I have been contemplating...

I have finally made the decision! I am starting to realize... Or, stating to plan to realize... Or, calculating what it would cost to realize my long standing dream. Actually, the last hesitation here is not totally true. My point is that I have made a decision to start on a long term project that I have dreamed of doing for the longest time: I want to build a cockpit replica for simulation purposes! There! I have have now informed both my wife and Daniel about this. They both seem to support me in my decision. Daniel mostly by being very silent about it, but I am thinking I have as much approval from him as I can expect from a 21 month old kid.

I have been toying with the idea for many, many years but I have always been discouraged (or, read: prevented) by the cost of hardware/software that would live up to my expectations for such an undertaking. For a long time, there was really only one provider of software (this is discounting us -- Microsoft -- as we seem to be the platform for all these projects) and only one or two providers of hardware (not so much computer hardware, but panels and replicas) that could give you sort of building block approach to this. This has changed in the favor of the cockpit builder.

I think the final push came when I found out that we now offer a simulation platform in ESP. As an MSDN subscriber, I have access to the bits, and I have installed them at home. I am hoping that this will be a great way to combine at least two of my primary hobbies: Aviation and software design/development. Now that I have an [easy] way of writing software for the flight simulator myself, I can combine that with the drop in hardware prices and finally start to realize my dream. For instance, there should be nothing to prevent me from getting an IO card, from any of the many vendors that exist, and hooking that up to a stepper motor, write the software to read the variables in ESP et voíla we have a vertical speed indicator that is an actual piece of hardware and can be mounted in a frame that will eventually become a cockpit. This, of course, sounds much easier than it probably is -- especially considering that I am no mechanical/electronics whizz. I figure I will either learn along the way, or die trying.

So, now that this is out of the way, I guess there are only a few more questions to ask and answer: What type of cockpit will I be building? I am torn here. It is going to be a jet, and a short/medium haul. I am interested in the take-off and landings, not so much the cruise where most of the time is spent as an observer monitoring systems -- with that said, I guess the most obvious is short to medium haul. Within this genre, the battle is between Airbus A319/A320/A321 and Boeing 737NG (-600, -700, -800, -900). Trying to be totally unpolitical about it, I would argue that each plane has its advantages. I really like the philosophy behind Airbus, but at the same time, Boeing just hit the nail on the head with the 737. From a hardware (panels, switches etc) standpoint, I think the Airbus is probably easier -- just think of what it would take to make throttle levers for a B737 throttle quadrant with throttle levers that move in response to commands from the autopilot (or, MCP in Boeing speak), or dual linked control yokes that have "force feedback". On the other hand, I think it would be harder to write the software to control an Airbus because of the many laws that govern the Airbus (I can think of normal law, alternate law and direct law. Other laws may exist that I am not aware of yet).

Anyway, it is out now. This is the thing that I alluded to in one of my previous posts. Now, I am slowly starting to move along. Stay tuned.