Hi all!

DCS A-10 has got me in the mood to return to simming in a big way. I haven't been involved in the hobby since maybe 2002 or so. My first thought when considering the new TM Warthog HOTAS etc was, "man, this stuff will be impossible to work with at my desk... I need a pit!"

I found some inspiration from this guy's work. Ok so what to do then? Looked at flightseat style chairs... not really impressed. Looked at some of your uberpits... impressed isn't the word, but that's just not for me. I need something practical to build, good for simming, but also workable for non-sim gaming. And it can't look like a piece of milspec hardware, or the wife will veto...

My first ideas were not ideal:



Fails on the "versatile" and "non-milspec" fronts, plus extremely hard to build with all those fussy pvc joints. I realized that what I really needed was a simple desk, with closely spaced "returns" on either side of the chair, and a lower height to allow for comfortable HOTAS heights/angles. After some brainstorming, here's what I've come up with:


Here is construction of two supports on either side, made from schedule 40 1 1/4 inch PVC. These are easy to build because mostly these are four of the same structures linked together into two box units. Self supporting and very VERY strong. Notice the two open sockets which will be used to connect the two sides with a PVC joiner. This wil give the table top more strength. I'm using a silicon based Liquid Nails adhesive instead of the usual PVC glue. DONT use PVC glue, it dried instantly and does not give you any time to align the parts and make things square. In addition I've used an 8-32 wood screw on each joint to improve the durability.



The specialty fittings are "furniture grade" and come in 3-way and 4-way varieties, making the construction very simple. If you wanted to build this purely from homedepot sourced materials, you'd be stuck with elbows and T's, which would make for many more cuts and splices. Workable, but this is way easier. Got the special fittings from this site.




Here's the desk as it sits now, roughed out and ready for finishing. The top is constructed from one piece of 24" wide aspen plank, available from most home stores. It is 56" wide. The returns are 18" wide and 14" deep, and are edge doweled and glued to form a one-piece top. The chair "gap" is 20" wide. I've radiused the room-facing corners to avoid damage to it and me lol. I plan on using clear poly sealer after some finish sanding. The desk is 25" high from the floor to the underside of the desk top.



I'll be using a height adjustable office chair for this desk, with the armrests removed. When simming, I'll probably raise the chair as high as I can and still fit under it. This will give me comfortable reach to the HOTAS keeping the handles level with my elbow. When doing other gaming, I can lower the chair to normal desk height. Should do the job!

I'll post some more pics when finished. If anyone wants more specifics, please let me know.

-George

Hi George,

I really like what you have done so far! I was also influenced by the fellow at Roger Dodger Aviation and built a pit using ABS pipe and PVC fittings purchased from Home Depot. I wish I knew about your source for PVC fittings before I started my project. Using Home Depot I was limited to T's, elbows, crosses, and straight couplers....







Are you going to place your pedals directly on the floor or do you plan to incorporate a mount for them into your current design?

-Russ

Hi Russ,

Thanks! I like your project quite a bit also, it's very compact and efficient. I probably would have wound up with something very similar if I hadn't decided to go the "specialized desk" route.

As for the rudder, I built a platform out of PVC and wood, but the more I look at the setup, the less I think it's necessary. The table is low, so I'm not sure a raised platform is that valuable. And I think I can build a simple crossbar to act as a back stop for the pedals, to keep them from moving. Ill experiment once I get the whole thing finished.

Here's a pic of the finished PVC structure assembled, but the joiner is not glued. I will not glue this so that the table can be disassembled in the future.




And here's the finish sanded table top after two coats of polyurethane. This is the bottom (with all the knots and imperfections).

Looks great George! You should have plenty of room to spread out with this setup. Allowing for disassembly is a good idea as you may want to move or store it in the future. This was one of my main design criteria when building my setup. Because of the plastic seat, my pit gives you a serious case of SAS (Sore Ass Syndrome) after about 2 hours of use...LOL!

Are those radio control planes you have in the background? The one directly behind your pit looks like an F4F Wildcat.

-Russ

One of the big reasons I decided on "desk" mode was the ability to use a real chair. The ergonomics of building one correctly were daunting.

As for the models, yeah, they are R/C. The unfinished one in the foreground is a 1/6th scale Yellow Aircraft P-47. The one on the left is a 30% scale Extra 260.

