Build Your Own Boeing 737 Simulator

crux6rind writes "This guy built his own Boeing 737-700 simulator in his garage. The simulator uses elements of a retired Continental B-737-100 along with other genuine Boeing 737 avionics and system components. The simulator will be of the fixed-base variety (no motion, just outside visuals), using Microsoft Flight Simulator 2000, interfaced with R&R Electronics' EPIC system. This system allows you to interface switches, lights, buzzers, gauges, digital readouts with virtually any PC flight simulator out there."

Comments

DOH!

[Alsee]

Build Your Own Boeing 737 Simulator - if you happen to have a spare 737 lying around to build it from!

-

How realistic is it?

[mrsam]

Does the simulator keep track of how fast the virtual airline is burning up cash, and how long before they go bankrupt?

And, of course, no airplane cockpit is complete, these days, without a Breathalyzer.

More in the current Air & Space magazine

[netringer]

Give credit where credit is due. This and others are in the current June/July 2003 issue of Air and Space Smitsonian magazine. Links from the artcicle:

• One from OZ built into a Ford chassis
  
• An F/A 18 Hornet simulator made from wood, also in OZ
  
• A Boeing 767 in London that "flies" around the world
  
• A "multi-mission simulator" by an avionics engineer in the US
• An F-15 in Washington

You're welcome.

Let's try not to Slashdot 'em too badly.

You have to try X-Plane

[hh1000]

http://www.x-plane.com

This program has FAA endorsement, unlike that other toy I used to use ...

Been going on for a while.

[mnemonic_]

This isn't any more of a full blown simulator than any of the other cockpit building projects. Flight sim enthusiasts have been building their own cockpits using EPIC cards for years- one person even used an old F-15 nose section that was rotting away at a museum and refurbished it completely.

Building F-16 cockpits is pretty popular, interfaced with Falcon 4.0 which is easily the most realistic combat sim all around (yes, Flanker 2.5 and Il-2 probably have better flight models). Here are some current F-16 cockpit projects:
http://www.f16cockpit.net/
http://home .earthlink.net/~bluumax/
http://virtualf16.20m.co m/

One convenient thing about building an F-16 cockpit is the Thrustmaster Cougar HOTAS joystick & throttle, which are exact replicas of the HOTAS system used in the F-16; all metal and accurate down to the lettering next to the buttons.

Again, this is not an uncommon thing in the flight sim world. Some go as far as purchasing flight suits and helmets to wear while flying in their virtual worlds.

Full motion not required...

[KC7GR]

In my six years at Boeing (and I'm told that, given the layoffs, I did well to last that long), I was fortunate enough to be able to 'fly' the full-motion 747 sim, as well as the fixed-base 737 NextGen.

Although the full-motion is definitely what I'd class as a "wild ride" in terms of convincing one's senses (ever try to land a 747 on only two engines?), I found that (much to my surprise) the fixed-base sims can produce many of the same sensations, simply by the projected movement on the window displays.

In other words: When I went into a climb in the fixed-base unit, it still felt like I was tilting up despite the fact that there were no motion components to move the cab around. Same thing when I went into a turn. I caught myself leaning into it, and feeling like it was really happening, just as I did during my private pilot training.

While fixed-base may not provide the full experience, it most definitely provides enough to effectively fool the senses if it's done right. And it sounds like this fellow did it right.