Hello from Oakville Canada

[JayJay]

Hello to all,

I am a retired airline employee who spent most of his career in operations (Flight Dispatch) and some time as a Flight Operations Ground School instructor on the DC9-15 & 32 series. Enjoyed my time spent in simulators and loved every minute spent in operations. I thought that passion was now behind me but my son gifted me some time in a B737NG sim for Christmas and the "bug is back"!! I now find my "soon to be empty" oversized 2 car garage beckoning me to consider installing a simulator of my very own!

I chose the word "install" rather then "build" very carefully. I am now in my early sixties and honestly just want to enjoy everything that simulator flying has to offer and hopefully share that passion with my son and others! So when the time comes I suspect I will be having "the talk" with the folks at FDS or purchasing a "full meal deal" simulator from the classifieds.

I have already taken the most important step by telling my wife about my new found plans and asking her if she thought I was nuts. To my pleasant surprise I got the "whatever makes you happy" statement. Green light gotten! So I am "in my mind" officially off to the races!

I hope as the journey progresses it will result in talking to and hopefully meeting some of this forum's many contributors. I have spent considerable time perusing the various topics/threads/posts of this site and have concluded that this would be a great community to be a part of!

I wish everyone the very best!

John Johansen (JayJay)

[Trevor Hale]

Welcome to the group JayJay.

I completely understand your concerns over Buy and not build.. However..  as you can see from these forums, the sim world never behaves 100% 100% of the time.  Turn key solution or not, you will need to understand how everything communicates, how everything works, and how it all works together.  Because one day, you will go to fire it up, and it will just not work the way it is supposed to. 

You will need to be able to troubleshoot the issues and identify the root cause of the problems.

We can be a great resource for troubleshooting but you will need to be able to do the work yourself to be able to explain whats happening.  You will need a working knowledge of how it all works.

"Search the forum for" Frustration - Read those posts and you will understand what I am getting at.

Glad to have you here.

Trev

[Goodenough]

Welcome John. I live in Ontario as well and its nice to see another sim enthusiast from here. did you work for Air Canada? I remember when they flew the DC-9-32. I have a few parts from this plane like the vortilon and cover for high voltage in the cockpit. I was thinking to turn it into art. A couple years ago I restored a DC-9 cockpit section and here are the pics

[Fcoq]

Welcome JayJay

You have the most important thing:

"A comprehensive wife" lol

You have make 80% of the work.......

[JayJay]

Hi Trev,

Thank you for the warm greeting! I understand what you are saying completely and agree 100% with your recommendations. I have the upmost respect for those that get as much satisfaction from the building process as they do from flying what they have created. If I was younger I would most likely also be a member of that group.

But for me, at this point in my life, time spent building from scratch is to a certain extent time taken away from flying. So I will make myself knowledgeable about all the system(s) I will eventually possess, so that I can properly troubleshoot and repair them. Or know when one is in over their head and it is time to call the pros. But to shorten the timeline to getting "airborne" in a simulator of the type I remember, I will need to leave the initial creative process to others.

Again, many thanks for the welcome !

JayJay 

[JayJay]

Hi Perry,

Thank you for the greeting. Those photos bring back memories! You are correct, I did work for Air Canada. I was a DC-9 Ground School instructor back in the late 70's when the facility was still located at the Dorval base and the YYZ training facility was the satellite. When I started in YUL most of the DC-9s were 32 series, but they still had two 15 series left. The fuselage was about 10 feet shorter but they never de-rated the engines. As a result it was significantly lighter and a real rocket ship! To make it interesting there were also no leading edge slats so departure/approach speeds were a tad faster!

I transferred back to YYZ in the early 80s and joined Flight Dispatch where I remained until I retired back in 2003. I have been enjoying the retired life ever since.

All the best,

John J.

[JayJay]

Hi Franck,

Thank you also for the greeting! So far I have been very fortunate that my wife is understanding of my eccentricities. She has been a flight attendant for almost 40 years. I am sure that my installing a functional simulated aircraft in the garage wasn't on her current top 10 list of things for us to do when she finally retires in the near future! Yet she still agreed, so I am a very lucky man.

Best regards,

John J.

[jackpilot]

Hi John

Agreed, assembling is the word (as opposed to building from scratch or turnkey)
As Trevor said , you have to know the innards of the beast and the way it works. Buying components, putting them together is a good way to go. Today's wiring harnesses, per-assembled modules and detailed manuals make it a breeze, compared with the zillion solders and connections of the past.
My word of wisdom though: Choose a supplier AND STAY with that company. Do not mix products from different sources and you will (should !...lol) have clear sailing.

[JayJay]

Hi Jack,

Thank you, "assembling" was the word I was looking for that best describes the direction I would feel most comfortable taking at this point. That said, I have looked over many of the component suppliers. After consideration of product quality, extensiveness of the product line relative to where I would like to take my project, shipping costs, border taxes, currency exchange and overall customer support and availability, I would be hard pressed not to go with Flight Deck Solutions. Everything seems to be a fit including their location in New Market relative to Oakville. Please let me know if you think I may be heading down the wrong path.

On a slightly different subject, I have gone through this sites classifieds and came across a number of "turnkey for sales". They have all since been sold or parted out. But should a simulator of that kind come up in the future; where purchase and relocation makes fiscal sense; and it has been built/assembled by a solid rep builder from quality components, would it be worth considering? Or would buy new and assemble still be the way to go?

Best regards,

John J.

[Trevor Hale]

Hi John,  If you have a chance, Go have a look at http://uflysimulator.ca/

You can visit, take a flight, and have a look at some of the build quality for yourself. 

This will help you take a look at some of the options FDS can provide you. Ufly has a 777 Simulator by FDS located in Mississauga.

Trev

[JayJay]

Hi Trev,

Thank you for the help, I shall check out UFly. There is another company located in Burlington that also has what I believe to be an FDS simulator. My son and I flew (and I use that term loosely) their B737NG sim last week and we will be returning next weekend for more. Hopefully I can get the owner/operator to turn up the lights after we are done so that I can get a closer look at the hardware set up.

Best regards,

John J.