I was normal, once. Really.

I'm not quite sure what happened to me. I used to be perfectly content to protect the skies of the free world, sitting in my office chair at my desk, lining up a lethal deflection shot (nothing says "satisfaction" like a guns kill) that would finally put that godless commie SOB with Lenin where he belongs…

Maybe it was the way the MasterPilot would always slowly slide out of easy reach, or the way the rudder pedals would scoot along the carpet. Or perhaps it was the cold dread that would shoot through my heart when my wife would ask that I straighten up that jungle of cables, connectors, and wires covering the desk top- knowing that I would have to sort through the insane daisy-chain again to hook it all back up. I'm sure the F-86E ejection seat on my porch that a guy at work had given me after tenure in his back yard (those orphaned projects just get passed around) had something to do with it…

Whatever it was, something snapped. "I'm NOT flying an F-16," I raved, swinging a Suncom Talon around my head, "I'm sitting in an office chair from Costco at a wooden desk with a throttle velcroed to it!"

OK, so maybe it wasn't like that at all. But let's just say that, despite all the leaps and bounds that flight combat simulations have taken these last few years, I found that true immersion was still lacking. Besides- I needed a place to put my HOTAS stuff where I could easily use it and yet still have the desk space I need to get work done so I can get paid and buy more cool HOTAS gear!

I needed a place to put my simulated cockpit stuff. Then, it hit me- how about a cockpit! But have you priced one of those commercially built units on the 'net? Man- some of those guys are awfully proud of their product…but wait! Here's a guy in Australia who built one out of particle board, another dude in Colorado who slapped one together out of parts salvaged from an F-4…wow, I could put one together in no time, for cheap!

And that's how I became the way I am now.

Remember that Spielberg movie "Close Encounters"? Well, I feel like that character played by Richard Dreyfus- always distracted, mumbling to myself, overcome by a powerful urge to build something, and not sure what it all means…

Insanity Loves Company

At least I can rest easy, knowing that I'm in good company. Check out Derek's Cockpit Links for proof that mine isn't a unique delusion. There are lots of us.

Derek's site has links to just about more than anybody would want to know about building cockpits, ranging from the insanely complex where every instrument and MFD work to the elegantly simple where it can be broken down and stored easily. There are also links to some very impressive civilian airliner flight decks, mostly based on MS Flight Sim 98. I think maybe I'll tackle one of those, right after I build my City Bus and Mini-Van (Imagine the thrills- Navigating your way from the Mall to the Soccer Match) simulators.

Oops- that was a cheap shot, wasn't it? But I digress.

Every junkie has his pusher, and as with most addictive/compulsive disorders, there are people who are willing if not to drive you to the edge- at least they'll buy the gas. People who are in the midst of their own Quest for Ultimate Simulator Immersiveness cockpit building frenzy and are keen to pull others under with them.

Dave "Bhodi49" Wheeler is one such builder and all around great guy who I ran into in the COMBATSIM.COM™ "HOTAS and Homebrew Cockpits" forum area, and has been irreplaceable at getting me deeper into debt- uh, I mean, inspiring me with new ideas.

Steve "Wildkat" Wilson is another one of the usual suspects. Shawn "Von" Keller is a fellow sim buff, friend, co-worker, and (most importantly for my project) an electrical engineer who understands my mania gives me great reality checks when he's not building his (real) airplane. Derek Higgs of the aforementioned Cockpit Links runs a mailing list for 'pit builders- a group of people who are great for flinging half-assed concepts at and seeing what sticks.

All of these folks are assets and are also handy scapegoats when my wife sees the monthly credit card statement.

Concept drawn in Photoshop.

Pick your Passion

All these ideas- all these possible divergent paths- which way to go? A cockpit varies from two pieces of wood nailed to chair arms to full-scale mockups of existent aircraft cockpits full-motion boxes that Boeing would respect, so what do you build? Like spec'ing out your own computer- that depends on your personal tastes, personality, and how much coin you want to blow.

But unlike a hotrod PC- you can always do real work on that- a combat sim cockpit is only good for clearing the skies of outlaws and worrying your significant other. So choose carefully: How much room do you have? Can you get it in/out/around your abode (either physically or figuratively- past your wife/mother/girlfriend)? Do you have the skills or can you bribe/encourage/blackmail someone who does have the expertise needed to build your hallucination? How much detail do you want, keeping in mind that increased detail is directly proportional to increased cash flow?

These factors figured into the decision I made on the configuration for my cockpit. Dubbed "MachPit" (ooh ahh, double meaning), it was conceived to fit the following parameters:

1) Large enough to put all my HOTAS gear into yet maintaining a small enough footprint to fit through the doors of my house and into my office.

2) Be able to fit my F-86E ejection seat, which needed to go somewhere by spousal decree.

3) Use self-contained off-the-shelf programmable components to keep spark chasing down to a minimum (electronics are not my strong suit).

4) Construction of carbon fiber / fiberglass / epoxy composite materials, which is something I do know. This turned out to be weird- as far as I can tell; the MachPit is the only composite sim out there.

5) Have a killer sound system.

6) Be "generic" and flexible enough to fulfill the function of whatever aircraft I'm simulating, be it a '40s warbird from EAW, Apache-Havoc attack chopper, or pointy-nosed jet fighter.

7) Have enough "sex-appeal" so my wife will let me put it in the house.

Almost Finished!

8/13/99- I feel like I've reached a real milestone...it looks like a damn cockpit! Here's the main office decked out fairly complete for a "reach test", with the nose removed for easier access.. Feels great! The keypad up front is the Kinesis Savant programmable keypad. Feels like a good quality piece of gear- I'll get to programming it this weekend (simple- I just have pick which functions I need).

Best part is- Look ma, no keyboard! Barely visible behind the stick is the mach meter and altimeter. And get a load of that ADI- sucker is huge! Gear handle, stores jettison, flap switch and master arm switches will go beneath the left MasterPilot "MFD". As getting all this gear to work together is a job all it's own, I've started a new page- "Systems Integration".

In an attempt to pay back the cockpit building community and infect those who are not yet in said group of lunatics, I've documented the construction from the beginning on The MachPit Homepage (http://machpit.homepage.com). It's all there, so I won't go into detail here. Suffice to say, I'm not quite sure what's in control- me, or my mania. It gets updated constantly, or at least when I get enough kitchen passes to go work on it.

Encouragement and An Apology In Advance

Want full, sweaty palm immersion? Build a cockpit. Want to be initially mocked and then offered grudging respect by your friends and co-workers (especially the ones who want to try it)? Build a cockpit. Short of time and money to spare with a surplus of common sense? Keep the stick velcroed to the desk, because this form of madness will suck out your spare time and cash like God's own Dustbuster.

We combat cockpit builders simply take hardcore simming (all cockpit builders are hardcore- I can't thin of one that was built around any Novalogic sim, for example) one logical step further. When you boil it all down, what's a cockpit but a place to put all your HOTAS gear into? Going this route is neither for the chronologically- challenged nor for the sane. Should you decide to build your own sim cockpit, keep in mind that normal people do not do this. If you can accept that, welcome. And sorry about the funny looks you'll get when your buddies ask you what you are working on.

My advice- look them straight in the eye, and tell them you've lost it.

And practice your nervous laugh. It helps.

Manics and those with cockpit builder's disease can check out Groucho's home page at