good day

[747sim]

Kinda new here but getting to grips pretty quick. trying to build cessna 172 simulator but a bit stuck with home made servo instruments and putting toggle switches on my phidgets 8/8/8

[Matt Olieman]

Welcome... "kinda new here" :) :) Glad to have a fellow Floridian to our flight-sim haven :) :)

Matt Olieman

[AndyT]

You are building a GA sim and you're not an Aussie! That's 2 points right off! (Just kidding) :o

[747sim]

Im born and raised in Great Britain, and thank you everyone here is so helpful despite the fact I know nothing

[AndyT]

We all began not knowing anything. I still know nothing.

[747sim]

you know one large amount more than I do, I have no idea what to do as far as instruments but i'm getting there on the switches and the software

[AndyT]

Ok, There are some shortcuts you can take to make life easier and keep you flying in the meantime. I'll list a couple and you can look them over.

In no particular order:

1. Desktop Aviator
http://www.desktopaviator.com/
.
2. GoFlight
http://www.goflightinc.com/order/index.php
.
3. Simkits
http://www.simkits.com/
.
This is just three of the most popular ones for GA planes. If you go tubes (commercial airliners) there are lots more.

I strongly suggest you first get Mikes book (Hey Mike! Thats another dollar! :lol ) and read it. After that begin by drawing some fairly detailed plans taking into account how much room you have to build your sim in.

[DAL900]

If you don't mind me asking, where in Florida (the big sweat box) are you?

[Matt Olieman]

Yeah, we might be able to make a MyCockpt Florida Chapter yet :) :) :)

Matt Olieman

[AndyT]

At least you have others in Florida. I'm all alone here in Hawaii.

[747sim]

I'm in Saint Augustine, I have looked at the links but I find the goflight is just marginally too exspensive for my current budget and the desktop aviator doesn't really have the realism I'd like although when I run out of inputs in my 8/8/8 I will be buying the 20 button interface then trying to figure toggle switches out.

[flyboy01]

Hi Andy T,
I see your love for Aussies is strong. I am sure you are just jealous you are not in the land down under. Dont worry. We will make you an honoury Aissie. LOL:D
Trev Wimmer

[747sim]

why not make him an honorary Brit?

[Westozy]

G'day to the pommy from Florida!

I would suggest you have a look at FSPanel, cheap and easy way to do a Cessna panel on a large LCD behind the MIP.

Regards,

Gwyn

[CocnutAir]

Andy,

You're almost half way to Oz.

747sim,
Were you born north or south of Hadrian's Wall?

Regards,
Alan

[Tomlin]

I'm in Saint Augustine,

Oh man, then you got some folks all around you that you can visit sims with, or at the least meet face to face!

You have Matt to the West of ye, and Ron Rollo up in Jax, and me only 2 hours north of you in Waycross, GA. Ron and I are both building Learjet 45 sims, and believe it or not it's fairly inexpensive.

BTW, my wife and I lived in St Augustine for 2 years after we got married, then moved to Orange Park and now back in our home town. I know the area there well after living in Jax for about 6 yrs or so.

Your best bet for now would be to get a good handle on interfacing toggle switches and using a monitor for your analogue gauges like seen here: http://www.mycockpit.org/forums/showthread.php?t=13103 . If you purchase FSUIPC, you can also program some functions that you would normally have to click on with a mouse by using the recently created Macro function. You can have a fun C172 fairly quickly that way, or other small GA aircraft. If you dont have a yoke but do have a joystick, then maybe you could approximate one of these newer side-stick aircraft! Take care, and let me know if you'd like to arrange a visit up to Waycross one evening or Saturday and we can go bustin' holes in the virtual sky.

[747sim]

I was born in Inverness which is a few hundred miles north of the wall, I have been toying with the idea of using a monitor behind the instrument panel but I am wanting two for visuals outside I'll give it a shot though and fiddle around with it. I already have purchased the fsuipc software but after a reformat I suppose I have to dig out the key number wherever it is.

[CocnutAir]

That makes you neither a pom nor a sassenach.
You were a lot further north than me, laddie.
Way up in the Highlands.
I lived in Edinburgh for 3 years.
Furthest north I got was Kirriemuir.
I was born a lot further south - below the equator.

Regards,
Alan.

[747sim]

sorry for late reply just having a bit of fun with microsoft at the moment :mad: You are quite a bit further south and they had a good winter up there this year, this company brought out a revolutionary heating system but when they tried it in Inverness it couldn't cope with the cold of -9 C.

[AndyT]

Alan,

I'm Texan but my wife is Hawaiian. Guess where we live. LOL

[747sim]

yeah that one is a no brainer:D

[CocnutAir]

Andy,

Ya'll live in a great place.

Alan.

[AndyT]

One of these days we plan on visiting Oz. Little does she know I'm planning on working all the Aussie sims into our trip. (If it ever happens)