starting out.. virutal cockpit - some ideas/input needed.

Hi,
Ive been thinking about doing somthing like this for a while & caught the flight sim bug about 6 months ago... I dont play that much due to not having much room - but I should soon have a spare room (well a loft conversion) to do somthing more dedicated.

Im just looking to make a basic multi use pit, as I prefer doing the MS scenario's than just flying from A to B.

All I have at the moment is the Saitek Yoke & Quadrant. In the coming weeks I am going to add the 3x multi panels to this as well as the rudders, but not going to bother with the expensive tft instruments they sell.
Simply because I like what I see about the saitek's & the main compenents i struggle with are all there (mostly being trim, flaps & radio!)

This is where I would like some input...
I would love to have somthing that I can double up as a cessna glass cockpit
as found @ http://www8.garmin.com/HiRes/cessnaSkyhawkPanel.jpg
What I really want to build is somthing thats as keyboardless as possible.
now I dont know to use touchscreens to emulate the Garmin GPS (the beauty being a screen, is that I can easily load other panels etc) - but not sure how fiddly using a touchscreen is for this.

Another option would be to just use normal screens & maybe an ipac & make a controller board.
Not sure if people have come across an i-pac, but it used extensively in MAME arcade emulation
http://www.ultimarc.com/ipac1.html - it basically allows you to assign a button as a keystroke.
I believe fsxpand supports assigning keystrokes to the garmin gps.. i would assume project magenta would also?


I have a 19" touchscreen that I am going to use for a home jukebox, but it could be sacrificed.

As for output the main scenery, I will be using a projector - is there a way to bend/curve the output for better immersion? its a Hitachi PJ-TX200.

Im not going to the expense of some of the amazing setups ive seen on here.
infact, my main reason for wanting a sim pit is to justify the expense to myself to go fly a real plane!!!