Find your way into flight simulator cockpit construction
3.1 Building blocks of a flight simulator cockpit
In this section an overview of the building blocks of a flight simulator cockpit is given. When browsing through all the links included in this text you will notice that there are many variations on this topic. There is no single correct configuration of building blocks. At the end the configuration used is determined by ambition, technical knowledge, programming knowledge, available budget and available time.
Figure: The basic components of a flight simulator cockpit design
A flight simulator cockpit consists in general out of three areas (see figure above):
The game PC: This is the main PC that runs the Microsoft Flight Simulator. The Microsoft
Flight Simulator comes with an open interface, making it possible to fine tune and
/or develop many aspects ranging from the flight model of your aircraft to the scenery
you fly in. The most relevant interfaces for a flight simulator cockpit are the flight
model, sound definitions, panel definitions and SimConnect. The flight model (a configuration
file that describes the (handling) characteristics of the aircraft) allows you to
fine tune the characteristics of your aircraft in considerable detail or even make
your own flight model. Also it is possible to define your own sound definitions for
optimal environmental audio effects in your cockpit. By means of the panel definitions
you can use / develop digital gauges for your panel or develop additional simulation
effects for your aircraft. SimConnect allows you to read data from and write data
to the Microsoft Flight Simulator. Before FSX the most used interface software was
FSUIPC from Peter Dowson. In some cases you might want to use add-
In section 4 you will find a systematic overview.
The cockpit interface: Depending on your setup the cockpit interface handles for
instance switches, control lights, motors that drive analogue gauges or even whole
flight computers. As you will see in the remainder of this text there are various
ways to process information between "the game PC" and "the cockpit". In almost all
more larger setups for a flight simulator cockpit there is a keyboard emulator that
transforms the signal from switches to keyboard input. There are a number of special
hardware interface solutions on the market the oldest being the EPIC interface board.
There are also generic PC-
In section 5 you will find a systematic overview.
The cockpit: As stated in the introduction a cockpit can vary from arranging some extra devices around the computer screen to the use of a cockpit section of a real aircraft. A large group of flight simulator cockpit builders build their own cockpit hull using materials as wood, polyester and Plexiglas. Additionally they use multiple displays or a beamer to display the outside world. Some modify real gauges, others build gauges with servo motors from scratch or buy ready made simulator gauges from a supplier. With respect to digital gauges (screens) there is a whole range of commercial, shareware and freeware gauges that can be connected to the game PC with extra screens (on the same PC) or via extra PC's (in a network). Cockpit controls like yokes, pedals and throttles can be home made or obtained from a supplier. As you can see in the figure above, there is a whole range of additional cockpit elements that can be added.
The remainder of the chapter will give you a start with the cockpit structure (and aircraft selection), in section 6 you will find a systematic overview of the cockpit elements.
