Nasa Aircraft

Ever felt like your very own professional flight simulator cockpit  is an unattainable dream? Well, not anymore! There is a great option out there for the hard core flying enthusiasts among us. Why don’t you build your simpit using flight simulator cockpit kits.

These kits we’re talking about here aren’t like most of the cheap flight simulators outfitted with just  LCD screens trying to mimic airplane instrumentation. They are instead equipped with realistic instruments that have the same look and feel of the original. Even if you are a commercial pilot, you would be amazed at the excellent quality of many of the professionally made simkits.

The flight simulator cockpit kit that you buy would depend on your skill level and where you have reached in your simpit construction. If you feel you have the necessary skills and want to start construction from scratch, then you would obviously start out with buying the cabin. The cabin you buy would depend on what type of aircraft is your favourite. Whether it is a cessna or any other type of aircraft, rest assured that you are in for an awesome experience.

You then need the flight deck. A professionally done flight deck would also provide the flight sim enthusiast with an amazing sense of realism. As with the cabin, the flight deck is modeled after a real aircraft’s flight deck to give the simkit a sense of authenticity. The panel is the same size as the original and all the instruments are located in the correct place as well. The gauges are also modelled after the real thing the only difference being that they were built to function using a  computer.

There is of course  the question of compatibility. Will the flight simulator cockpit kit work with your particular flight sim software? Simkits designed by the professionals will almost certainly work with Microsoft Flight Simulator X. As for other flight simulator software, you may have to get certain add on software packages to ensure full compatibility. Honestly though, after all the work you’ve put in to building your simpit, buying a few MB of software to pull it all together is no big thing.

As a final note, we’ve talked about the flight simulator cockpit kits in terms of airplanes but they are also made for helicopter simulators as well. So if you’re interested in this aspect of flight simulation, there is a product made for you too.

Photo Attribution:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/nasacommons/with/4940404017/