Greetings!

[Basement Fly Guy]

Hi everyone and thanks for putting such a friendly and useful resource online.

I've been into flight as long as I can remember. First time using a simulator was actually in an old WWII Link Trainer when I was in middle school. Went up in a Piper Cub for a day of aerobatics with a friend of my older brother when I was in my teens. First PC sim was SubLogic FS1 on the Apple II. Nothing like green screen wireframe! But I was hooked. Used FS on the Commodore 64, Amiga, PC, and Mac, then X-Plane on the Mac. Always loved it, but the sim was never quite immersive enough for me to keep with it consistently.

I fly all the time for work, and continue to love aviation to this day. A few years back our first child was born, and I considered getting my private rating. Some good advice from my father (an Air Force doc and pilot in the 50s and 60s) though ("With your schedule you'll never fly enough to stay current and safe, and if you can't stay current and safe, you shouldn't fly.") and I tabled that idea.

So about a month back I was trolling YouTube and came across a bunch of great home pit videos. At that point it sort of dawned on me that I could build the home sim I've always wanted, and take the hobby and passion to the next level. After all, simming has everything! Tech, flight, a huge geek factor. A great hobby, especially for the winter.

So about two months ago I got to work with planning. Figured I'd build a GA pit, roughly modeled on a C182, but with enough flexibility that I could fly multiple aircraft. I planned the panel based on a life-sized PDF of a Cessna panel, and used Google Sketchup to do the CAD work for a cockpit roughly of the 182 size (though a bit taller and an inch or two wider). Found a big bundle of Saitek equipment on Ebay and was off to the races. Four weekends ago the design was done, the equipment was in, the PC was bought, and a buddy (who flies Beech twins commercially) came into town, we went to Home Depot, and we got to work.

Four weekends later and the thing is mostly built and running pretty well. I've learned a lot about sim tech (last time I was really into this P3D wasn't even around yet), and more about GPUs and the voltage loading of USB hubs than I probably have cared to learn. But the sim is great, my buddy says it's every bit as good as what they train in for their FAA certs, and I love flying in it. More than that, I love working on it. Again, and as you guys surely know, it's a great hobby for someone who's into details, loves aviation, and has a streak of a geek or engineer in them.

So here are some shots of the journey over the past four weeks (which I'm posting here across a couple of posts). A lot of inspiration for this pit comes from Flight Sim Liberty's pit (https://www.facebook.com/flightsimliberty/). It's still a work in progress. Last weekend I built the glare shield, put in the panel lighting, and got the carpet in. This weekend I'm going to cover the interior walls with a tan leatherette below and some cream wall covering above and on the ceiling. And I've added to the first set of Saitek stuff with a mini USB keyboard, headsets, and (and I'm proud of this) a 7-inch touchscreen that I use to run F1's GTN750 GPS. I was even able to get a Cessna serial number placard on Ebay and mount it.

So it's not the largest or most technically impressive pit in the world, but it serves my needs perfectly and I'm actually pretty proud of it. Now I can fly whenever time and interest strike, anywhere in the world. I'm having a great time, and I hope you like the work so far.

[Basement Fly Guy]

Those were weekend one, in which we got the panel together, the pit framed walled in, and the panels / sim up and running. Here are some more of the details that I added over the next three weekends ...

[Basement Fly Guy]

And a couple of final views ... using the new Air Manager app for iPad to run the main panels and switch to / from glass cockpit.