Hello from Virginia, USA!

I have been lurking around the site for some time, but now it's time to officially say hi! :D

My name is Efrain Ruiz but my friends call me "E". I am a 36 years old Police Officer who has been flightsimming since the Commodore 64 days. Flying has always been my passion but due mostly to financial reasons, I have never been able to go out and get real life flight training. For this reason, I have found shelter in the flightsimming community and this is my full-time hobby.

Back in 2000, I ventured into creating some sceneries for FS2000 and I created SJU2000, which at the time, was the most realistic rendition of my beloved Luis Munoz Marin International Airport (SJU/TJSJ) in San Juan, Puerto Rico. I always promised my close friends that I would create a new one from scratch for FSX but I never have had the time to get around to it.

I also have embarked on many VA projects. I was the founder of AirPUERTORICO Virtual Airlines (APR), American Airlines Virtual (AAV), Virtual American Airlines (VAA) and now my latest project is LiveDISPATCH (www.livedispatch.org). What is LiveDISPATCH? It's an application I wrote which interfaces with your FS session and you can log all of your flight hours on our website. We have support for over 300 airlines, so you can fly any flight, save a PIREP at the end of your flight and keep a log of all flights. It also has a LiveACARS feature, where you can see in real-time your flight on the website and/or any other pilots who are flying on the network. The utility itself has a built in fuel loader, trip folder generator, chat, screenshot utility, and many more feature. If you guys want to check us out, feel free to visit us at www.livedispatch.org. It's totally FREE! ;-)

I am surprised that it has taken me this long to embark on making my own home cockpit. I used to always be caught up in that never ending "upgrade" cycle, where one is always spending thousands of dollars on having the best system out there, in order to use the latest installment of FS at it's max. As we all know, this can NEVER be attained. For this reason, I decided to look into maybe investing my money into something which I can enjoy more than just staring at a monitor where an entire MIP is displayed at once.

That lead me to mycockpit.org and the rest is history! lol Below are 2 photos of how my build is coming along. I am at a VERY EARLY stage in the build, but it sure has been fun so far! Seeing a cockpit materialize in front of you, is nothing short of amazing and motivates me more and more.

http://www.livedispatch.org/IMG_1329.JPG

http://www.livedispatch.org/IMG_1330.JPG

My MIP was custom CNC'ed from one of the AutoCAD drawings found on mycockpit.org. It is a 1:1 scale MIP and it's made of 3mm steel. The panels are from Hispapanels and gear lever/IO cards from OpenCockpits.

Right now I am limited to working on the MIP itself, because we are in the process of buying a house, so I will wait till once we move, before I start working on more bigger projects such as the floor, seats, overheads and enclosures.

Once again, I want to thank this outstanding website for all the help you guys always give and I hope some day I can also be the one helping others.

Take care guys and see you all around the website and perhaps at LiveDISPATCH! :D

Hi Efrain,

Thanks for the pics, the sim is really coming along. Please keep us updated about your progress and keep those pics coming.


Regards,

Pedro

Hi E
Anytime, If I can help.
Jack