-George

Yes, the ability to use a comfortable chair is a big issue when building a pit. I'll tell you, if the Obutto chair (http://www.obutto.com/) was available over a year ago I would have bought one immediately and saved myself quite a bit of money and frustration!

Wow, 1/6th scale R/C planes....they are enormous!!! Is it possible to buy a radial R/C engine for the P-47 that is 1/6 scale?

Here you go, course it is around 4000.00 for this work of art. Sure wish I could afford one for my 1/3rd scale Sopwith Triplane....drool....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4MB39FyIVnA

Edit: My mistake, they are only 1200.00 now. Hmm...still out of my price range, a good Zenoah G62 is 200.00 used....but one of these days I will strike it RICH!

Sexy. And for even more uberness:

Check out the Moki 400!


Both of mine are 50cc class airplanes, in this case DA50's.

Desert Aircraft makes powerful motors, there is no doubt...but I am too cheap, lol. Why do you think I go with the HUGE WWI planes? Lighter wingloading and cheaper motors!! My 1/4 scale Fokker DVII is using a four stroke Briggs and Stratton weed eater motor! hahaha (sounds awesome though)

Now that is just too cool! What would be extremely cool (and extremely expensive I'm sure) is an 18-cylinder radial! I'm guessing you would have to be Bill Gates or Warren Buffet to afford one though.

That item doesn't exist, and yeah to the price if it did The Moki straight up sounds like a Double Wasp to my ears though!

Hi again,

Got the table/simpit hybrid finished. Put about four coats of satin polyurethane on the top and sprayed the pvc structure with Rustoleum silver. All in all, I think it came out very nice. The height is perfect in that I can use it with the chair set to its lowest position as a normal desk, for work or keyboard/mouse gaming. Raise the chair a bit and it should be great for the HOTAS.

It looks pretty lonely there without a TM Warthog and 27" LCD, but those might have to wait a couple of months.



Only problem is, it turned out so nice that I dont want to drill it for the HOTAS mounts... I'm going to have to rig up some wood plates to mount the controllers to (and maybe an armrest on each side), then clamp mount those to each return so they can all be removed and easily replaced. Something like that.

Hmmm... more project work!

-George

Looks like a great start there bud. Keep at it.

13 secs into video, watch the guy damn near lose his hand.

He and anyone else can deny it, but he thought it had stopped and was reaching back in to give it another spin.

If he hadnt pulled his hand back as quick as he did, we would have been watching the video for other reasons than the inherent coolness of those engines. I wonder how many men have actually stepped into the propeller of a full sized engine like that.

He needs to check his "haines" to see if he crapped himslelf.

Nice project...keyboard very impressive...go ahead !

Excellent work on that tabletop. Beautiful!!

Hi all!

Long time coming, but I finally got the simpit fitted out with quality kit. A new i5 2500K based system, ATI 6950 vid card, 27 inch Asus panel, and the star of the show is the TM Warthog! CH peddles not visible but are under there.



Having too much fun with this setup now. It's been a long hiatus for me with regard to serious simming, and I'm glad to be back at this point in the technology progress curve.

One point for those interested in doing something like this.. the TM Warthog is so heavy and substantial that you really don't need any kind of physical mount restraint for it. Just drop it on your desk and fly.

Enjoy!
George

Very nice George! SWMBO(*) approved too!



* She Who Must Be Obeyed.


g.

SWMBO hahaha

Next stop: some quickly removable armrests.

Great looking set-up, George. Thanks for posting the pics of your progress!
Derek

The final touch... some arm rests. Made form 1/4" ply, dense foam, and some scrap fake suede picked up at a fabric store. You'd never mistake it for something done by a professional upholsterer, but it's serviceable and comfortable. And best of all, easily removable with thumb screws for when I want my pit to transform back to a desk!

Regards,
George

Hi again!

My simpit has recently received what is likely to be the last major upgrade for quite some time. An HP ZR30W 30" S-IPS display! Folks, if you've never run simulators on 2560x1600, let me just say that it can't be described. The 16:10 format just suits flight sims better than 16:9, and the dense pixel pitch of these high res displays makes reading hud text and picking out ground targets much *much* easier. The other monitor is my old Dell 20" 2005WFP, setup in portrait mode for reading checklists etc. This is living!



Regards,
George

How much did that monster cost you though?

1200 unfortunately. Spectacular to look at though!