Down memory lane - What was the first home cockpit SIM you saw?

[ifeliciano]

Late 90's I remember the Deltaflight 767 cockpit. The day after I saw their cockpit, I took apart a keyboard and mapped every keystroke eventually connecting to a breadboard and a bunch of switches and assigning them in FS2K and FS2K2. Been tinkering with Flight Sims on and off ever since.

[RayS]

Memory Lane for me wasn't a home-based sim, but a full-blown F/A-18 military sim.

Enclosed in a perfectly spherical room was the front end of a Hornet mounted on a 22-foot pedestal. The room was so perfectly round that once inside the cockpit your voice was amplified x10. Move your head just a little off-center and you couldn't hear yourself.

I was given the tour by my C.O. as a request for my re-enlistment package, as well as my entire team. We had a blast. I was shot down, many times, by the facility Sergeant Major who took an unusual pleasure in dispatching us younger fledglings one by one.

Regardless, it was a total blast!

I flew the A-6 and EA-6B sims later on in my career but none measured up to the F/A-18 experience.

Someday I'll have to tell you all about a certain Lance Corporal who worked in the A-4 sim facility that decided to take a real A-4 for a joy ride...

http://articles.latimes.com/1986-07-05/local/me-20219_1_el-toro

The article doesn't state why he returned to base after only an hour. Turns out the young man experienced a generator failure in flight and had to RTB. The entire base turned out to watch him land.

...those were the days!

[kurt-olsson]

One that got me interested was the norwegian 737 project, but the one that got me started building was Robs 737 oem cockpit.

[ifeliciano]

Memory Lane for me wasn't a home-based sim, but a full-blown F/A-18 military sim.

L3 Technologies (LINK) in my home town had an open house, and we got to experience a few SIMS there. The F/A-18 was one of them.
That was a blast, even though I could not get the sim to fully invert. I tried 

[navymustang]

OK - we are dating ourselves.

My first sim was an F-86 saber jet. Made from real F-86 parts with very limited functionality. Was mostly me as a teen getting in the cockpit (with canopy) and pretend flying with some lights and switches that worked. Bought all of the aircraft parts from the North American  surplus outlet on the airport in Columbus, Ohio. I was 15 and this was 1965. A year later I got my pilot's license.
The spending went up astronomically from there 

[Bob Reed]

I have always been an aviation "nut". My interest in sims was in the early days of what is now known as MSFS. I started toying with a desktop sim in 1996. I came across Project Magenta I think in 97 through an article about a Greece based "737" simulator owned by Enrico's uncle. I then made the discovery that sim dreams where made of on the then infant internet. I found James Price's webpage for his homebuilt 737 from mostly real parts (not all 737) and after that, I found Melvin Ott's 74. That is another interesting story! That was it I was lost to the sickness.

[tote_320]

I remember when my jaw dropped everytime Robert Prather updated his site haha

[Bob Reed]

Oh those long long nights and the EPIC!!

[RayS]

Speaking of EPIC and memory lane... Here's a long, dark sinister alley I found:

https://web.archive.org/web/20040613092613/www.avsim.com/bluesideup

[ifeliciano]

FreeFD


Remember that?

[Bob Reed]

FreeFD


Remember that?

lol I do.. I bet Ray does too!

[blueskydriver]

Yeah, FreeFD is what got me going with the avionics side, and then onto the actual cockpit building idea. Before that it was just MSFS on a desktop with a joystick, then upgraded to the nice CH Yoke and Throttle units.

Regarding the question, first B737 simulator cockpit Karen and I saw belonged to Don and Dave in Madison, WI, who got it from Northwest Airlines in Mankato, MN. They were doing long projection on three reverse screens at center and right/left at 45 degrees opposite each other (how 3 big LCD screens are setup now).

We drove down there in the dead of winter and a snow storm to boot because I could not wait for better weather. Besides, who can wait when you find out someone in your state that has the only home simulator just invites you for a visit...yep, it was a no brainier and snow storm be dammed.

Anyway, we went a few more times and end up buying it from them once they left the hobby. Those guys were awesome and we do miss them...

Consequently, that is the wooden sectional one that I am selling now, if only I can stay healthy long enough too set it up and take better pics of it, but my health is story for a different day.

Thanks for starting the post.

John

[RayS]

FreeFD still lives on and is actually being worked on today.

I've been adding a few more bells and whistles to an Avidyne PFD started by Don Lafontaine several years ago.