DVA4788
Chief Pilot, L-1011-100
OLP
Joined on August 02 2007
50 State Club
Everett Century Club
Online Double Century Club
Quatercentenary Club
DVA Fifteen-Year Anniversary
"Fly it like a Samsonite Gorilla!!"
Wichita, KS
471 legs, 884.0 hours
220 legs,
398.1 hours online
459 legs,
859.5 hours ACARS
2 legs,
5.2 hours event
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Posted onPost created on
August 11 2018 06:58 ET by Jon Michael Prenovost
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Of my own flight deck build, this is one of my favorite photos. It was early on into the project, and I had never planned on it getting this big to begin with! The project I originally had in mind was to simply build a pedestal control console & throttle quadrant which could slide up to my computer desk...that was it! You can see the date within the photo, I started in on my project the 2nd week of January 2017, it took all of four nights 2-4 hours a night, and I had completed the pedestal & throttle quadrant, and that is when things begin to spin out of control...quickly!
The British SAS, "Special Air Services", the UK's equivalent of our Navy Seals & Delta Force have a pretty cool motto, "Who dares wins". I've always wanted my own personal full size flight simulator, and had ideas rolling around in my head, bit & pieces of it at least, of what I envisioned, yet for years I never act upon those ideas. Two simple reasons, which turned out in the end to be silly excuses for not trying, held me back. First I didn't know where to start, and second I was afraid to seriously try. At the time I honestly didn't know what I was capable of, and I believed with my experience and skill sets it was out of reach. So selling myself on that idea I never reached out to find a starting point, never seriously researched what resources were actually available. Once I took that first step, once that first drop of water fell off the mountain, I quickly had a water fall flowing. What started as a simple project, which really was a huge compromise being only a small piece of my dream, morphed into a life of its own. I almost didn't go for it...18 months later I'm extremely glad I did!
As far as advice going forward the first thing I will tell you is if your going to go big, it's NOT going to happen over night, not at least if you desire a quality result and end product. Personal patience & self discipline are absolutely the first tools you must place in your tool box before anything else. The second thing I will say is DO your research! Set a goal of what you have in mind & what you envision and then find the path to produce it. Study up, develop a deep pool of resources then reference them often! One of the first resources I tapped for my own project was airlines.net, I studied over 70+ particular photos in depth & detail to begin to mold my ideas into workable solutions. Book marking aircraft manufacture sites is another solid source of information.
What finally got me started on my own project was a crucial decision I made that set me free, and ultimately set me on the path to success. There are three basic ways to go when sim pit building. (1) Build partials, like what I originally set out to do, just a pedestal/throttle quadrant, or over head panel, etc. (2) Build a full size 1 to 1 scale replica of an existing aircraft. There are plenty of examples floating about the internet within this arena, by far the most popular airframes are the Airbus A319 & A320 and Boeing's 737 & 747's, a notable example to check out would be The Norwegian-737 Project, extremely well documented on Youtube. (3) Build Open-Design, where your sim pit is not tired to a particular aircraft and you leverage what after market hardware you have towards these ends. It is the most versatile of sim pits, and middle of the road on cost and time to build. What route you choose will ultimately determine your time invested and money spent to get the result.
Building partials is, obviously, the quickest and least expensive of the options. It offers a slick & relatively easy path to add an additional layer(s) of emersion to your flight deck, and is a solid choice if your on a tight budget or have a limited amount of space to work with, like an apartment. However it is a compromise, in the sense that its not the "total package" in the end. When considering 1 to 1 scale replicas this is the most expensive and time consuming path. To get that kind of detail and functionality takes allot of labor, time, and lots & lots of money! And it goes without saying those caliber of builds require additional skill sets and tools. There are builders out there, especially in Europe, who have sunk well in excess of $100K+ into their projects...and "why?" do you ask? Because they could! Personally what I don't like about 1 to 1 scale builds is that when finished, they are beautiful, and then your stuck...with that aircraft/airframe only! Which brings us to the last option, Open-Design, and this is where the critical decision made, I spoke of earlier, comes into play. In all fairness, the choice to go Open-Design is what cut me loose from the leash, once committed to that path I set rules for my build that really got things started on a solid foundation.
