| CAPT. ASHWAR'S FLIGHT DECK |
| January 22, 2005 ---------------------- What I can afford for now - a Saitek X45 HOTAS Flight Control System, 4 CPU's on a home network connected to 6 monitors, a GoFlight Flight Deck Console and a hifi set hooked up to the PC. The siimulation software used is the Microsoft FS2004. The top 3 monitors show the outside view and are connected to an AMD Athlon Thoroughbred 1700+ CPU (the FS2004 PC) via a Matrox Parhelia 256MB Triple Head VGA card. The lower right monitor is the EICAS running on a second PC while the lower middle monitor are the PFD and ND running on a third PC. Both the instrument panel PC's (AMD Athlons) use the "Glass Flight Deck" software available free from the net and interfaces with the FS2004 PC using Schiratti's WideFS software. The lower left monitor runs on a fourth PC and is used for various tasks. The GoFlight console sitting on the floor comprises the Autopilot Panel, Landing Gear Lever, Trim Wheel, Flap Lever, Com/Nav Switching and Display Panel and various push buttons. |
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| February 5, 2006 ---------------------- Phase 2 of the construction of an A320 sim cockpit has now been completed. This covers the Main Instrument Panel (MIP), the Glareshield and the Centre Pedestal. Phase 3 will cover the Overhead Panel. The chronology of my construction project can read below and it can be seen that modifications are made to existing hardware/software when new products become available and subject to them not being too expensive. The challenge of constructing a realistic enough sim cockpit at minimum cost prompted me to embark on this project. Freeware is used as much as possible and I try to build the hardware by myself where feasible. |
| November 3, 2005 ---------------------- Construction of an A320 sim cockpit has progressed beyond Phase 1 which covers the Main Instrument Panel (MIP) and the Glareshield. Phase 2 will consist of the Centre Pedestal and Phase 3 the Overhead Panel. |