High School Project

[FlyingTeacher]

Good Morning, Afternoon, Evening every one,

I write to you today to introduce myself (per the forum title) and also seek some help with a project. I am a high school teacher / CFII MEII on the east coast of USA. As I gear up for what will be an exciting year of teaching, I hope this forum will be a helpful item in my online toolbox.

At the end of last year the powers to be in my school had authorized the budget and plans for a flight simulator of some kind in the school. After much back and forth of what type, category, class it should be, they finally made a decision. They then started assigning us teachers various jobs over the summer to do some research. Although I was not really involved in the purchasing, building(if needed), or maintaining the sim. I was more on the lines of Instructing in it. That was until beginning of this week.

When I received a phone call from an administrator saying the following. "The teacher who was leading the research has stepped down and wont be joining us this year." He then proceeded to ask if I would take over. Which brings me here. A member from this forum and another one, has been kind enough to tell me a little bit about the community here. He added that maybe if I posted here some of you could help me out.

The school has decided to go with a Jet simulator since we have a few prop FAA approved ones in the building. After spending the whole week digging into the research it seems that there are plenty to choose from. I suppose I will just dive into some of the options the school has approved and spell them out here. With hopes of getting some feedback from those of you who have the knowledge I seek.

Since the school year totals a full 9 months the idea of a build is very much on the table. This will allow for not only the build but for instruction (ground school) could take place. Then allowing the returning students next year to fly the sim, and new students to do ground training etc. The program is geared for Juniors and Seniors.

I guess my major question would be, is there a one stop shop online that I could order every piece needed for the simulator to be built by the students? I have failed to mentioned that the school has a full Airframe and Powerplant program. Therefore the assistance of teachers are there. If there is such an online source could a detailed inventory sheet be supplied to me?

Re-reading the above question I realized it could be a fairly loaded question. Please understand I am very new at the sim building research, however the A/P instructors will handle the build . I just have to do the legwork in getting parts.

Which airplane would be the easiest to build or are they equal, a 737 or A320 (which seems to be the more readily available sims)? Or would you suggest something else?

I will end here with a big thank you for everyone's time and effort in helping me with this project. It will for sure make for a hectic but exciting year for myself, and of course the future aviators in which I have the pleasure of teaching.

FlyingTeacher
aka Charlie

[rhysb]

I think as you are in the USA my personal opinion would be Boeing 737. If you were in europe I would say A320.

www.flightdecksolutions.com is worth a look as they work more in the US than the european suppliers.

Hope that helps :-)

[FlyingTeacher]

Yes they seem to be top on my list of suppliers so far. I was holding off till I had a little bit more information, so I didn't sound like a rookie.

Thank you for the help.

Charlie

[Jowl]

Regardles of Europe or US i can't imagine any options to 737 NG if you want a smooth ride. By going for Boeing you'll be able to find loads of support from other builders, good hardware from FDS (as mentioned above), parts from ebay and a excelent software (prosim).

Disregarding the things above the benefits of airbus is that you don't need to bother with throttle or yoke movements.

Regards from Europe

[XOrionFE]

There are a few 737 builders on this forum with full cockpits that live in Florida who may chime in and be willing to help you out.

Scott

[Sam Llorca]

Hello Charlie, I wish I had a teacher like you in High School, well if you need to see or try a 737 sim you are welcome to drive up to Sarasota, depending on were in Florida, it may be a 3 to 4 hours drive, you are welcome to see both of my sim, welcome to the club.
Cheers,
Sam

[N737AG]

Hi Charlie.

I am located in Weston, just west of Fort Lauderdale. You are welcome as well to come over and check my project out. I have a combination of real airplane parts and all panels and gauges from Flightdeck Solutions.

So, if you are in the area, welcome


Axel

[FlyingTeacher]

Thanks for the compliments guys. Yes I try my best for the students in which I have the honor to teach. The student have been requesting such a project for a while and we finally got the approval for it.

I'm outside of Miami fellows and would love to arrange a visit. In fact I'd love to maybe have you speak to the students once the project starts. Like as a guest speaker. It will motivate them a lot I have a feeling.

I will contact you via PM and we can chat about it.

Quick question. Is it hard to take a real part say like Yoke and convert it to work with PC Flight Sim? I would assume there are a lot of guts and such to rip out and replace?

Charlie

[N737AG]

Well Charlie, it looks like we are relatively close.

It will be my pleasure to help and assist you and your "kids". Please PM me so I can give you my numbers.

Axel

[philb737]

If you want to use real Boeing parts check out northernflightsim.com . Contact Rusty or Art and they will be more than happy to answer all of your questions at 863-696-2091. Northern flight sim is only few hrs from Miami.
Two thumbs up!
Phil