My goal was to add as much emersion & reality as possible to my siming experience, span as many airframes/aircraft as possible, there by getting the most bang for the buck, and keeping the costs of construction and ownership reasonable. So to those ends, here are a few points and food for thought:
(1) Build your Overhead Panel Quad Engine from the start, build it in a "generic" or "averaged" layout. Personally on my panel its going to have a "Boeing" feel to it, although it won't dial in to a specific model within the Boeing family. Again, this is where building a resource pool is crucial, and referencing sources like airlines.net and manufacture sites are priceless.
(2) Set your throttle quadrant up for quad jet from the beginning! This will give you everything you need to fly Cessna 152s' all the way up through 747s' & A380s' and beyond. Simply put your throttle quadrant needs 6 levers/sticks. This is especially true if you plan on dabbling in twin engine gas & turbo-props.
(3) ONLY source materials readily available from your favorite LOCAL home improvement store or hobby retailer. NO exotic materials! In my case I choose PVC pipe, pre-finished plywood, and "hobby caliber/size" lumber as my primary materials. The only real "exotic" material in my build is Kydex, which for those who don't know what that is, it is the most common plastic used in aircraft molding and interiors, especially in GA airframes. What is really cool about Kydex is you can, depending on thickness, cut it with scissors, and that you can mold and manipulate with a heat gun, it won't degradate. Just heat it up, shape it, let it cool, and it keeps that shape becoming rigid again. Although I'll caution you, Kydex comes in many grades, and the true aviation grade is expensive, a 4' x 8' sheet typically cost between $70-$85, at this price point I personally classify that as "exotic" material! The Kydex I use comes in 4' x 8 sheets and costs $10 a sheet, its not aircraft caliber, but for my purposes looks and works just as well.
(4) NO exotic tools! Everything I've done on my project has been with a set of basic hand & power tools. In my case a small table saw, jig saw, band saw, sander, and drill was necessary for power tools. No welders, lathes, CNC milling, etc. If they weren't so pricey I would have seriously considered a 3D-Printer. Perhaps down the road...or in this case the runway!
These are just some basic ideas to help anybody out there find their own starting point, I hope they prove useful to you. I'm getting a photo hosting account set up so I can drop multiple photo threads into the cooler, and better quality photos than I've been posting up here lately. I'll be posting more in the coming days and share additional ideas and methods I've used successful in my build.
One of the best experiences in life, having a dream you set as a goal and then making it your reality...repeat often!! If a full flight deck appeals to you remember this, the most valuable & powerful tool you have in your tool box is your imagination! Next time you find your self at your local home improvement or hardware store, try this little exercise, challenge yourself to find items which you could incorporate into a build. A good place to start is in the electrical/lighting department. Look at the lights they have, all different shapes and sizes, and see if you can't find something there that you could adapt as interior cabin lights for your flight deck, I'm talking lights meant for home use, but would also look like "factory installed" in your airliner as well. After that roam the store and see what other items you can find...you'll be amazed!
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DVA2887
Senior Captain, A320
OLP, 737-ATP, VFRADV
E-MAIL
Joined on January 30 2006
50 State Club
Globetrotter
Tri-Jet Triumph
US Coastal Club
Millennium Club
DVA Fifteen-Year Anniversary
US Mountaineer Club
Toulouse 250 Club
Online Eight Century
Charlotte, NC
1,284 legs, 1,794.0 hours
838 legs,
1,045.6 hours online
1,266 legs,
1,772.0 hours ACARS
31 legs,
49.6 hours event
3 legs dispatched, 2.5
hours
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Posted onPost created on
August 13 2018 10:03 ET by Andrew Vane
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DVA9082
Captain, MD-11
OLP
Joined on October 01 2010
Everett Century Club
Online Century Club
Double Century Club
DVA Ten-Year Anniversary
Tucson, AZ USA
241 legs, 550.7 hours
152 legs,
365.1 hours online
238 legs,
544.1 hours ACARS
19 legs,
41.0 hours event
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Posted onPost created on
March 13 2019 20:47 ET by Joe Kerby
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DVA3419
Captain, MD-88
Joined on July 31 2006
DVA Fifteen-Year Anniversary
"Propellers keep you kewl!"
Newark, DE
67 legs, 89.6 hours
61 legs,
82.8 hours ACARS
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Posted onPost created on
June 15 2021 18:42 ET by Norm Hare
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