Simpit greetings from Denmark

[SorensenDK]

Hi all.

My name is Bjarne Sorensen and I am building a generic simpit. Its a long story that I just wrote, but unfortunately it took to long and when I wanted to preview the post I lost it all...so I will write the story later.;)

In short it will feature 2x22" widescreen and a 19" monitor as the instrument panel (you can see the markings on the MIP) and in the FMS bay a 17" touch monitor will be installed as on the overhead where I will fit a 19" touchmonitor.

Everything else are still in the planning phase and I hope to get a lot of help from you guys - some of you are truly pro´s!!!

But I am very happy with my work so far - I think I started planning a homebuilt cockpit 28 years ago (and I am only 34 y/o now) so it has been a long journey - but I getting there now...

Enough talk - here are the pictures:

http://www.nuserne.dk/upload/pics/simpit1.jpg
http://www.nuserne.dk/upload/pics/simpit2.jpg
http://www.nuserne.dk/upload/pics/simpit3.jpg
http://www.nuserne.dk/upload/pics/simpit4.jpg
http://www.nuserne.dk/upload/pics/simpit5.jpg

Best Regards

Bjarne Sorensen
Denmark

[Michael Carter]

That looks great Bjarne. Welcome to the site.

Wood is usually my first choice for building structures too since I don't have much metalworking capability in the shop.

I know you said it was generic, but it sure looks like a 'Bus to me. ;)

[AndyT]

I like it! Nice and tidy already.

[SorensenDK]

Hi again.

Thank you for the kind words. I promised a little more information, so here it goes (if it should have any interest)....

As mentioned I have been planning a cockpit for many many years (been simming since 1980 on the worlds first flightsim for home computer, a ZX81). But with 2 other time consuming hobbies, IRL flying and large scale RC modelaircraft I couldn´t find the time/money to do a large project. Well my luck was when I decided to build a house and get 2 small kids, which we all knows gives us all the time in the world ;). No that did really not add any positive spirit to my idea of a full scale cockpit. But I was tired of flying at my desk, and a friend and I often did multicrew flying and it really needed some kind of setup.

I then started building an instument stand that would have 3 17" monitors built in, and a very small centerpedestal. I then found out that it would be neat to have some sidewalls, so I built those aswell. When I was finished with the woodconstruction I called my friend who came over and had a look ... "Nice, but wouldn´t it be great if it was enclosed??" he said - No, I dont have the time and money I replied! After he left I sat down and did some thinking and decided that, well I have had this dream for so many years, so why now, it couldn´t be that much work to put on a roof. Well, that roof came on, but then I thought it was to narrow (still built for only 3x17" monitors), so even before it was finished most of this project was pretty much scrapped and I rebuilt it to this project. It has now been 2 years and now my friend is satisfied :p

As mentioned it is is a generic sim, although the Boeing Skunk Works are right that it is inspired from the A300, but actually you will also find inspiration from both Boeing and ATR.

Why generic? For two reasons. First of all it is cheaper and easier. If I would build a scale B737 I would need all the expensive panels and hardware, ...and not to mention Project Magenta. I considered it and got the pricelist from PM, and to be honest I really dislike the pricetag - I think it must be the biggest price per megabyte within the history of software :D Generic are also easier to build as no one can point a finger and tell you it does not look right when you finished;).

Second reason: I like to fly different aircrafts. I love "getting deep" with an aicraft but after a time I need to learn something new.

So the idea is to use 2 22" monitor as the capt/fo MIP and a 19" in the middle together with a gear panel with a few other buttons on it (e.g. autobrake).

At the FMC bay I will put a 17" touchmonitor where you can select a few windows like FMC/RADIO/THROTTLE etc.

The overhead is modelled after a B767, so it will fit 5 rows of panels. in between this I will put a 19" monitor and around it put some generic panels like lights, engine start, anti ice etc (most of these systems are almost the same in many aircrafts). The throttle are yet undecided, maybe a selfbuild or maybe the FSC B737 (depends on the funds!).

And at last the radiopanels will at some point probably also be build as real panels.

At first I will fit the LevelD 767 as it is very easy to setup for this kind of operation, and later on maybe the Coolsky MD80 or Digital Aviation FK100. Both are also easy to set up. I will edit the gauges and background bitmaps to my needs and for this I use photoshop. On the pictures below you can see how the radiopanel and MIP will look like. Until the real radiopanels are finished(which they aren´t for a long time) I will call up the radio panel on the touchmonitor in the FMS bay and can setup the frequencies on that. I think it will work pretty OK once set up.

OK that was alot of text, and probably noone even got to here:D

Today I have started on the priming and finishing. I really look forward to playing around with some hardware. First stop will be the flightsim event at Lelystad in november...

Best Regards

Bjarne Sorensen

http://www.nuserne.dk/upload/pics/MIP.jpg
http://www.nuserne.dk/upload/pics/Pedestal_test.jpg

[Paul Thomas]

Being a generic cockpit I think this one looks just awesome. I am very fascinated by this project and the idea/philosophy behind. By the way I am going to Lelystadt for the FS-Weekent event myself too. Really looking forward to november.

[aviaparts]

Very good arguments and the carpenting looks great ! It doesn't allways have to be a specific type aircraft. Look at the IFR trainings, it is the instrumentation that counts.
Recently I flew mach 1 between the mountain, minutes after I landed the same sim as a Robin DR400 ;-)
Generic simulators sometimes have advantages.