For those who have been asking for some basic "how to" information on building a homebuilt cockpit setup, Kevin Saker has a great website that has a lot of really supurb solutions to building various aspects of a simpit.

While I think his solenoid driven keyboard interface is overly complicated in light of the various cheap keyboard encoders that are available in the $75 USD range, the basic concepts about mechanical construction and simulating linkages and such are really great.

This site will get your creative juices flowing, particularly if you want to build "on the cheap".

I particularly like his "pseudo-force feedback" seat vibration system concept.  I plan to experiment with that idea myself and see where I can go with it.

The simulated Ground Power/APU panel and the logic behind it is really a nice piece of work that would add this function to any aircraft sicne it basically functions "outside" the sim itself.  Add a "keypress" that activates a sound file of the APU engine starting and running or shutting down....and the realism should be prety good.

Take a look at his site at:

http://www.flightsim.com/cgi/kds?$=main/howto/kevssim.htm



best,

................john