Production Designer : Tim Ferrier Television Series 1996/97 "Big Sky" was an ambitious project which required the construction of a full scale model Piper Chieftain twin engined aircraft for use in film production. The basic cockpit frame was built around the section of a junked plane purchased from a scrapper however this original did not have any panels, controls or instruments. Artist Electronics designed and constructed just about everything seen in the photo (left) which is a close replica to a hero plane used in location shooting. Approximately 40% of the dials and readouts are practical, and can be easily operated by remote control off camera using a specially constructed control panel. At the conclusion of production, the complete plane set was sold to Fox Studios Sydney, now stored alongside the Mission Impossible 747-400 Cabin set, at Homebush Bay in Sydney's West and is available to interested film production companies.

Finding available real aircraft instruments is virtually impossible in Australia. Of the few that were found, most required total reconstruction and even then were very expensive. This is because in real life, aircraft instruments such as these are ALWAYS repaired and hardly EVER replaced unless they have come from a plane which has been crashed into water. The working Altimeters and several other instruments in the cockpit set above are actually built from _Beer coasters_.. would you believe? But then that's the kind of thing we have to do everyday at Artist Electronics.