ANDERSON SIMULATOR CENTRAL ______________________________________ enclosed home cockpit works
successful landings on this site...

Welcome to my secret underground laboratory! My name is Rich Anderson, and it is here where I will document my plunge into home cockpit constuction and design(and what some would call insanity), as well as other assorted realms of my craziness.

Being a life long aviation nutcase(thanks alot Dad), I have always had the urge to soar the skies in my own aircraft. Countless trips to the EAA event at Oshkosh as a child and flying with my Dad to work from time to time did nothing but fuel the proverbial fire that burns way out of control to this day. Flying, parachuting, model building, radio-controlled airplanes, flight simulators... It seems that I just can't get enough. So in the name of all that is holy, it just stands to reason that my next challenge on the way to building my own aircraft should be to design and construct a home cockpit of sorts. And so begins my downward spiral into complete and utter overkill... WOOOOOHOOOO!
CHECK NEW PHOTO PAGE FOR NEW STUFF AS OF 10/2/00.

COST CONSIDERATIONS

Oh...where to begin! First of all, my limited budget fell under close scutiny. As much as I would like to have the mother of all sim-cockpits, at this time I must split my available cash flow between real cockpit time and sim-cockpit time. Flying is an expensive hobby/career to undertake! So it is obvious that I will have to be extremely cost-concious to get the most out of my pesos... building a home cockpit can be really expensive if you get carried away too quickly. Sometime down the road I will offer plans and parts for a few different types of cockpits and assorted mechanisms that really add to the experience. But for now, I will focus on building my second prototype and sharing with all that have a similar passion. Actual costs will be posted as construction progresses, with emphasis on the words INEXPENSIVE and COST-EFFECTIVE. If cost-effective cockpit construction is your bag, then hop in and let's go for a ride!

DESIGN CONSIDERATIONS AND HISTORY

This project series has been in the making for a few years already, and this will actually be my second home cockpit design to take to the cyber-skies. Many valuable lessons were learned on my first cockpit, which was of a non-enclosed design. It was comprised of a seat/speaker enclosure with built-in side consoles for assorted hardware items, and an instrument panel integrated with a monitor stand. Very cool, but they are never good enough, are they! A few problems with CPU placement and layout, making it a little difficult to get in and out of. So plans were started for a second version that incorporated a multitude of improvements, and is technically a completely different cockpit altogether.
Before beginning the actual blueprints, I did some extensive research on the internet, as well as in actual aircraft of various types(working at an airport has a few fringe benefits!)including Lear Jets, a Pilatus PC-12, King-Airs, civilian singles and multi's, F-4 Phantom, T-38 Talon, T-33, T-28, F-16, T-6, Stearmans, and lots more(anyone wishing to contact me for cockpit dimensions and other info are welcome to) You can't have too much info! And after looking around the internet for about a solid year on the subject, I can only say WOW. There are some really great projects and information out there! I can't believe how far we have come in the past year or two. Almost anything is possible. Can anyone say EPIC card? Amen brother. Amen. It is the coolest.
Anyway...

My newest design is an enclosed, 1 OR 2 seat cockpit utilizing a bulkhead-stringer construction technique(I guess my modelling history is quite apparent). It is primarily constructed from wood, utilizing 2x4's, 2x2's, 1x2's for floor and stringers, 4x8' sheets of plywood of various thickness for formers and bulkheads, with an aluminum skin inside and out for the nicey-nice appearance. This could theoretically be substituted for wood also, but the idea of a metal-clad cockpit really appeals to me, and there you have it! You will be amazed at how well this type of construction lends itself to the needs of a sim-cockpit. After all, some real ones are made that way! And it is really easy too... saves lots of dollars and lots of wood in the process.
It is also an open-ended design, meanind that it was designed from the ground up with the thought of upgradability in mind. It will transform from one cockpit type to another in minutes...or from a 1 seater to a 2 seater...minus the reprogramming time obviously.

Here is a list of various features and stipulations to my design:


1) enclosed design
2) breaks down for easy transport
3) light as possible
4) easy access(gull-wing door OR rear hatch)
5) expandable visual options(monitor,lense,proj.)
6) strong enough for future motion additions
7) sound system
8) Epic Card integration
9) quick-change control confiuration-
(joystick to yoke, center or side stick mount)
10) specialized to one sim, but will use others
11) comfortable
12) easy cpu access while inside or out(kinda), but
completely hidden from view

13) switches, lights, and knobs(lots)
14) keyboard completely hidden, but will extend
into the natural typing position if desired
15) fuselage and panel is easily re-configurable
16) I am still alive to see it finished

These requirements have all been implemented I am happy to say, except number 16. Seems pretty easy to build, but it sure as hell wasn't easy to design... that is for sure!

my particular cockpit will be a dual-purpose cockpit... a civilian twin on the left side, and a jet fighter on the other. This works out nicely for the control layouts(which are linked mechanically), so I can still fly dual with someone else even though the instument panel is different on both sides! If I don't like that, I can always take out the panel and put in an authentic one if that would suit me better... The panel comes out easily as well. Just trying to keep the fun factor up there for now... and to get my friends and relatives hooked!!


CHECK OUT THE WHAT'S NEW PAGE FOR CONSTRUCTION UPDATES... AND THE PHOTO GALLERY FOR SOME PICTURES!