Jay Honeck wrote:
Sooooo...I've purchased the CH brand of yoke/throttles and rudder
pedals, all of which should be delivered early this week.

You might set these up in the "standard" way (clamp the yoke to the edge
of a table, put the pedals on the floor) and see what the response is.
I suspect that it will be enough of an improvement over the joystick
that you won't _have_ to spring for the fancy jig for a while. On the
other hand, you may be optimizing for maximum shiny toys instead of for
minimum cost.

I tested this unique rig at Oshkosh this year, and found it to be
PERFECT for the task, and I'm thinking about either purchasing one or
having my A&P weld up something similar.

I really think living in Oklahoma is starting to rub off on me: my first
thought was that a junk four-door car body and a Sawzall might do the
job. (An old pickup cab is almost perfect, except that they usually
have bench seats which isn't quite what you want.) Remove the doors,
hood, and front fenders, and cut the front of the car off just forward
of the firewall. Cut the A-pillars at the base of the windshield and
the B-pillars just below the roof so you can fold the roof back, then
cut the B-pillars again just above the floor and get rid of them. Cut
the floor just aft of the front seat attachment points. You then have
an assembly consisting of the dash and (adjustable) front seats. Get
rid of the steering column if it wasn't gone already; there is usually
a good hardpoint a few inches forward of the steering wheel where the
column mounted to the dash - this is where you bolt down the yoke. Get
rid of the car pedals and bolt the sim pedals to the floor where they
were. If you don't like the "I'm sitting in a car" sight picture, get
a piece of 1/4" plywood and cut it into roughly a "D" shape (like the
panel of a 172/182), paint it black, and mount it just forward of the
yoke. Grind down sharp edges, paint, and add carpeting/trim to taste.

Getting a junk airplane fuselage would of course look even better, but
those are usually harder to come by, and probably more expensive, than
junk cars. You might talk to the local fire department; they might be
able to do some of the cutting for you under the disguise of rescue
training. If the city department isn't interested, try the local
volunteer departments - many of them don't get to do training like that
as often and they may be more willing to help.

You do realize this is just the beginning, right? If you have a custom
chair/mount for the yoke and pedals, the next question we'll see from
you will be along the lines of "How do you mount some real instruments
in the 'panel' and drive them from the computer?" After that it will
probably be something like "So I was down at Tractor Supply today and I
saw some hydraulic cylinders and I started thinking..." On the other
hand, if you do end up building a full sim, you can charge way more for
it than you charge for a room. As a bonus, there's no social stigma
associated with renting sim time by the hour.

Matt Roberds