Another universal cockpit builder - this time from Herborn

Hi fellow madmen, er, homecockpit builders :)

Time to come out of the closed, so to speak, sharing my project with you, hopefully learning from you and probably even being able to provide some advice myself. I've been doing this for a couple years now, my first project being an open one-seater with some purchased and some home-built panels. I am working with Opencockpits / IOCards and have created some custom panels for my first pit and by now own an MCP, an EFIS and since recently an FMC (that's fun!).

The current project is going to be a fully enclosed two-seater of about 2x2x2 metres in size, again usable for various aircraft types. The current state is that I have the base plate with seats, the MIP and the basic controls.

http://abload.de/img/hclxlgf.jpg

Excuse the poor quality; I just took a quick picture "over my shoulder" - just (re)installing FSX on one of the three PC which comprise the IT (number 3 still to come). Yes, it will be FSX for now, because this is what I know best. When all is set up. P3D is worth a thought or two - but not before.

Oh, I am 52 and work as a quality engineer at a local aircraft cabin equipment manufacturer.

And here is why I came here: I have played around for awhile with addon aircraft (PMDG NGX, LevelD 767 with Nico Kaan's Lekseecon and some GA aircraft work quite well) but now I am at a point where I want to switch over to a setup like this:

• the main PC for scenery (the outside view, stretched over the top three monitors)
• the secondary PC for cockpit software (the left and right MIP monitor and the FMC)
• the third one for additional software like weather, online, charts etc. etc. (the center monitor and the small one next to the FMC)

And the cockpit software is where I am at a loss right now. I am peering on Project Magenta, because they seem to be the most versatile with their different packages - would like to have the Boeing and the GA suite. But at the same time they seem to have the least documentation around. Obviously, one knows how to configure PM, or not. They also are the least responsive to questions, at least as long as I am no real customer. But on the other hand, I do not want to waste a couple hundreds of Euros for a pig in a poke.

I do think that it must be possible; I have already browsed through the different config files of the demo, but I need to know what is what and what works how. For the beginning, I will not have hardware switches for most of the aircraft systems, so I need some GUI which can be operated with keyboard and mouse. I understand that this is possible with PM - just how?

Of course I could go and buy ProSim for example, but then I had only a 737. I know that this will sure be fascinating for some time, and much easier to run, but I also know that I will want more after some time.

So: Is this the place to ask people who are "intimate" with PM and willing to share their knowledge - or point me to places where I can get smart? I do hope so.

Good Night for now.

Boris