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...
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.
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!
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