As a person grows into flight sims, his list of toys is getting longer (usually). Personally I’ve started collecting them things back in when I was 6 (circa 1989). My first proper stick I got at the age of 13, a CH FlightStick pro with the CH throttle – I still have them laying around. by 2011 my gaming station looked like this.
this covered the “basics” (or at least for a low budget enthusiest):
X-52 Pro
TIR4
TM MFD’s on Samsung U70 (USB 7″ screens).
with 20″ main monitor.
upgraded with time, I ended up with this:
TM Warthog
Saitek Combat pedals
TIR4 (same unit)
TM MFD’s (same units)
27″ Main Monitor
18.5″ LCD for displays
But after, after all the tinkering with the DED and Arduino,
I suddenly had to have some more. Armed with a itchy trigger finger and a surprisingly supportive better half (I still have no idea what went through her head) I went ahead with the “must have a pit” plan.
Naturally, I started looking again into building the seat and tub myself. I then reminded myself why I havn’t done it the last time.
- I’m useless with 3d modelling.
- I have no workshop for wood/metal work
- I live in a flat, not basement nor a garage to get a workshop going
- I’ve never done any carpentry and taking all the cost factor into account (i.e learning curve, equipment purchases and generally work hours) has left me with the conclusion that it will take my forever, and I’ll end up with nothing.
So I came across ViperWing, With a reasonable price it allowed a non-skilled person like me to have a pit. naturally, it’s not perfect to all my plans, and I will have to make enclosure, cut stuff and make some modifications to get the thing to work as I want, but it will give me a place to start and a drive to work on all the electronics I want.
I’ve contacted “Raider” a very friendly and helpful man 🙂 and after some emails passing around I’ve placed my order.
I must say that the shipping price was a killer, it was about the same price as the pit consoles, but again, having it fabricated here, by me or a craftsman following my plans would cost pretty much the same, and would be a mess as I’m not sure about my ability to manage such a project.
The viperWing pits are made by order, so I had to wait a little over a month for it to arrive. in the meanwhile, I’ve continued to work on my little Arduino project. I will post more on that, but it got not so small, that I’ve hit the Arduino proccessor power limit… I will need to get over that somehow – but all in good time.
back to the pit.
Yesterday it finally arrived.
Packed to the bone, so big of a package, it wouldn’t fit in the elevator in my building, so I had to unpack it in the Lobby and bring it up piece by piece.
only the front console was too big to fit throgh the door straight so I had to lift and tilt it a bit. It took me a few hours to get from this:
to this:
computer is still not connected, but that will be taken care of in future posts 🙂