Hi! New here and just getting started on a pit.

Hi!

New here and wanted to introduce myself and what I hope to be my long term project.

I started working on my pilots license many years ago but life took me in other directions before I finished. Then along came MS Flight Sim and I've enjoyed sim'ing for quite a few years. Since version 2 actually. I started flying with an Online Virtual ATC group a few months ago and decided I wanted to enhance my sim setup.

I've made a couple posts here in the past few weeks asking some newbie type questions as I started to explore the possibility of building my own pit. But didn't think I'd be getting the jump start I just did.

I have been exploring building a generic GA Sim for single and/or twin engine prop. While I want it to be generic most of my ideas have a lot of "Cessna" influence based on my brief time flying while taking flight lessons. Well, as the result of a great e-Bay find it looks like it will have a bit more Cessna influence than I had originally planned.

My original idea was to start on the panel and use it at the desk until I could decide how to fabricate a shell. I figured some day I would come across one of those rare finds, a fuselage that was no longer air worthy but usable as a sim pit. Well . . . I found it Thursday and now it's in my back yard.

I did try to put a link to a pic of it here, but when I do, my post gets flagged for moderation and never comes back. I assume the moderators have a heavy backlog so I figured I'd post without the pic.

The fuselage is from a late 70's vintage C172 that was taken out of service a few years ago. The portion I have is relatively undamaged from the engine firewall back through the baggage compartment.

In addition to the fuselage, I have the doors, rudder pedals, yokes, and a seat, but the windshield is damaged beyond use, and one of the back and side windows are cracked. I still need to figure out how much of the back half to remove but figure I have a summer worth of cleanup and other work before I have to make that decision. I, of course, don't need anything back past the front seats, but the passenger compartment or at least a few feet of it, would make a nice space for the CPU's and such if I can make a space large enough in the garage to fit it all . . .