Building the Cockpit (random thoughts)

Hello to all,

Enjoying my coffee here and I thought I would share some musings on building a fully-working cockpit. I've finally have all bugs from 'my side' squashed and can spend time just flying and not doing R&D.

First of all, I don't fly that much anymore, but when I do, it is great. I am amazed at how much easier it is to control the Blackshark. I try to improve some each time I fly with a one-life-to-life attitude and I get much enjoyment from doing so. I am careful not to wear things out by flying too much.

The single most important thing I've found about the cockpit is to have very good tactile feedback. I have two systems, actually three, for making vibrations: the TFS3, my plate amp and tactile bass shakers and the subwoofer itself.

The TFS3 will someday be a great addition to BS, but it needs work yet. There are flashes of brilliance where you feel G forces when maneuvering and I love the way you can feel the prop pitch change in certain conditions. It can not provide the needed vibrations by itself, but it is a great start.

The best thing I ever did was add my shakers and plate amp. When you combine this with the TFS, now we are getting somewhere! I can make every single point of contact with the cockpit shake. It is the low frequecies that do the work, so a lot of the other sounds don't affect things nearly that much. By editing the sound levels a lot of unwanted vibes can be minimized. And about those that still get through? So what...

Unfortunately, I killed my plate amp (either wrong ohms load or a short). It is because of this I see how important it was compared to the TFS3 alone. I plan to buy a Yung 200w amp for a replacement.

I also try to build the subwoofer into the pit to get some sympathetic vibes going there and even this helps. Without these vibes, the cockpit would be almost silly to sit in and fly.

The PLPL monitor setup just rocks for a cockpit setup! That section in the middle where the real cockpit fits in means you don't see any of the sim cockpit and must look 'inside' as in real life. I had some reservations early on, but no more. I have had zero trouble with eye fatigue or motion sickness and in a darkened room, the blending of real life and simulation can actually fool the eye and senses into motion. I am finding I'll need to find some black muslins that are fire resistant to put up curtains around the TV's to help in this respect. I''ve given up some FPS and image quality but gained a lot of perceived realism. I have 37" TV's but now wish they were 42". A couple more would be nice too for side views. hehe

What a great hobby! I get as much enjoyment as working on the cockpit as flying. I'm glad I did it.

post is mostly BS, but I hope it can help someone on the fence decide about PLP monitors or whatever.

It is great to see the other BS pit's that are done and being worked on. You guys building A-10 pits are insane! :thumbup:

best wishes to all.

Hi Smil!

Great to see you kicking off your project. Will closely follow your thread. Don't forget the pics!

Funny you have such a strong feeling about vibrations in your pit. But remember that soldering hates vibrations. Hope you are a real soldering artist if you don't want your switches becoming irresponsive after a few flight hours.