flyboy45

**fred padgett** · 06-12-2007, 09:53 PM

hi everyone. new here. starting my first flight sim cockpit. looking for ideas on where to start. where do you get the big windows...got to have those for sure.

**Bob Reed** · 06-12-2007, 09:56 PM

Welcome and glad to have ya! Look around there are a lot of pictures of people starting there projects here. Most of the big windows here are home made. What are you building? Look forward to watching your project grow!

**fred padgett** · 06-13-2007, 10:47 PM

hello.. my project is to replicate the cockpit panel of a 172 or a twin baron. the more I investigate the more I am overwelmed by the imformation out there. I am purchasing a new computer for this and hoping to get some good advice during each step of this project. Any help will be greatly appreciated. thanks. fred

**jmig** · 06-14-2007, 08:07 PM

Welcome Fred. My advise is to take your time and not rush into something you may later find too confining or the wrong direction. If you don’t already have them, I would start by acquiring a yoke/joystick then rudder pedals. General aviation (GA) aircraft mostly use a yoke. CH Products makes an excellent yoke for $100-150 USD. Their pedals are similarly priced. Besides, CH Products there are some more expensive and more realistic yokes and pedals on the market. Then FLY, FLY, FLY.

The point of a simulator is to fool the brain into thinking you are actually flying. My college professor wife calls it “suspense of disbelief.” Whatever you call it, that is what you want. Real airplanes use a yoke/stick and rudder pedals. Having them goes a long way into the “suspense of disbelief” thing.

When you are not flying, read and think. Sites like this one will give you ideas. After reading a few months you will begin to get a pretty good image of what is out there and what will work for you. Slowly, a plan will begin to germinate in your mind of the perfect setup and cockpit.

Some questions to answer: How realistic does the cockpit need to be? Will it be a complete rendition of an actual cockpit that would fool a movie director or will something more generic do? What type of visual display? Projectors, multiple monitors or one of the newer 24" or larger monitors? These are questions you will have to answer for yourself. The great thing about this hobby is that there is no one goal or score to win. You decide what is best and what works.

I will end by going back to my FLY, FLY, FLY statement. Unless you are a professional simulator contractor, cockpit building should be a means to an end not, the end in itself. If you spend al of your time building and not flying, I think that chances are good you will eventually burn out.

Flying your simulator, first without the cockpit, them maybe the shell, and finally completed is the real reason we are building. Remember that suspense of disbelief thing again. It is in flying that you will get ideas of what works and doesn’t work. Will a Go-Flight radio work or, do you need to build one? Maybe, you will find you really enjoy flying the heavy iron, or brush flying, or military fighters. Whatever and wherever your interests beacons you the hobby of flight simulation can take you there. It only takes a little time. So, my advise is to smell the castor oil and JP4. See you in the virtual air.