Humble beginnings ...

The following photographs show the very early stages of my ATR72 flight simulator, which is housed in a recent addition to our home garage (how convenient!). This project goes back to the early part of 2003 and, of course, has been interrupted by the unfortunate necessity of proper employment, although during the process we've actually designed several flight simulator products which are currently being sold. More information about these can be found here.

Anyway, back to where it all began ...

100mm x 50mm beams were used as a base so as to keep the floor high enough to allow for some underfloor mechanisms and cables to be placed (and hidden!) there at a later stage.

This is the first of many modules and everything is screwed together rather than nailed, just in case it has to be moved in years to come. Cockpits don't fit through standard doorways very nicely!

Here you can see the side frames taking shape and the central console holds the mounting bases for the Captain and F/O flight instrument monitors.

A pair of old car seats were employed for the Captian and F/O. It was necessary to slightly modify the front edge of each seat with a cut-out (to allow the control yoke to fit when the seat is positioned well-forward at the same time as the yoke is being pulled well-back) before they were re-upholstered.

Here you can see the initial parts of the glare shield under construction with the F/O flight instruments monitor sitting in place.

And here is a trial fitting of the control columns ...

This photograph shows temporary yokes having been fitted to the control columns. A continuous chain links both yokes together with precision. Just beyond these you can also see that a trial pair of flight instrument panel cut-outs have been fitted.

The next phase of construction will follow shortly ...