My «Personal Flight Simulator» (PFS) Project

My project for a personal flight simulator started in the spring of 1994 when I acquired a grounded DeHavilland DH-112 «Venom» that had been in service in the Swiss Air Force as J-1775 for some 27 years from 1957 to 1984. The 12 feet long cockpit part (with a plywood shell!) fitted nicely into the living room and from there on I got my hobby work 'at hand'. The EPIC (Extended Programmable Input Card) enables me to connect and interface all of the essential operating devices (stick, rudder, throttle, gear, flaps, airbrakes, radio, not to forget the trigger and the ejection handles!) to my computer. With individual interface programs I can thus use the cockpit for virtually any flight simulation.

Is HE gonna be my wingman?

A picture of the 8-Bit (256 colors) Venom cockpit I had prepared for use in Kesmai's 'Air Warrior' flight simulation (1997/98)

Updates

2000: I have removed the ugly monitor in front of the windshield and have temporarily «grounded» the Venom.

2001: I finally acquired a Compaq XGA Beamer and mounted it on the wall right behind the cockpit. It projects a full size picture on a scroll down projection screen mounted on the ceiling in front of the windshield. The screen is 145cm (appr. 57 in) wide and gives me a view angle of 90° to 100° - which is very «immersive».
My preferred flightsim is Combat Flight Simulator 2 - its expandability gives me the option to create and fly an individual model of my J-1775... it's only a matter of time.

I dropped the idea of giving feedback to the real cockpit gauges. They depend on too many different inputs (air, hydraulic fluids, electricity) which would make it very difficult to drive them and get accurate readings.

Replacing the gauges by all new, elecrical driven, gauges makes me shiver - wouldn't that be a pity?

I will wait for next (or next after next) generation flexible flat screens (or maybe Xerox «electronic paper»?) that I can stick or place on the panel - and remove any time without doing any harm to the original gauges. With Microsoft's Panel SDK I then can create virtual gauges that would match the original ones...

2002: Back to the roots: I have plans for some 'movies' and leave the Venom «grounded»...
Microsoft releases Combat Flight Simulator 3. CFS3 is once again situated in Europe, late war time, and features among other early jet aircraft a DeHavilland Vampire. The Vampire was the immediate predecessor of the Venom - with an almost identical cockpit layout and a very similar flight model.

Helped David Watkins a tiny little bit by locating & supplying a few Swiss specific information for his «Venom» book.

2003: Like the year before mostly dedicated to professional work and further education (see 'pro' section).

2004:

W A N T E D

• Are you working on a flight sim cockpit of your own?
• Have you experience with or plans for
• instrument feedback control
• motion platforms
• software customization?
• Have you any Venom (or Vampire) material? Films, videos, photos, handbooks, manuals, stories?
• Are you a Venom/Vampire veteran or do you know any?
• Still looking for: Slider pot, 10k - 200k ohm, at least 5 inches in length, preferred type A (linear).