So you want to build a Home cockpit for FS.

If your computer is in the 3 Gig Range with a Gig
Or so of 400-speed ram, Windows XP and 4 Video cards

Or a 4 head video card, it’s possible to run 4 monitors off one computer. FS2004 and Windows XP make it quite easy to set up.

It’s cheaper by far to do it this way than a LAN setup.

3 or 4 computers take up a lot of room and power.
It's a lot cooler running and quieter as well.

In order to keep this note short,

I respectfully suggest you

Search the net a lot.

Type: Home Cockpit

Study!
Spend 3 hours a day or so studying for about 6 months.
That’s the only way you can get your head around building a home cockpit. Then spend another year or so drafting and planning a simple cockpit.

All the way down to the last peace! PLAN, PLAN AHEAD, PLAN AGAIN!

Everything costs Big money to say nothing about the hours you will be investing working on your Cockpit. Take the time to make it right the first time!

Every time you make a mistake it costs a hundred bucks. That’s if your lucky and it’s a small mistake!

You will need a 12volt power supply and wiring for lighting, A stereo amp for sound into a rumble seat.

A Keyboard Emulator for making things like gear go up and flaps down. Making the monitor setup work is easy and just the tip of the Iceberg.

I have hand mapped and then hacked 2 keyboards one standard and one USB and find it’s not worth the time and mess. Go get a Keyboard Emulator

I don’t want to scare any one off their dream.

But!

Fine woodworking skills, tools and a shop to work in are mandatory

Be prepared to spend hundreds if not thousands of hours Drafting, Cutting out, Fine sanding and painting all the peaces of your sim.

I have been Designing, Building and flying large scale flying model aircraft for 30 years so I’m not new to the art of fine woodworking yet find myself challenged daily.

To date:
I have over the last 3 years invested between $4,500.00 and $5000.00 US dollars in a simple single seat
3 - monitor 737 like panel and cockpit with console and overhead panel. I elected to use a 21” monitor and a large T.V screen magnifier for my main screen and
2 – 15”monitors for the instrument panel itself.

You will also need a sound understanding of how Microsoft Flight Simulator creates and displays panel windows and be handy with a panel editor.

Forget the Microsoft panel Editor its garbage.
Get CFG Editor for whatever version of FS you have.

I have to say I’m greatly disappointed with the cost associated with commercially available home cockpit software it’s for the most part a totally ridiculous price.

I understand these things require a lot of work to produce but how many of us can afford  $2,000.00 disks with $25.00 avionics packages on them.

As for FREE FD it’s free you just can’t get it!

If you aren’t making $300.000.00 a year you will have to create your own Custom panel.cfg in order to place the right gauges in the right places on the right panels.

Yes building a home cockpit is a nice Idea.
Having my own flight simulator has been a lifetime dream I never believed possible yet with the advent of today’s computers and flight simulator programs
It’s achievable.  But it’s a project that could conceivably take years and thousands of dollars to complete.

Good luck

I

I agree on every point.

Thanks for getting rid of the extra posts.
Still don't know how I ended up posting 5 times.
Don’t get me wrong,
I don't believe I've drawn that unrealistic a picture
As to the realities of what it takes to build even a simple panel with a few working switches. Much less a sit in cockpit with a 4’x8’ Base rumble seat and
Descent controllers. I’m not trying to scare anyone off building a cockpit just redirecting a little sunshine you might say.

I have been to a few of those swap meets myself.
And yes picked up a few goodies along the way.

But things like descent 21” monitors Flight yokes throttle quadrants, rudder pedals 3 gig computers,
4 cards and a gig of ram cost $.

I must say over the years I have been down the winding road building and modifying controllers, I have loved every minuet of it but building your own controllers out of nice aluminum, using things like radio control car gears also takes great skill a lot of study time and a solid understanding of electronics.

One should be able to read and understand electronic diagrams. You must also be handy with a soldering iron or you end up letting the smoke out of major computer components. Using cheep or used controllers also has its drawbacks.

You see John this is not my first time building a simpit.
My first one was about 1990 A floor mounted jet style yoke and throttle quadrant. Back in the days when I was flying Stunt Island on a 486.

Scince there have been many prototypes leading up to the my current pit.

This has been a work of love for many years and I’m thrilled to be able to come to Simviation home cockpit forum look at and read about all the wonderful projects being built.  Maybe I’m not drawing that rosy a picture but the reality when it comes to building a home cockpit is they aren’t cheep and they don’t just build themselves. It’s a major undertaking that can conceivably take yeas to complete and will require a lot of dedication and skill on the part of any person
Attempting such a project.

PS Thanks again for the note!

John: are you a radio amateur?
VE3-JHG Here
42.55 M NL
82.10 M WL

73’s Back at ya J.
My station is 8 NM 130 from home airport CYZR.

As always I’d love to here from other forum readers.
So feel free to jump in and say hi fellow sim builders!

Later

Any one know of a sim builders chat room?

Yes the airport Id's make finding peoples where abouts easy.

I fly the local commuter run same as the big boys here.

Windsor, Sarnia,London,Toronto,Ottawa,Montreal
Quite a bit with an old CVA Dash 8. It’s a nice run but keeps a fellow plenty occupied.

Not keen on the Beach 1900

I also fly a pretty nice old
Great Lakes Airlines Convair 580

I fly it quite a bit but it’s cranky to land so I only fly it when I don’t have other folks around to bother me.

It's a nice flight over to KORD from here as well so I fly
CYYZ - KORD with the Convair it trues out just over 300 knots so it moves right along.

Later