Page 1 of 4 1234 LastLast
Results 1 to 10 of 32

Thread: Insane builders

  1. #1
    300+ Forum Addict mauriceb's Avatar
    Join Date
    Dec 2005
    Location
    Gravenhurst, Ontario
    Posts
    446
    Contribute If you enjoy reading the
    content here, click the below
    image to support MyCockpit site.
    Click Here To Contribute To Our Site

    Insane builders

    What is it about flight simulation that makes normally sane grown-ups become total lunatics? Why does an otherwise healthy mature male become obsessed about the exact color match for the knobs on the fire control panel or the seat adjustment knob or any other part of the flight deck for that matter? Why does anyone worry about the exact travel distance of the rudder pedals or the exact force required to push on the pedals.

    I can already hear the screams of protest from many of you who will insist that this is totally worthwhile and necessary for your flying enjoyment. I say balderdash to that. The many of you who are obsessed with these microscopic details are simply deluding yourselves into believing this is necessary in order to achieve total realism in your sims.

    Pardon me boys, but this is total nonsense. As long as the call button does not materialize a real flight attendant (& not your wife/girlfriend in a flight attendant suit), then you have nothing real in your sims. As long as the fire department does not come knocking at your doors when you have an engine fire, nothing is real in your sim. As long as your sim is physically intact after any of your many 'hard' landings/crashes, nothing is real in your sim.

    This is just a make believe world that you have surrounded yourself with and if you can make yourself believe you are flying a real plane, then you can also make yourself believe the same thing even if you did not get the exact colour match for the seat fabric that only your rear ends or rather the pants over your rear-ends can see & feel when flying anyway.

    I must confess though of having been affected with this insanity as well. I don't know how much time I wasted trying to get the same curve on the parking brake handle in my throttle assembly as what I could see in the pictures. As if that mattered when a straight piece of metal actuating a switch would have served the same function perfectly well.

    I am writing this because I am now in the final stages of building rudder pedals assemblies. I thought that getting real pedals that had actually been stepped on by real pilots (wow!!!!) was the thing to do . Little did I know that this complicated my life immeasurably as I had to make that work with my homemade linkages instead of starting from scratch, which in hindsight would have been a lot easier.

    I'm also writing this to pass the time faster at work so that I can get back home & continue countersinking holes in remote locations which will never be seen by anyone. Pity!

    I would be willing to pay big bucks if someone came up with an antidote for this madness/stupidity. As I said, I can hear the screams of protest from all the purists out there, but I still maintain this is insanity and I know that most wives out there would agree with my assessment.

    Sleepless (& insane) in Holland Landing,
    Maurice

  2. #2
    2000+ Poster - Never Leaves the Sim Michael Carter's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2006
    Location
    Southern Illinois, USA
    Posts
    2,887
    Contribute If you enjoy reading the
    content here, click the below
    image to support MyCockpit site.
    Click Here To Contribute To Our Site

    Building a "as close to exact" simulator as is possible is as much fun as the flying for me. And it's not always the 'exact' results that count, but the challenge of trying whether it turns out to be an exact replica or not.

    Others are not that obsessed with accuracy or even authenticity. But I'd like it as real as my skills, space, and money will allow me to build it.

    That's not always the end result, but the challenge of doing so.
    Boeing Skunk Works
    Remember...140, 250, and REALLY FAST!

    We don't need no stinkin' ETOPS!



    Powered by FS9 & BOEING

  3. #3
    2000+ Poster - Never Leaves the Sim Trevor Hale's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2005
    Location
    Ontario, Canada
    Posts
    2,223
    Contribute If you enjoy reading the
    content here, click the below
    image to support MyCockpit site.
    Click Here To Contribute To Our Site

    Quote Originally Posted by mauriceb View Post

    I'm also writing this to pass the time faster at work so that I can get back home & continue countersinking holes in remote locations which will never be seen by anyone. Pity!
    LMAO, I am doing the same thing.. Why is it that work has to get in the way of our simulator building.. ROFL

    Quote Originally Posted by mauriceb View Post
    I would be willing to pay big bucks if someone came up with an antidote for this madness/stupidity.
    There is one.. LOL it's called Divorce, it sucks all our money away so we can't build a sim. Although, do you know why divorce is so expensive??? Because it's worth it!! ROFL

    Quote Originally Posted by mauriceb View Post
    As I said, I can hear the screams of protest from all the purists out there, but I still maintain this is insanity and I know that most wives out there would agree with my assessment.

