Here's your "new guy" question for the day:

Why use outside software for ND, PFD, EICAS? Isn't it all built-in to FSX?

I am watching my son fly the PMDG 747-4 and he can pull up the individual screens and drag them to another monitor attached to the graphic card.

Why use the others?

Hey, can I see a photo from behind showing the monitor mounts, wiring, etc.? That would be a big help.

Thanks for all the other photos too. Now it's even more daunting! 

When I saw the first photo in the thread, the entire assembly looked to be made of metal. Is it MDF? If so, what size?

Did you cut and make the various boxes yourself or can these be found pre-made?

Gosh what a lot of questions  

I use third party gauges because they're controllable and you get more with them. For example my with my Ellie stuff I can use software to insert V speeds on the speed tape, on the ND I can use switches to show or hide the flightplan, scroll through it's waypoints, show TCAS traffic, display (fake) weather maps and all of it's dedicated software so I can scale it to fit my glass cockpit monitors without loosing resolution or taking a performance hit. And of course I can run them across a network on a second PC without having to install FSX on it.

As for the construction it's all wood - I simply can't afford the tools and equipment to build it from metal and if I did it would have to be alluminium which is a sod to paint. I used 6mm MDF for the panels and pedestal with battons to brace it where needed. The individual switch panels are hardboard so I can lift them out to work on the switches and LEDs.

There, that's destroyed the illusion hasn't it  

Ian

Yeah id love to fly with that cockpit..
To bad all I have so far on my list to but is yoke, throttle, and the SECM and 2 switches and buttons..

Just A question why is the seat you use on the right and not the left..

BAW19 wrote on Aug 5^th, 2008 at 11:30am:


Ian,

I got my seat (my pit models the captain's side only) from the car wrecking yard.  It is from a Ford Winstar van.  Cheap, nicely adjustable, and sort of looks like the real thing.

best,

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

BAW19 wrote on Aug 11^th, 2008 at 1:25pm:


Ian,

Yup.....got back day before yesterday in the wee wee hours.  American connection after an ahead of schedule JAL Narita to Kennedy srrival ..... American was 2 hours delayed (surprise surprise!).

I have had the the Aura Bass Shakers (a pair) hooked to my captains seat for quite a while.  Bolted to the frame that holds the car seat.  Amazing.

As to blowing the amp....... if the impedence is matched.... shouldn't blow it.  And I find I run VERY low power.  Otherwise I am bouncing around so much that I can't hold the yoke      .  

I want to write a VB6 driver for the audio that somehow converts turbulance movements of the aircraft in the sim to ultra low frequency sound... so that the seat will at least vibrate when the aircraft kets kicked around.  As close as I'll get to a full motion pit.

best,

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

PS:  See PM.

That's a truly awesome pit mate!! good job!!

i was impressed when you said you spent only around 6000 quid on it... when FSX came out here in Brazil, they setup a flight pit that looked just like yours in one store, as a marketing thing... i sat around there and talked to the guys who built it and they told me they had spent like 150,000 BRL (roughly 100,000 US dollars) on their rig...  yes... that much!!

actually... now that i think of it... taxes are so unbelievably high ( ) in brazil, that it kinda makes sense why they spent so much... it takes a lot of hardware and expensive software to pull off a build like this, and nothing is more overpriced in brazil than computer stuff...

anyways, they weren't cutting any corners there, it was a full pit based on the PMDG 737 and using project magenta gauges... but even that wouldn't explain the absurd amount they spent...

well, i won't ramble any longer... truly awesome work there, honest!!
i wish i was you right now 

Cheers

HarvesteR