Well-financed newbie asks ... which vendor?

[PaulEMB]

Hi,

I am also a happy FDS customer, and although I have a "non standard" sim, the FDS team has been excellent at fulfilling my requirements.

I would highly recommend a visit to FDS, I'm sure you will get a better idea of how to visualise your dream, and then be able to realise it!

[DaveyJJ]

Hi,

I am also a happy FDS customer, and although I have a "non standard" sim, the FDS team has been excellent at fulfilling my requirements.

I would highly recommend a visit to FDS, I'm sure you will get a better idea of how to visualise your dream, and then be able to realise it!

I was actually at the open house that they had recently, fortunately being only about 90 minutes drive away. Peter Cos invited me and I must say that I and a couple of even more tech-savvy friends were impressed.

That being said, I am also getting excellent replies and customer service from the guys at Cockpitsonic's Texas office. And their complete product certainly is stunning.

I am trying to decide between these two (and consequently two a/c models as well).

[BHawthorne]

While having the money to realize the project is nice, I truly believe the key ingredients for me are patience, tons of research and a willingness to learn a lot of new things at a pace that is comfortable to you. Money is only a minor portion of the equation. I personally believe it would be a mistake to spend money on anything unless you're dead sure that's the initial way you want to implement it and you've asked around for every little detail over the time of the build. My bet is you'll end up having a lot of fun learning new stuff and working with friends on the build and not end up spending anywhere near that $150k mentioned in the OP. I'd treat the project as though you don't have that money. It'll be a better influence upon your decision making along the way.

One thing you might think about since you do have a bit to begin with is find the boneyard contacts in your region. Get a price quote for a cut cockpit section. I've seen 737 sections go for $750-$2500 in the 2 cases I've seen in the last year. It would make a very solid shell for your build and would increase realism. They should come with the yokes and throttle quadrant and most of the panel mounts you'd need for the basis of high fidelity build.

[blueskydriver]

Davy,

Like some of the others here, I am a big FDS fan and I just received my B737 MIP Stand with Custom CDU Bay and many other related items. I am very happy with Peter and Steve.

However, when I started going for the cockpit 3 years ago, I was looking at the do-it-yourself idea and I can say I switched to built components later. For one, it is easy to plug in a EFIS and MCP with an USB cable, configure some software and you're flying with them, as opposed to making those yourself, working with "whatever" hardware cards and trying to figure it all out. You spend more time troubleshooting and less flying. I don't mind fixing things, but the hobby is flying a simulator and maybe fixing some things, not fixing everything and hope to fly!

Finally, and to say the least, I have seen many companies pop up on the radar and some are great and others are...well, not so great. The old saying still goes "buyer beware". Also, my main point is this, and maybe someone else might know about this, a few years ago a company started up and the owner was just getting into this and he had some awesome skills in fiberglass work.

He took real cockpits and made molds from them, as well as other interior parts. He now has a company called AeroDeck Engineering. If I had the money as you suggested and if AeroDeck is as good as the website suggest:

http://www.aerodeckengineering.com/P...s/products.php

I would buy it all from them because the cockpit looks really good; then again for $150,000 you could get a real pre-cut sim with everything here in the states if you look hard enough (check out http://www.angelfire.com/il2/aphs/).

However, since I am an FDS fan like I said, I'll stick with them because not only do they have good products, they have great support and that is what matters most! That I'd swear too! You call or email them and they'll email you or even call back within a few hours, even on weekends or way, way after midnight (if PC or Steve is up); all just to make me happy. So, that is where my money will continue to go...

John

[DaveyJJ]

Davy,

Like some of the others here, I am a big FDS fan and I just received my B737 MIP Stand with Custom CDU Bay and many other related items. I am very happy with Peter and Steve.

However, when I started going for the cockpit 3 years ago, I was looking at the do-it-yourself idea and I can say I switched to built components later. For one, it is easy to plug in a EFIS and MCP with an USB cable, configure some software and you're flying with them, as opposed to making those yourself, working with "whatever" hardware cards and trying to figure it all out. You spend more time troubleshooting and less flying. I don't mind fixing things, but the hobby is flying a simulator and maybe fixing some things, not fixing everything and hope to fly!

Finally, and to say the least, I have seen many companies pop up on the radar and some are great and others are...well, not so great. The old saying still goes "buyer beware". Also, my main point is this, and maybe someone else might know about this, a few years ago a company started up and the owner was just getting into this and he had some awesome skills in fiberglass work.

He took real cockpits and made molds from them, as well as other interior parts. He now has a company called AeroDeck Engineering. If I had the money as you suggested and if AeroDeck is as good as the website suggest:

http://www.aerodeckengineering.com/P...s/products.php

I would buy it all from them because the cockpit looks really good; then again for $150,000 you could get a real pre-cut sim with everything here in the states if you look hard enough (check out http://www.angelfire.com/il2/aphs/).

However, since I am an FDS fan like I said, I'll stick with them because not only do they have good products, they have great support and that is what matters most! That I'd swear too! You call or email them and they'll email you or even call back within a few hours, even on weekends or way, way after midnight (if PC or Steve is up); all just to make me happy. So, that is where my money will continue to go...

John

Thanks John,

We are lucky to be quite close to FDS ... only about a 75-90 minute drive depending on traffic across the 401 and have visited them and asked a fair number of technical questions. I am fortunate enough (or perhaps nerdy enough) to have friends who are programmers, mechanical engineers, and tinkers who code in assembly language for hobby projects and build CDC machines accurate to 1/1000th of an inch for fun. I took them with me.

Aerodeck is, unfortunately, not able to offer some of the equipment they are showing at this time ... I have had some great email conversations with them but they can't fulfill the order I'm envisioning at the moment.

On the other hand, Manolo at the US branch of CockpitSonic has been extremely helpful over the last week, and they have a turn-key simulator that is a slight bit more than I had wanted to spend, but is certainly worth the extra money if a complete, ready-to-fly thing is what you're looking for. The product is quite stunning.

I will be making a decision soon.