    Sleepless (& insane) in Holland Landing,
    Maurice
    This last part is the real truth, We keep dreaming about solving our simulator problems, while our wives are dreaming about when the kitchen cupboards will stop falling off..

    Well put, Maurice. Well Put!
    ________________________
    Trevor Hale

  4. #4
    300+ Forum Addict David Rogers's Avatar
    Join Date
    Sep 2007
    Location
    Durham (The original!), England
    Posts
    332
    Contribute If you enjoy reading the
    content here, click the below
    image to support MyCockpit site.
    Click Here To Contribute To Our Site

    Interesting post but I think a little harsh at times; there is still a whole lot of realism that can be experienced and enjoyed, even while we don't have things like "real life air hostesses". I am not a purist - I am building a home cockpit based on a 737NG but that will be used to fly 737, 767 and A320 models. Therefore, there are many areas in my build that are not exact replicas of a NG flight deck. But even speaking of the real purists, I still don't think they are as deluded and senseless as suggested above - I just think we have an interesting hobby that does concern fine detail, and a great deal of fascinating problem solving and developing solutions! When I see someone who has developed a component that looks identical to a real world part, I don't think "what a deluded idiot", I just hugely respect the talent and determination that the builder had to reach such a level of similarity between their home-produced component and the real one. Brian's Airbus is a great example of this - it's phenomenal what he has achieved for the A340, without 'off the shelf' parts.

    Just as BSW said, for me, cockpit building is a hobby in itself, sometimes quite apart form Flight Sim because as much enjoyment can be obtained from the building as from the flying. It's this that (I believe) drives some of us to spend weeks developing an exact replica component - not that we believe it will add huge realism advances to our overall set-up.
    David R
    Durham, England

    1979 Mooney M20J Cockpit builder ......

  5. #5
    300+ Forum Addict mauriceb's Avatar
    Join Date
    Dec 2005
    Location
    Gravenhurst, Ontario
    Posts
    446
    Contribute If you enjoy reading the
    content here, click the below
    image to support MyCockpit site.
    Click Here To Contribute To Our Site

    Quote Originally Posted by Boeing Skunk Works View Post
    Building a "as close to exact" simulator as is possible is as much fun as the flying for me. And it's not always the 'exact' results that count, but the challenge of trying whether it turns out to be an exact replica or not.

    Others are not that obsessed with accuracy or even authenticity. But I'd like it as real as my skills, space, and money will allow me to build it.

    That's not always the end result, but the challenge of doing so.
    I wasn't talking about 'builders' who like to fly now & then. I was talking about people whose primary love & purpose is to simulate real flying (that includes me) but who get sucked in into this accurate building frenzy. I personally couldn't care less about the building part and I wish I could pay someone to build it for me, but I still spend way too much time on what I think are totally unimportant details for my purpose, which is to fly. That's why I called this insanity

    Maurice

  6. #6
    1000+ Poster - Fantastic Contributor Tomlin's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2005
    Location
    Waycross, GA
    Posts
    1,027
    Contribute If you enjoy reading the
    content here, click the below
    image to support MyCockpit site.
    Click Here To Contribute To Our Site

    I agree with everything that all three of you said above, (well, maybe not the divorce part cause all is well in that department) but it IS craziness sometimes the length and aggravation we go to make these machines work the way they do in real life (and we still fall short in some area).

    Maurice, Im glad you bought those rudder pedals buddy, 'cause I now have an interface for my sim! LOL! But, yeah, I will state one more time- I initially switched aircraft so that I could 'let go' of some of the obsesive ideas I had for the 737 project and it's been a real blessing believe it or not.

    I have to admit- I spend WAY too much time thinking about all this stuff. Im guessing though that one day, that will change.

    I do have one concern- I love flying, but Ive really enjoyed the building too. I often wonder if once it's built if I will enjoy it as much as I do now, planning how Im going to tackle the next challenge. Once the building's done, it's just flying and maintenance.

    A funny story- A good friend and myself used to own a small recording studio in Florida, and sometimes at night we would leave the apartment that we shared and would go down to the studio, JUST TO RE-WIRE IT ALL FOR FUN!

