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 :roll:. 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! :roll:
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
