Has anyone expanded home cockpit building to a business, for training pilots?

[mikesblack]

Has anyone built a cockpit and then rented for pilot training, including airline, cooperate or private?

[Avro748]

Someone asked about this before. The FAA section about training device certification is many, many pages long. There are a lot of reasons why the answer would be no, too many to write here, so just trust me on this one.

In the end, the cost of getting your sim certified for flight training will outweigh any ​revenue from renting your cockpit out.

However, renting your sim out for recreational use could turn you a profit. Flight training is not the only reason people use sims. Think about the demographic that would fly in a sim for the same reason you would.

[mikesblack]

I used to fly for a couple of airlines and so I have an interest in the commercial side. Naturally, I enjoy my home 767 cockpit as a hobby and love to share with friends and family.

Perhaps the return from the " entertainment" side might be rewarding in many ways. I am trying to find out more. It seems that if the business that could emerge from the hobby side was grand, perhaps more examples would be realized. Perhaps there are some who have done this and I'm waiting for them to chime in if they exist.

[Live2Fly]

I don't think you would get too many actual pilots who would rent it for training. If they want to use a simulator, they can go to their flight school and use it at next to nothing especially if they are a current student. (Almost every school has at least a basic PCATD setup.) Pilots who use it for training, will need to have a CFI or CFI-I with them for their time to count in the simulator, unless you already are one. If you want to rent it out for birthday parties and whatnot, well that's a different story. However, to me it seems more of a hassle than it's worth, too many screaming kids and strangers touching stuff they aren't supposed to.

[No Longer Active]

My flying club has a flight simulator where the members have all contributed (ie purchasing hardware, software, construction etc). As a result of the last year we pretty much have a full Elite setup now as we have slowly replaced the useless and unrealistic CH / Saitek stuff with Elite. As a club, we do not rent it, its free for all our members to use including our family and friends if they want to go. Its also used quite a bit in ground lessons and briefing to show exercises etc. This is how we operate our sim.....made and used by the members!

[Westozy]

About 6 years ago I was approached by guy from Melbourne who had seen my sim parts here at MC.org. I agreed to build an A320 TQ for Michael D. and this lead to an order for another one. Then I made some more Airbus parts for someone else and this generated even more work. Before I could blink I was swamped with orders for parts and Aerosim Solutions was born. The "pocket money" was helping me build my own sim and it rapidly grew into a business, I had to register Aerosim Solutions as an Australian business and now the taxman takes his bite! I had to stop trading to build two cockpits but I will be back in business next year for sure! The 747 cockpit I have been helping with is soon to be a commercial simulator and will be available for hire here in Perth. With every sale to a MyCockpit member I donate a portion to MyCockpit. I joined as member #54 and it is great to see the hobby expanding so rapidly. Please help support MC.org!! Cheers Gwyn

[OmniAtlas]

I will be looking forward to buying A320 parts when you're back in business Gwyn!

Ben

[Westozy]

No worries Ben, Gordon and I are currently developing Airbus side sticks Capt & FOs, hope to roll them out mid year...

Cheers Gwyn