FlightSimExpo 2026 - Saint Paul

As I just recovered from Jetlag and one of the bumpiest arrival I have ever experienced landing at MSP, here is a quick recap of GeoFS trip to Minnesota to attend FSExpo 2026.

After a successful first at the 2026 FSWeekend in the Netherlands last March, I brought the A350 cardboard cockpit packed up in my suitcase all the way across the pond! 

The poor thing was a bit worn out after the Dutch weekend but, with the help of the lot of kraft tape, it could still stand for an extra three days in Saint Paul. 

Reception was very favorable and the QR code link to the building instructions was flashed quite a few times. I am curious to see if and how many people will manage to get through it. If you ever do, I would love to hear about it!

NB: I just added some assembly pictures to the instruction page

A lot of curious pilots tried their hands on the fragile contraption and the whole thing was deemed fun and fresh by most. 

Not sure it will be able to travel much more though, and I was very tempted to go for the recycling bin, but you never know.

The booth this year was composed of the traditional rear-projection screen as a desktop setup with joystick, the Raspberry Pi "gaming rig" setup up with a Honeycomb Echo controller and all the RGB lights I could fit in and around it, and the full scale A350 carboard cockpit just to be able to say that I flew it from Europe in my ckecked-in luggage!

GeoFS version 4.0 Beta was running on all three stations (yes, it runs on the Pi 5) and it appeared to perform smoothly over the course of the three days of the event (this year, the exhibit floor opened on Friday evening for a couple of hours). 

Visitors could discover first hand, and among other updates, the new aircraft shading and night lighting, the fresh data set for maps and buildings, water reflection, extra sound effects and the addition of the Cessna 152 and DC-10.

On sunday, it was time to try and fit everything back into the suitcases...

...and, being no too far from Illinois, go on a pilgrimage to one of the

  most iconic skylines in the history of flight simulation:

... then just drive back to MSP for an uneventful journey back home.

Building a Full Scale A350 Cockpit out of Cardboard

But why?

Well, this all started as a joke.. as usual. Could I fit one of those fancy half cockpit you see at flight sim shows in my suitcase (I always fly to FS shows with my booth in my suitcase) Well, it took some designing, sweat and cuts on fingers but I am very happy with the result. I'll be taking this thing to FlightSimWeekend in the Netherlands so if you want to come and try it out...

The cockpit is made of honeycomb reinforced 1 cm thick cardboard. I designed it to fit exactly on 66 cm x 47 cm pieces of cardboard because this is the maximum my suitcase can take! But you are free to adapt it to your needs.

Cardboard pieces are held together with self adhesive kraft tape. Adhesive velcro is used to attach the printed panels to the structure. The laptop tray is held with carboard corners but I think it must be possible to make the tray a bit wider and just fold flaps on each sides (I have seen this technique being used on carboard furniture and after testing it appear to be strong enough)

 
Instrument panel is reduces to just the PFD and a map (those will be exportable to an external window in the next GeoFS version). They are shown on the laptop which powers the whole sim and which is sitting on the keyboard tray (which exists in the A350 cockpit). The laptop screen is visible through a window directly cut out off the printed panel.

For main display, I re-used the roll-up rear projection screens I have been using on shows for the past few years now. (I am sure it is possible to position a standard monitor instead). The projector is plugged in the same laptop that does the instrument panel.

Controllers are Thrustmaster's Airbus series stick and quadrant because that's what I had at hand but any other USB devices will do I guess.

This is the printed part of the cockpit. I had it printed on a 1 m x 1 m sheet of 1 cm thick cardboard. The same kind as the rest. Some printing companies around should provide you with this is, but I think the whole cockpit can also just be made of plain cardboard. I purposefully kept the rest of the structure as plain cardboard as a statement and to enhance the DIY feel. I also considered drawing the instruments and buttons using a felt tip pen or printing the design on A4 pages before assembly: there are many options.

I made an archive including the hi-res printable file (150 dpi), basic blueprints and a 3D model you can download here (blueprints coordinates are from the top right corner)

I am just throwing here all the stuff I used during conception but if there is enough interest, I can make more detailed instructions and blueprints. Also, the design is very basic and was a bit rushed to be ready for the show: if someone ever make a better one, I am very happy yo hear about it. You can get in touch at contact@geo-fs.com or from GeoFS' contact form

Happy building and happy flying!

Edit: Some extra pictures of the assembly process during FSExpo 2026. It took about an
hour to get the whole thing together.