OVER THE YEARS
EARLY DAYS
I started my flight simulator adventures in the late 1980’s, on the original IBM Personal Computer. I can’t quite remember if that was with Microsoft Flight Simulator 3.0 or 4.0 as I haven’t kept those disks. However, I still have the “tin box” Flight Simulator 2004 “A Century of Flight” came in. A lot of aspects of this hobby have evolved since then, but one thing hasn’t changed: virtual pilots are always looking for that “one more thing” to make their experience even more immersive.
FIRST COCKPIT:
CIRRUS SR22
My first cockpit project was designed to replicate the left seat of a Cirrus SR22 (a modern 4-seater general aviation aircraft). The main goal was to reproduce almost all controls and instruments (the parachute handle is missing, sorry) so that it could be fully operated without a mouse or a keyboard. Except for the displays, pretty much everything had to be built from scratch.
GENERAL AIRLINER COCKPIT
As it is hard to commit to flying just one plane, my cockpit then evolved to support other aircrafts: multi-engine general aviation planes first, then commuters, and finally airliners. I invested in some new hardware and this is the cockpit I currently fly, from VFR group flights, to long-haul flights over the oceans. It still supports the SR22, but is now much more modular, allowing me to fly airplanes such as the Dash-8, Boeing 737 and 787.
A320 HOME cockpit
So, what is next? Well, the title kinda gives it away… A long time dream of mine was to build a full-scale airliner cockpit. Now that I’m retired, this has become my new full-time job, initially building it and now flying it! One of the primary motivations for starting this website was to document this new and exciting project. Please sit down, relax, and enjoy the flight…