    How insane is that?
    Eric Tomlin-
    Learjet 45 Builder
    www.flightlevel180.org

  7. #7
    300+ Forum Addict mauriceb's Avatar
    Join Date
    Dec 2005
    Location
    Gravenhurst, Ontario
    Posts
    446
    Contribute If you enjoy reading the
    content here, click the below
    image to support MyCockpit site.
    Click Here To Contribute To Our Site

    Quote Originally Posted by David Rogers View Post
    I just hugely respect the talent and determination that the builder had to reach such a level of similarity between their home-produced component and the real one.

    So do I. I think the achievements that I see every day in this forum are phenomenal. But my point will always be that there is something particular to flight simulation that makes you switch the way you see & do things. I don't like the building part at all. Yes, I love the results at the end, but I would love it even more if someone did it for me so that I could spend my time flying instead of worrying about minutia.

    I have spent almost 2 months now with those damn rudder pedals instead of doing any flying and I'm getting serious withdrawal symptoms. This would not happen if I worried less about accuracy of reproduction when the only thing I really like is the flying part. This is madness to me but I do recognize that it is heaven for others if pure flying is not the ultimate goal.

    And I wasn't trying to be 'harsh'. I think all the people involved in this hobby are great people for which I have tremendous respect. I was mostly kicking myself and taking cheap shots at others just for my amusement (call me immature if you wish but never harsh)

    Maurice

  8. #8
    2000+ Poster - Never Leaves the Sim Trevor Hale's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2005
    Location
    Ontario, Canada
    Posts
    2,223
    Contribute If you enjoy reading the
    content here, click the below
    image to support MyCockpit site.
    Click Here To Contribute To Our Site

    LMAO Mau,

    I knew what you were getting at. It was a good laugh for a Thursday Morning. I applaud your accuracy in depicting us insane enthusiests.

    Because that is what we all are. If we wern't then why would we be here.

    Great writings.
    ________________________
    Trevor Hale

  9. #9
    500+ This must be a daytime job JBaymore's Avatar
    Join Date
    Mar 2005
    Location
    Wilton, New Hampshire USA
    Posts
    601
    Contribute If you enjoy reading the
    content here, click the below
    image to support MyCockpit site.
    Click Here To Contribute To Our Site

    Quote Originally Posted by Tomlin View Post
    I often wonder if once it's built if I will enjoy it as much as I do now, planning how Im going to tackle the next challenge. Once the building's done, it's just flying and maintenance.
    Eric,

    Ah....but that is the point ..... it will NEVER actually be "done". Because you will always see "just one more little detail" that can be done or improved.

    There is NO recovery from this insanity..... it is a terminal affliction.

    best,

    ................john

  10. #10
    1000+ Poster - Fantastic Contributor Tomlin's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2005
    Location
    Waycross, GA
    Posts
    1,027
    Contribute If you enjoy reading the
    content here, click the below
    image to support MyCockpit site.
    Click Here To Contribute To Our Site

    Quote Originally Posted by JBaymore View Post
    Eric,

    Ah....but that is the point ..... it will NEVER actually be "done". Because you will always see "just one more little detail" that can be done or improved.

    There is NO recovery from this insanity..... it is a terminal affliction.

    best,

    ................john
    Well, if you just knew how many times I woke up this morning still running thru my head how Im going to build the MIP stand over the next few days when I get some serious shop time under my belt...

    Insanity reigns in the sim building world!
    Eric Tomlin-
    Learjet 45 Builder
    www.flightlevel180.org

Page 1 of 4 1234 LastLast

Similar Threads

  1. Any TX builders?
    By MLeavy737 in forum General Builder Questions All Aircraft Types
    Replies: 0
    Last Post: 03-22-2011, 09:21 PM
  2. Another insane aviation freak
    By Yoshi in forum Welcome to MyCockpit New here? Introduce Yourself!
    Replies: 12
    Last Post: 09-13-2007, 04:37 PM
  3. All 737 Sim Builders
    By garyk007 in forum General Builder Questions All Aircraft Types
    Replies: 1
    Last Post: 06-05-2007, 07:24 AM
  4. You guys are insane!
    By Chip in forum Welcome to MyCockpit New here? Introduce Yourself!
    Replies: 21
    Last Post: 04-13-2007, 06:01 PM