Have you ever had this feeling?

[No Longer Active]

Have you ever had this feeling where you just feel that something isn't right regarding the build of your sim, and that the saying 'THAT WILL DO' just WONT do?

I'm building my Cessna 150 sim at the moment and I am not completely happy with it, and as mad as it seems I feel that I have to build it all over again regardless how far back you have to go to do it right...again!

Am I the only one that feels the frustration of getting it right and if it isn't right, do it again...encurring more cost and time.....

Or do I stick with what I have got and just make the most of what I could of done better?

Sorry for putting this on you all lol !

Alex

[Steve A]

Good question Alex, I know exactly what you mean, There is a lot of areas i hate in my sim and the biggest is not having a proper shell, its just a load of crap nailed together, But and its a big but, i make do with the it'll do attitude because i know in the future the area will be addressed and i'll have a top notch shell.
It all depends which part of your sim your not happy with.. can you use what you have now so your still flying and build and replace as time and finances allow, this is what im doing or are you unhappy with the whole thing, something i can't believe looking at some of your build pictures.
Somewhere deep down i think your gonna embark upon an airbus build in the near future and i cant wait lol

[fordgt40]

Alex

I think it depends at what stage in your build you arrive at the view "THAT WILL NOT DO". I have high standards (at least Ian Sissons keep telling me that :-)). My philosophy is to start out with extremely high standards and not to compromise at all in the early stages. However, I am sufficiently realistic to know that something I did not anticipate will screw me up in the future. Hopefully, if you have kept to high standards for enough of the build, then the enforced compromise will not be disastrous and probably invisible to everyone else except yourself!

My golden rule is if you are not happy then rip it out and do not compound things by building over it. Easy to say but difficult to do. I am nearing the end of building my overhead. I had to make compromises with the lighting of the annunciators, however, I am very pleased with the panel backlighting, gauges etc. So in total, I decided that the overall impression was fine - who flies along looking up at the overhead all the time anyway. In contrast, however, I am changing the lighting to the MIP annunciators because it is always in view and will bug me!

Regards

David

[AK Mongo]

My wife just read your post and said something profound: "It will never be good enough until it is a real plane". After 13 years she knows me well!

That being said, "Good enough" is up to you. For some people the pit is a means to an end--making flying more fun. For some the building appears to be the thing. For some, the planning makes them happy.

You are the only one who can answer that for yourself, and should have fun with the process!

[Ronson2k9]

My wife just read your post and said something profound: "It will never be good enough until it is a real plane". After 13 years she knows me well!

RLOL..

I know it may seem like I plan and plan and plan some more. That's mainly because we all don't have access to the real thing and with that we get dribs and drabs of info over a course of time. Going back in time as we have both done give us the freedom to add what we like to the point the actual plane could handle. True you can modify a perfectly good/new aircraft or get it customized to the way you and your budget can get you. But then if your buying new you really shouldn't need to do that.. On the other hand if you have say an older 'more experienced' aircraft then adding your own touches seems almost a must.

To use a really obvious example. Think of the lads that are building the heavies. They could add there own personal touches but they are so much more restricted to what they can put in there and still call it the aircraft they are building. As they wouldn't ever own such a plane they can't make it there own. Of the people in the GA area the ones building new or fairly new are constrained to the latest and greatest stuff as they wouldn't "Retro Fit" something into their aircraft from an earlier model. So when going back in time we can set the clock to what ever time after the time of the first building of the aircraft. We can have older or modern equipment it's all up to us.

That leaves many many possibilities in construction. Your only constraints are that of the sim and of your building skills and budget. One approach to your difficulty is planning for the future. The growth of your cockpit as your time/budget allows. You want it to be pretty operable from early on but there will always be things you can ad during your build that you need not have right off. I know I'll probably change a few things as I go along with that in mind I'm building that way.

You have to pick out what's most important to you and go for as real as you can on those.

For me it's the following
- Look and feel of the actual plane. MIP/Glareshield/Window Space/Seat/Primary and Secondary flight controls. Dimensionally/operationally correct.
- Operation. (Instruments/Navigation systems)
- Sound
- Pilot additions (actual pilot equipment to extend the feel/border between real and sim to give more real feel)
- FS conveniences Sim Systems controls (Hidden away but easily accessible when needed)

I know there will be compromises as Mick said "You can't always get what you want" but if you pick your battles and work diligently "You can get what you need" :)

[No Longer Active]

Hi,

Great to hear all your varied replies on the topic, I have very limited resources and funds available to keep standards high, but I keep my standards to the highest that are physically possible for myself.

I guess I just have to make the most of what I have got and that I know in time when I have a bigger apartment and hopefully a garage or shed of my own, I can build what the heck I want in there and actually have space for my project, plus actually have the room and proper tools to build my sim.

My girlfriend actually said to me 'why don't you build your sim as it is as a prototype' so I can get it working how I want it, then when the means are possible I can build it how I want it to the high standards that I require!

Good idea if you ask me...not too much to do now on my sim, it's just lack of funds that keep's it slow!

But...I will get there!

Alex

[twisted8]

I hear you on that Alex! My sim is basic and it's beginning stages but I feel like they only parts I'm really happy with are the parts that I've bought from real manufactures. The parts I've made myself are just OK and would like to eventually re-do them better. But at the end is so much more fun (after all the frustrating times) to make my own parts, even if they don't look as good as the professionally made parts.

At the end, when I see what people make here with their own hands or CNC machines it really encourages me to keep trying and hopeful someday be able to make my sim look better and more professional. If someone just handed me a fully made cockpit that looks exactly like the real thing I probably wouldn't enjoy it as much. To me bulding is 50% of the fun and flying it is the other 50%. So what I'm saying if you are like me, keep building! keep having fun!