Line Up and Wait

Posted on May 26, 2021May 27, 2021 by Captain Tango

The Waiting is the Hardest Part…

After finalizing the overall design and ordering all the equipment in February, the last three months have mostly been a waiting game.

I purchased the cockpit parts and seats from companies in Europe. Based on their size and weight, I decided to have the crates shipped by ocean freight. This typically takes six to eight weeks but is quite cheaper.

The seats, which I ordered from Opencokpits, were able to ship within a few days. The rest of the cockpit elements are supplied by Vier Im Pott and required several weeks for manufacturing. The picture shows the two crates ready to ship at the beginning of May.

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A320 Project Kicked Off

Posted on January 15, 2021January 19, 2021 by Captain Tango

The A320 Cockpit is Moving Forward

On the day of the anniversary of the Miracle on the Hudson, I finalized the plans for my A320 cockpit and placed the order for all major cockpit components. I decided to go with the products offered by Vier Im Pott and chose their open trainer solution as space in the dedicated cockpit room is limited.

I also wanted to keep my current setup so that I can continue flying a variety of aircrafts. To make as much space as possible, I removed the closet doors and tucked in my existing desk cockpit halfway into the closet (yeah, go ahead with the closet jokes…). It will be tight for sure, but I almost see this as a benefit, simulating the cramped environment of real cockpits!

After quite a few iterations, here is the configuration I landed on.

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First Day on the Job

Posted on January 5, 2021January 20, 2021 by Captain Tango

My New Full-Time Job

Yesterday was the last day of my 30-year professional career as a research engineer in Belgium, then as a software engineer and applications engineering manager in the US.

This makes today the first day of my “passion” job, full-time developer of flight simulation cockpits. Although this has been a hobby of mine for quite a while already, as you can see from past projects, I look forward to having even more time for new and challenging projects.

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This is Your Captain Blogging

Posted on January 4, 2021January 26, 2024 by Captain Tango

Welcome Aboard

A very warm “welcome aboard” from your Captain. I hope you will enjoy our journey together as we prepare for our initial takeoff. Our first destination should be a relatively short hop, mostly documenting my existing cockpit setup, from its original paper design to its current state. The weather has cleared up and it should be a pretty smooth ride. So, come along and enjoy the ride.

After that initial segment, we will be catching our connecting flight to a much farther and even more exciting destination. My next big thing is a project that has been with me for the best of the last 20 years. It started more as a dream, but then crystalized in my head little by little. The time is now! This will be my most ambitious project so far, building a full-size Airbus A320 cockpit.

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Moving to a New Room

Posted on January 4, 2021January 5, 2021 by Captain Tango

The Cockpit is Moving

In order to better accommodate the space needed to build our next major project, we have decided to move the current cockpit to a new room in the house. It is just across the hall, but required swapping what is currently our guest room with the cockpit room.

This is also an opportunity to take additional pictures of the various cockpit elements built over the year. I certainly intend to use these when documenting our past projects. For now, here is just a quick comparison, before and after the move.

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