I've certainly had my share of "ABC Shoulder" from extended sessions of ArmAII in the pit.

Your sim squadron, the 62^nd Fighting Falcons, have shown off their ABCs at a number of airshows and expos.  What sort of response have you had to the design, and what are the most common questions you get?

LOOPHOLE: We have always received great interest and positive comments about the cockpits, when we do displays.  The most common question we get is “where can I buy one?”.  I’d still like to be able to give people an answer to that!

PBM: Cheers Michael.  The sim world is certainly a better place for having the ABC design at its disposal, so thanks on behalf of the whole community for such a tremendous asset.  Anything you’d like to say to the readers?

LOOPHOLE: I’m just really pleased that people have found the ABC design to be so useful!

The 62nd hard at work in their ABCs.

The plans for the Akers-Barnes Cockpit can be downloaded here.  Please remember to request a builder license!

About Ed

Dad to two tremendous kids, cockpit builder, amateur electronics hobbyist, moviemaker and pilot. Founder and editor of pitbuildermag.com.