Captain Tango

Captain Tango has been an avid flight simulation enthusiast for more than 25 years. He started his “flight sim” journey with Microsoft Flight Simulator on an IBM Personal Computer (yes, the one that gave the PC its name!). It is amazing to think back to those days and see how far the hobby has come.

Like most of us virtual aviators, Captain Tango initially flew with a mouse and a keyboard before adding a yoke and much needed rudder pedals. Flying larger and larger planes meant adding throttle quadrants, followed by a Boeing 737 MCP and EFIS.

With a background in engineering it is no surprise that Captain Tango enjoys building home cockpits as much as flying them. His first cockpit build was a complete replica of the Cirrus SR22 which he still flies religiously during weekly group flights. His friends have stopped a long time ago asking him what airplane he plans to fly for the day.

The major foray into cockpit building came as a retirement project and the desire to build a full-size Airbus A320 cockpit. This cockpit has been “airworthy” since September 2021 and continues to see small additions from time to time. The current incarnation is running the ProSIm A320 suite on Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020.

Beyond that Captain Tango would love to add the cockpit shell in order to further increase the immersion in the simulator. That would “just” require a bigger room…

Little Known Fact

Captain Tango never flew any Airbus aircraft in the simulator before deciding to build his A320 home cockpit.