Well, i have spent the better part of this week working out the final dimensions and putting my ideas into a CAD-like program... so far, all the pieces of the simpit seem to fit with no apparent erros... on screen.

now all i have to do is double check and triple check and build! which as you all know is time consuming.

What i have designed is a two seat, twin engine airliner type flight deck, fully customized, and i plan on making it a glass cockpit very similar to the G1000 series stuff 

The enclosure is designed so that it will be easily modified and worked on.

what i mean is

the computers and some hardware will be contained within a "bay"... located just forward of the panel. each "wall" of this bay is equipped with cut out handles which and quick release fasteners which will allow me to remove entire panels for ease of access if i need to make tweaks.

furthermore, i have designed space into this computer bay where fans and blowers will circulate the air.

Inside the enclosure i have made plans for an "instructor station" which will double as a shelf for the storage of approach plates and IFR / VFR charts. because of the dual nature of the station... it can be configured in several ways and does not even have to be included at all in the final plans (ie. no structural parts etc)

The chairs for the sim are custom designed from scratch and built of medium density fiberboard reinforced where needed. they will have stowable arm rests. I plan to fashion some memory foam or some other cushiony susbtance into the desired shape, and have my wife sew fabric around them. The cushions will secure to the seat via velcro strips. the seats are very similar to these http://meriweather.com/340/ped/chair.html

the chairs look great in cad, and are the easiest part of the build, and with the right tools, i can probably do a full build in a day per chair.

in fact i plan to put my cad skills to the test by attempting a build a chair.

first... if i mess up its only a chair

second, when i finish it i will have the motivation to continue the build because this chair will be sitting in my room looking at me all day

third it will allow me a chance to find any little errors in my design strategy and develop the skills required to move on to more complex construction.