Delta Virtual Airlines Water Cooler - One of the best kept secrets in Sim Pit building!!

Delta Virtual Airlines Water Cooler | Cockpit Builders | One of the best kept secrets in Sim Pit building!!

DVA4788
Chief Pilot, L-1011-100
OLP

Joined on August 02 2007
50 State Club
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"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

Posted onPost created on August 16 2018 06:24 ET by Jon Michael Prenovost

One of the absolute best kept secrets in sim pit building, assuming your building a basic sim pit or open design type flight deck... Mid-Section Mini-Van seats!! They almost always come with folding arm rests, fold flat when not in use, and come build in with a latch to pull them out!! With a little bit of clever design and building you can construct bases for them that allow you to drop them straight into your sim pit unmodified. I found mine at our local "Pick-A-Part" salvage yard, got REALLY LUCKY on a pair out of a 2003 Pontiac Montana mini-van, non-smoker owner(s), were in truly MINT condition considering their age, and the best part...I only paid $28.70 a piece for them, and since they were mid-section seats, NO TOOLS NEEDED to get them at the salvage yard, just find a suitable seat or pair depending on your project, release the floor latch(es), pull out, and head to check out!! The "left seat" in my flight deck is almost ready to go with the seat & yoke installed...

Jon Michael Prenovost (DVA4788)

DVA2887
Senior Captain, A320
OLP, 737-ATP, VFRADV
E-MAIL

Joined on January 30 2006
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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

Posted onPost created on August 16 2018 09:30 ET by Andrew Vane

Great find. A good alternative to an aircraft salvage yard eh? My wife would kill me if I drilled car seats into our dining room floor though. rolleyes

I will consider an alternative room for my simpit once I get my children out of the house.

Andrew Vane (DVA2887)

DVA9545
Senior Captain, B777-200
OLP, 737-ATP

Joined on March 03 2011
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"YUPIIIII"
Goiás Brazil

2,495 legs, 5,044.8 hours
2,324 legs, 4,766.4 hours online
2,487 legs, 5,015.2 hours ACARS
271 legs, 683.8 hours event

Posted onPost created on August 16 2018 18:17 ET by Thiago Braga

That is cool

Thiago Braga (DVA9545)

DVA2527
Senior Captain, B737-800

Joined on August 15 2005
50 State Club
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"Flying Delta's Western Hub"
Salt Lake City, UT USA

4,898 legs, 9,431.3 hours
3,640 legs, 7,101.7 hours online
4,319 legs, 8,269.6 hours ACARS
22 legs, 49.5 hours event

Posted onPost created on August 17 2018 08:49 ET by Joe Porter

Hmmm . . . . Interesting . . . thanks for the heads up.

Joe Porter

Senior Captain, B737-800

DVA11445
Senior Captain, B727-200

Joined on April 12 2013
50 State Club
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"Amici e vini sono meglio vecchi..."
West Monroe, LA

1,808 legs, 2,793.5 hours
1,716 legs, 2,499.9 hours online
1,755 legs, 2,711.3 hours ACARS
1 legs dispatched, 1.9 hours

Posted onPost created on August 18 2018 07:58 ET by Ronnie Jacola

How cool is that?! Excellent idea...

Andrew Vane wrote:

Great find. A good alternative to an aircraft salvage yard eh? My wife would kill me if I drilled car seats into our dining room floor though.

Yeah, Drew, I don't think that would go over well at my house, either razz

Ronnie Jacola

Senior Captain, B727-200

Posted onPost created on August 19 2018 02:28 ET by Jon Michael Prenovost

Okay, seeing as that you guys have honed in on the yoke/seat decks being mounted directly into the floor its now time to offer the "back story" to that whole mess. Plans and design choices don't always go according to desired results. Originally I believed that 3/4" plywood was going to be robust enough that in a 2' wide by 4' long piece there would be no give or flex, this proved to be wrong! The next issue was my choice of PVC for the center pipe on the yokes, I believed that 1.5" 330 psi pipe was going to be robust enough, this proved to be correct! Where I failed with the pipe was my choice of one piece molded PVC floor drains as the base and crown point on top. The pipe was stout enough, in fact quite rigid at a 25" length, however the drains at first glance appeared to be up to the job, it wasn't until I got everything assembled, glued, and mounted that I discovered a major problem, the yoke bases themselves would move all over the place, by as much at 1.0 to 1.5" off top-dead-center on the post, just by giving the yoke basic input. Anyone who owns Saitek yokes knows it doesn't take allot of input force to move them, yet I was having entirely too much movement between give in the board as well as the molded drains. Lesson learned here is that I should have gone with 1" thick plywood, and I should have used 4 triangular metal braces at the end of each pipe for attachment of PVC to the yokes and bases, or just selected metal pipe and circular metal pipe flanges from the beginning.

Once I arrived at this point I was in a bit of a jam, between the two joints of pipe and four drains for the yokes I already had some $50 in parts & material tied up. Those molded drains were $10 a piece! I had another $60 in the 3/4" plywood! Only two ways to go, either scrap said work and materials already involved, or try to salvage what I had. In the end I elected to tie into the instrument panel ahead directly off the yoke mounts and then anchor the decks into the floor to solve the problem. It worked...very well! As for having screwed the decks directly into the floor, well here is the thing, my wife and I have known each other since we were both 10 years old, she is intimately aware of and encourages me to pursue my passion for aviation. My rig is out in my "man cave", a room in our home now affectionately known as the "Flight Deck". I'm very lucky and blessed, both as a husband and virtual aviator...

Jon Michael Prenovost (DVA4788)

Posted onPost created on August 23 2018 14:31 ET by Andrew Vane

10 years old??? wow! That's surely marrying your childhood sweetheart. You would have no problem convincing someone you were best friends before dating age, even in today's world. Great story to tell. My parents actually played together as 6 year olds and then my dad moved away to another town shortly thereafter. However, when he was in college, my future mom moved in only 2 doors down. Sadly their marriage only lasted 25 yrs but I always thought it was funny that they new each other as 6 year olds and didn't meet again until as 19 year olds. Sorry to get off-topic.

I can say my wife happily supports my aviation hobby. She would much rather have me in the next room flight simming than off on a golf course or out late with buddies.

Thanks for the seat mounting tip. I have a stable somewhat comfortable office chair that does not roll and it works well for me for now.

Andrew Vane (DVA2887)

DVA4917
Assistant Chief Pilot, MD-88

Joined on August 29 2007
Online Double Century Club
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"Welcome to wherever you are..."
Defiance, OH

579 legs, 1,634.1 hours
232 legs, 657.7 hours online
571 legs, 1,622.6 hours ACARS
15 legs, 31.5 hours event

Posted onPost created on August 23 2018 17:18 ET by Tony Stork

That is a really neat idea!

Tony Stork

Assistant Chief Pilot, MD-88

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