I sure wish I would have found this forum sooner. Lots of great stuff in here that would have really helped me build mine. About 3 weeks ago I got the bright idea that I would build my first sim cockpit and after showing my wife drawings and pleading on where I wanted to put it and showing her the measurements she finally let me start it on fathers day weekend

The wife had a few requirements.
1. it be as small as possible
2. able to be torn down quickly
3. I only had fathers day weekend to build it

I decided on a simple setup. Two 30 inch deep, 27 inch tall, and 4 1/2 inch wide side walls with the cockpit panel sitting on top at 38 inches wide, 8 inches tall, and 15 inches deep. Trying to keep it modular I made made the monitor mount 6 inches deep and the panel 9 inches deep but I should have built it as a single unit and when I redo it I will make it a single unit.



I really struggled with how to get the curve on top and it's no where near as drastic as I wanted but again, it's a prototype so I was trying to work quickly.

Here's some pictures of the sides. Simple construction using 1x4's with 1/4 inch plywood on the outside. There is some structure inside to boxes to give me locations to screw into.



Here's the first test fit of everything after I put the face on the panel and cut out the spots for the chproducts yoke and saitek pro flight panels.




It was at this point that I realized I needed something to assign keys to as I didn't make a place for the keyboard. I found this little gem on amazon and they actually shipped it to me the same day

Razer Nostromo

I realized after that arrived that I needed more than the 4 1/2 inch area to mount the thing on so I made some arm rests out of some scrap. I also started looking at where to mount the throttle quadrant.




I got the location figured out and mounted it with some scrap 1x4 and it works great. Pulled it out towards me about 2 inches more to keep room for the controls. If I had made the panel taller I would have mounted the pro panels higher but oh well. It works well. I also got everything hooked up and started testing it out to make sure the 10 port USB hub work work out for all this stuff. It does



Finally I got to do some flying with it.




But I right away realized I had made a serious mistake in my design but I did find something to rectify that




All that is left is to finish painting it. I coated the arm rests with plasticoat spray on plastic. Looks pretty darn good and gives a good not slip surface for the nostromo to rest on. I am going to get a track ball for the right side so I don't have to pull the mouse over there. It would be nice if the nostromo had the ability to control the mouse. I couldn't find one for a decent price that could.

I've really been enjoying it. It really does help feel more realistic. I want to add 2 more monitors to the setup when I get some more funds.

Now that I've been able to use it I think I made it a little to tall and should have made the base sides 25 inches tall with a 10 inch cockpit panel but it was a prototype so I'm pretty happy with how it turned out . If I ever get the chance to do another one I know what I'll change.

Thanks for taking a look at my project. It's been fun and I can't wait to get it all painted up. Trying to decide between a GA scheme or an old WW1 style paint job.

Welcome to the world of pit building! You are right when you say this will NOT be your first pit. Is the wife ready for version 2 yet?

Very good and simple design and I am glad you got your "priorities" right!

I would suggest you keep on tweaking this prototype until you are happy with it, then think about making version 2. You will notice that the height of everything will depend on your chair height.

Good luck!

I'm not sure she's ready for version 2 yet but I'm already figuring out what I'm going to do with it I think I want to have the option of switching between yoke and stick when switching simulator types in the next one. In the mean time I am going to finish this one up and get it painted and make it look as good as I can. I won't have time with a kid entering our lives in the next month to be able to do a whole new build for a while

Thanks for the tip on the height of the chair. I think that was one of the things I miscalculated when I did the original rough measurements for the height of the current one. The monitor is a little low and needs to come up about 3 inches to be comfortable and that gives me a lot of extra room in the panel.

I've also been looking at these USB Touch screen 7 inch monitors to mount on the left above the switch panel to use for the built in FSX GPS display. I've read about someone using that before for the GPS.

Awesome pit, I liked seeing the add-ons as the time went on. This sentence opened you up to a lot of jokes. Keep us posted if you add on anything else.

Love the cup holder (and contents). Freakin awesome!

Great job!

As always, the "ergonomics" of the pit is hard to nail down right the first time, that is why some people start off with a cardboard mock up. I did my pit in Sketchup, but even then I had to do some adjustments especially on the screen-height part.

And remember --- if you at any point change that chair...

I have a habit of opening myself up to jokes like that I honestly didn't read that sentence like that until you pointed it out lol

That was one of the things I wish I would have seen before I started mine. It didn't even occur to me to mock it up with cardboard I was browsing the forums here and saw someone show their mockup and I was like "GENIUS"

I tried playing with sketchup but was not having much luck getting it to work. I just can't think in 3 dimensions when dealing with computer models for some reason.

Thought I would update this. I've now painted the pit and I think it looks really good. I've tested the ability to take it down like the wife asked and it comes apart in less than 15 minutes and is only a few parts so yay me I have also made a few modifications. I've bought a flight stick and throttle for jet sims and needed to have the ability to convert from GA to flight stick. Ended up coming up with this option. It works really well but I have the huge gap where the flight yoke goes that I need to fill somehow. Still trying to figure that out. I did have to move the cup holder though Not as nice a location...