New Member, and a new Cockpit

[FlyboyPorkins]

Hi All,

Thought I would introduce myself, I am Connor an 18 Year old soon to be student living in Suffolk, United Kingdom. I've had a passion about aviation for years owning my first copy of flight simulator before I was ten! Since then I've been in and out of the hobby due to computer breakdown, but now with my new PC on the way I plan on making a comeback!

I've wanted to build myself a simpit for years and now finally being a little bit older with a decent system on the way the time felt right! I've decided I'm going to model my pit on the Dash 8 Q400 using Just Flight's new software comparable to PDMG according to PC pilot. I'm starting from the ground up, my current rig is CH Pro Flight pedals, Saitek Pro flight Yoke with additional throttle quadrant as well as an old joystick I'm willing to butcher if necessary! Most button and switch functions I'm hoping to achieve though a keyboard hack which I'm currently testing and my material of choice for panel construction is going to be wood.

Other than these rather vague ideas in my head I really am not sure how I'm going to go about the project! I'm hoping that maybe I can get some good advice from the minds on this site as I've never embarked on such a project before! What is the best place to start? I have a couple of spare computers around, both of an older nature, I was wondering if these would be able to be used to display instrument readouts? If I'm going down this path, what is the best software to be using? Like I say I place myself as stone dead novice in the cockpit building scene and look forward to any advice or tips you can give!

Connor

[Avro748]

I will tell you that most payware does not work very well with cockpit building. The Training Edition of the Majestic Software Q400 (which is the one you have, Just Flight didn't make that) will support hardware, but it hasn't been released yet. If you want to build a Q400 pit, you may be waiting a long time before you can interface with the aircraft properly. You could always start building it now, and at least have a partially functional cockpit.

Software limitations can be a problem in cockpit building. There have been scores of people who have tried and failed to use the PMDG 737NGX for their 737 pits. If I were you, I would stick with the Q400 and interface whatever you can (which will likely be everything except the outputs), then interface the rest when the Training edition upgrade is released. If you don't want to wait that long, do some research and find another aircraft. The best thing to do is to choose an aircraft you like, know well, and has a realistic software that will properly support a full cockpit.

[FlyboyPorkins]

Hi Avro,

Thank you for your comment!

I can understand the up and coming problems with integrating payware items into cockpit building, but fortunately I have allot of time to slowly build my pit so hopefully I can afford to wait for the training version to be released! In the meantime, I am planning on using FSXpand and FSClient to get displays as close as possible to the ones I'm hoping for. The plan at first however is to rig up what hardware I have and just get used to flying the Q400, It's currently a bird I would really like to get the hang of but haven't yet had the opportunity to fly. It might not be the aircraft for me but I'm trying to steer clear of the band wagon of making yet another 737 cockpit!

I'm going to see what the software has to offer when it comes and see where things go from there! I am not expecting a 100% to the finest detail exact copy overnight but it's something I can work towards. I think my first step after getting a feel of the software is to attempt the keyboard hack and see how much functionality I can get for my switches and buttons!

I'll keep a bit of a log going as progress is made!

Thanks for your support,

Connor

[Avro748]

First off, DO NOT use FSXpand. The Majestic Q400 has a lot of custom logic in its gauges, which will be near impossible to replicate using any of those external gauge programs. Besides, the displays are already undockable, aren't they?

You should be able to interface your switches to just about any function in the Q400, thanks to FSUIPC. The problem lies in interfacing outputs, as the data for outputs is very difficult to find.

[Geremy Britton]

Welcome to the forum, Please post photos of your project, many would be interested to see how it develops. :)